Specialized journals as a source of research in architecture history: The case of the interventions in Theatro Municipal de São Paulo

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the use of specialized journals as a source for research in the history of architecture. For this, will be analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively the publications in specialized architecture magazines about the interventions performed in the building of the Municipal Theater in the 1950s and 1980s, and its use as a source for the ongoing author’s master's research. The documentary body analyzed is composed of four editions of Acrópole magazine, one edition of Engenharia Municipal magazine, three editions of Projeto magazine, one edition of AU magazine and two editions of A Construção magazine. The first section of the paper is devoted to a brief presentation of the master's research and its objectives, as well as to the quantitative analysis of the publications in question. The second and third analyzes of publications separated in two chronological stages, respectively 1950 and 1980, contextualized from the point of view of the history of the specialized architectural press in Brazil, and approached according to the methodology proposed by Tania de Luca, Paula Dedecca and Héctor García-Diego, explored in the fourth section.