Construction History Vol 39, No 2, 2024

Construction History, the international journal of the Construction History Society, casts its net widely and Vol 39, No 2, 2024 is no exception. The papers include the US movement for mass-produced concrete housing, 1900 to 1924; the search for earthquake-resistant construction systems in Chile after the 1906 Valparaiso earthquake; and the construction of the anechoic (silence test) chamber at the Building Research Station.

Two papers may be of particular interest. The first is a paper written by authors at the Polytechnic Universities of Madrid and Cartagena, about the disconnect between the technical knowledge represented in historic manuscripts and actual building practice as evidenced through a physical structure itself. The paper reminds us of the importance of interrogating historical sources. It raises questions about the validity of historic building manuals and treatises, and asks whether the technical authors really were in possession of all of the detailed knowledge necessary to build the structures they described. If they were not, who actually possessed the relevant expertise during the construction process, and how should we interpret historic manuscripts written by architects and engineers? Although the case study is from Spain, the lessons could have interesting implications for practice by heritage professionals here.

Second, a paper describes the John Laing and Son photographic collection, comprising more than 230,000 images of the company’s work over more than a century as a major UK civil engineering and housebuilding business. The paper looks at how the imagery drives a specific and intended presentation of Laing, using photography to create an identity both of the company as a corporate body and as a mechanism to encourage a particular character within its workforce. The paper by Tony Presland looks at the use of photographic images in advertising, branding, and internal and external documents. It concludes that it is not possible to identify any unique aspects of Laing’s approach to its corporate identity.