TEXTBOOK. A Guide to the Teaching of Construction

Abstract Between the 1920s and the 1970s in France, the teaching of construction in architecture schools has undergone major modifications in relation to its social, intellectual, and professional context. The present article aims to understand the role played by the teaching of construction in the architects’ relationship to building techniques and to engineers. The study of a set of textbooks, considered as pedagogical devices and professional guides, and used in 1921 by Edouard Arnaud to teach construction at the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, and at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, tackles the role of teaching construction in architecture and engineering curricula and its influence on the profession. This study relies on a comprehensive analysis of the set of textbooks, considering its materiality and its written and visual content, combined with relevant elements from its author’s biography, publications, and pedagogical production.