A non-profit independent initiative

Architectural Periodicals Database.

Architectural periodicals are the primary historical record of the built environment as knowledge-production centers that shaped taste, circulated ideas, and legitimized professional practices. This database treats them as works of cultural heritage requiring open, and specialized digital research infrastructure.

Enter the database Read the editorial
542
Periodicals
8,910
Issues catalogued
31,477
Projects indexed
47
Countries
§ 03 — Entry points

Four ways to read the archive

§ Instruments — four ways into the same record Click to enter
INS.01 / Catalog

Catalog

542 periodicals indexed by editor, city, decade, and language. Each entry is a citation-grade record with linked issues and contributors.

542
Titles
8,910
Issues
1,204
Editors
Top facets — Italy · France · Postwar · Avant-garde
INS.02 / Directory

Projects

31,477 buildings and unbuilt schemes, each tied back to the periodical that published them. Faceted, deep-linked, sortable by year, type, place.

31,477
Entries
9,612
Architects
1,388
Cities
Top facets — Housing · School · Pavilion · Mixed-use
INS.03 / Map

Atlas

Worldwide map view across 47 countries. Filter by year, type, or periodical of origin; share a coordinate-anchored URL of any view.

2,847
Markers
47
Countries
1,388
Cities
Top facets — Europe · South Am. · Japan · USSR
INS.04 / Search

Search

Full-text search across thousands of digitised pages. Find articles, projects, and names across multiple languages and decades.

8,910
Issues
10+
Languages
100yr
Span
Top facets — Greek · Arabic · Dutch · German
§ 04 — From the archive
Interior spread from De 8 en Opbouw, 1932
Open De 8 en Opbouw in the PDF viewer
Plate — "Wolken Opname", De 8 en Opbouw, 1932. Essay by J. Boterenbrood.
§ 06 — Open research
Free & open access

Every record in this database is freely accessible, with no login, paywall, or fee. We believe architectural history belongs to everyone.

Non-profit research

This is a volunteer-driven academic project with no commercial interest. No advertising. No data collection. No institutional fees.

Open to contributions

Researchers, archivists, and institutions are invited to contribute scans, corrections, and new entries. Get in touch →

Digital research infrastructure

Periodicals are the primary record of architectural culture, yet they remain largely outside digital humanities. Building this infrastructure is itself an argument for recognising them as cultural heritage.

§ 05 — Recently catalogued

Latest entries in the database.

  1. 01
    Architecture in Greece
    Ed. Orestis Doumanis
    Athens
    1967—2000
  2. 02
    De 8 en Opbouw
    Ed. Ben Merkelbach, Mart Stam, Gerrit Rietveld
    Amsterdam · Rotterdam
    1932—1943
  3. 03
    De Stijl
    Ed. Theo van Doesburg
    Leiden
    1917—1932
  4. 04
    Bauhaus
    Ed. Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
    Dessau
    1926—1931
  5. 05
    L'Esprit Nouveau
    Ed. Le Corbusier, Amédée Ozenfant, Paul Dermée
    Paris
    1920—1925
  6. 06
    Forum
    Ed. Aldo van Eyck, Jaap Bakema
    Amsterdam
    1946—1971
§ 07 — Search across the full corpus
Full-text search across digitised issues · Greek · Arabic · Dutch · German · French
§ 08 — Get involved

How you can help.

Share scans

If you have access to issues not yet in the database — physical copies, institutional scans, or personal archives — we would like to hear from you.

Correct & translate

OCR text from older or non-Latin periodicals often contains errors. Native speakers of Greek, Arabic, Dutch, or German are especially welcome.

Support the infrastructure

The database runs on open-source tools and volunteer time. Institutional partnerships, hosting support, and research collaboration are all valuable. Contact us →

Make a donation

If you find this resource valuable, a small contribution helps keep the servers running and the scanning work going. Every amount counts.