Arquitectura y Estado

Since 1978 Professor Carlos Niño Murcia began the ordering and cataloging of the thousands of existing plans in the warehouse of the Ministry of Public Works. The text of this book was published immediately, published for the first time in 1991. In the words of the architect Alberto Saldarriaga Roa: It is a meticulous essay of interpretation of the relationship between state architecture and the hazards of national politics, through of the study of the work carried out in the section of National Properties, an entity that had, at its best, the participation of the most outstanding architects in the country. The subject treated by Niño Murcia was undoubtedly juicy, and the author is divided into an introduction and three sections corresponding to the chronological periods of the Ministry's production: 1905-1930; 1930-1945 and 1945-1960. The beginning of each section is marked by a significant political fact: the dictatorship of General Reyes, the rise of the power of the Liberal Party and the return of conservative power. In a closer look, in each period the main works carried out by the Ministry in those years. One of the additional attractions is the reproduction of a part of the huge collection of original plans from the archive of the Ministry of Public Works. At the end of the book, a frame of reference of the personnel of the Ministry in the fifty-five years that includes the study is included. Of particular interest is the list of architects who held the different managerial and operational positions of the National Real Estate section over the years.