Journals and the popularization of Spanish modernity in the 1960s

Abstract

n the 1960s periodicals were a well-established platform in the architectural field, with such journals as Architectural Review, Domus or Baumeister as prominent examples. After World War II new journals were created which competed against the more traditional ones, but both the newer and the older journals, moving beyond the first stages of post-war reconstruction, started to give voice, from a variety of perspectives, to the new directions in architecture, not only with a local, but with an international focus. In this context Spain was basically unknown to the rest of the world. For a long time was absent from the avant-garde architectural trends and from the pages of international journals. In the mid 1950s, however, Spain started to awaken interest in foreign periodicals. The most remarkable aspect of this development is that this international attention went deeper than the usual attraction to anything new or exotic and that it would consolidate in the following decade. This period witnessed the publication of the first special journal issues devoted to Spanish architecture in different countries. Starting from these facts, this article attempts to analyze the role played by these special issues in the rapid popularization throughout the 1960s of Spanish architectural modernity, which was virtually unknown before that period.