A significant portion of architecture archives (19th/20th centuries), held in archives, libraries, museums, universities, etc., is characterized by prioritizing the most graphically spectacular drawings (elevations, perspectives, or plans), alongside private or personal documentation, such as correspondence, photographs, books, magazines, newspapers, among other examples.
Almost always excluded is the written documentation related to the day-to-day management of the profession and the firm, such as that concerning the creation and development of a studio or the financial area. Consequently, memory institutions receive only a small portion of an architect's or studio's archive, excluding the documentation that serves as administrative, legal, or financial evidence, clearly the most voluminous part of any business.
Furthermore, acquisition policies show that some institutions prioritize the archives of the most well-known and high-profile architects and firms.
Considering this, a significant number of archives from lesser-known architects never reach these memory institutions or their audiences. As a result, the public is left with a fragmented, reduced, and limited view of their projected and built work and, consequently, of architecture in its multiple facets.
Using case studies related to 6 institutions in Portugal and Brazil, and comparative analysis as a research methodology based on primary sources, this conference proposal aims to present lines of action for archivists and architecture researchers to reverse this reality, to give visibility to the countless (in)visible themes of architecture archives.

Authors:
Paulo Batista, University of Évora, Portugal

About the Presenter(s)
Professor Paulo Batista is a University Assistant Professor/Lecturer at CIDEHUS.UÉ-Interdisciplinary Center for History, Cultures and Societies of the University of Évora in Portugal

See this presentation on the full schedule – Sunday Schedule

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