The construction of a modern life
To the memory of Marieta Dá Mesquita
A Construcção Moderna: Revista Quinzenal Illustrada, sob a Direcção de um grupo de Constructores: Collaborada por Distinctos Technicos da Especialidade, was an architecture periodical, published between 1 February 1900 and 25 July 2019, in Lisbon. In the opening editorial it presents itself as a publication that ‘fills an existing gap in the Portuguese literary and artistic medium’, by allowing the study and diffusion of ongoing advancements in construction. Its title was justified by the dissemination of technical (constructive processes, materials, etc.), aesthetic, and scientific knowledge, in programmatic alignment with international specialized publications, making it the first magazine dedicated to architecture and construction in Portugal.
When describing the magazine’s mission, the editors engineer José Mello de Mattos and architect Rosendo Carvalheira encouraged the submission of projects for publication by literary and artistic collaborators. They accepted very diverse authors and building projects, and stated their intention to provide readers with detailed descriptions. They also welcomed articles on modern construction processes, on other constructions such as works of art, and on decorative elements to be applied in buildings, particularly interiors, such as fixtures and furniture. They also encouraged the submission of articles on artistic archeology and art, pointing out their interest in the national architectural heritage, toward ‘the patriotic inventory of our technical and artistic progress’. When presenting projects, clients were generally given more relevance than architects. But among those participating in the project, including the builder, the architect stood out for being responsible for the architecture’s authorship and definition, as expressed in the descrição (description), distribuição (distribution), and construção (construction) subtitles.
With regard to the relationship with readers, a close dialogue was conducted over more than a hundred articles; contact was common at the beginning of each year, or as a closing balance at the end, and in articles entitled aos srs. assignantes e anunciantes (to subscribers and advertisers), aos nossos assinantes (to our subscribers), or expediente (editorial information). The integration of the magazine As Artes do Metal, that took place in year XI, 5 January 1911, revealed the interest in arts and crafts and led to the creation of six new sections in A Construcção Moderna: Architectura estrangeira (Foreign architecture), Actualidades (News), Architectura nacional (National architecture), Serralharia artística (Artistic metalworking), Cantaria e escultura (Stoneworking and sculpture) e Marcenaria e carpintaria artísticas (Artistic woodworking and carpentry).
In the history of twentieth-century architecture in Portugal, A Construcção Moderna portrays a country that was being modernized during the first two decades, through the image of a city that began to question itself over the continuity of tradition and the acceptance of new, modern habits that came from abroad. In this matter, the magazine states that it will ‘first [publicize] national architecture, and only then foreign work’. Regarding modernity, it explains that two objectives will be pursued in the selection of works: to promote the ‘production of promising beginnings’, that is, of a first generation of modern architects, and to confirm the work ‘of earned and acknowledged reputations’. In this context, in the first issue we find a project by renowned architect Miguel Ventura Terra (1866-1919), who will have a significant presence in the magazine, along with several architectural designs by the ‘intelligent and studious’, ‘young and talented’ and ‘nice and persevering’ Raúl Lino (1879-1974. These were likely the traits that subtly attracted followers to a ‘traditionalist’ architectural expression, explored in the prominently published drawings in the magazine, a current that would later be known as ‘A Casa Portugueza’ (The Portuguese House).
Aiming to establish a link between architecture professionals and public opinion, and viewing itself as a critical instrument, A Construcção Moderna makes mention of public architectural competitions, notably the Valmor Prize, in the attempt to record ‘everything about architectural art being produced in our midst’. With regard to architecture training and teaching, the magazine publishes academic competitions and the recent project methodologies that address new programs and typologies, namely railway stations, museums, casinos, equestrian and gymnastic circuses, pantheons, theaters, and schools.
Urbanism is subtly present in the periodical, implicit in its relation with the Haussmanian outline of the new avenues in the Lisbon expansion plan (1874-1909) drawn by Frederico Ressano Garcia. The then-known Avenida Ressano Garcia (later renamed ‘da República’, with the arrival of the 1st Republic) started an expansion route for the city, from the old Passeio Público to the Passeio do Campo Grande. Several of the houses and palaces described were built in these avenues. Their construction echoed modern attitudes related to comfort, perceived in the urban design regarding hygiene and public health, as well as the functional organization of houses, that allowed natural ventilation and lighting in projects adapted to the local climate. Urban sanitation was, in fact, a recurring topic throughout the publication.
The landmark study on this magazine started in 2004 with the project Arquitectura (s) de Papel – estudo sistemático de imagens e projectos de arquitectura do séc. XX, através da "A Construcção Moderna" 1900-1919, which ended with the anthology Revistas de Arquitectura: Arquivo(s) da Modernidade, published in 2011 and coordinated by researcher Marieta Dá Mesquita. It promoted the new wave of interest in architectural periodicals that had been forming since the early 2000s, with dissertations such as Paulo Simões Nunes’ A Construcção Moderna e a cultura arquitectónica no início do Novecentos em Portugal (2000). The main topics of study were published projects and works of architecture, namely typologies, the graphic design of architecture, aspects related to modern materials and new building systems, or even furniture and decorative arts.
Today, the editors’ wish that the magazine should become ‘a repository of useful work’, stated in the editorial of the first issue, is confirmed. Having published projects that express an urban and developing modernity, particularly in Lisbon, the time-honored and renowned architects found a faithful receptacle of their ideas and ideals in the magazine. Topics such as housing, health, and hygiene problems are forever recorded in articles that often span multiple issues. Readers who were interested in current developments, both national and international, followed the news through participation reports in congresses abroad, shared on the pages of A Construcção Moderna. The publication also stands as an iconographic repository, as a visual memory of the architectural culture of the early twentieth century, an information source of undeniable interest for research in architecture and urbanism. In addition, the published photographs and their descriptive captions, both individually and as part of a report, provide research opportunities raised by the comparative analysis of the specialized press of the time.
In Portugal, there are two contemporary architectural periodicals. The first comes from a professional background. It is O Annuario da Sociedade dos Architectos Portugueses (1905-1910), a journal of the class association that was established in 1902. Commited to the process of corporate and professional legitimation of the architect class, A Construcção Moderna publishes this society’s documents, namely the statutes of the constitution, that value and defend the class. The other publication appears in January 1908 with the first issue of the magazine A Architectura Portuguesa: Revista mensal de Arte Architectural Antiga e Moderna. Collaborada por architectos e escriptores d’arte portuguezes. Eduardo A. Nunes Collares, who owned both publications since 1909, sought a different editorial project and, inevitably, a different audience for each of them, although published topics and projects were repeated; however, A Architectura Portuguesa excluded works deemed too current, while A Construcção Moderna continued to publish them.
In order to reach original documents related to architecture and urbanism of the first two decades of the twentieth century, different archives were used. Although not every personal collection of the mentioned architects are catalogued in dedicated funds and collections – such as those found in the archives of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Forte de Sacavém (SIPA, under the Direção-Geral do Património Cultural), the Marques da Silva Foundation, among others – project licensing processes can be consulted in municipal archives, and many photographic records of buildings mentioned in A Construcção Moderna can be found in archives such as the Centro Nacional de Fotografia archive or the Arquivo Fotográfico Municipal de Lisboa.
From all these studies and documents, the Magasin section of this website offers a small selection of those dedicated to the magazine itself, as a case study that allows a better understanding of the novel modern attitude and its promoters in Portugal, and the environment itself in which architecture and urbanism designed a new city and a new citizen at the dawn of the twentieth century.
Finally, we would like to announce that the presentation of A Construcção Moderna is the first part of a new thematic scope in the RIC – Revistas de Ideias e Cultura portal, dedicated to twentieth-century Portuguese periodical publications, both commercial and associative, devoted to architecture and urbanism.
Sofia Aleixo
