Special Issue: Construction Site Photography

Taken in 1904, the photograph shows the demolition of the triumphal arch that had been erected in Brussels only 7 years earlier. The short lifespan of this nation-building project, however, was not entirely unexpected. Because of strict time and budget constraints, the architects had abandoned their original monumental plans for a stone structure and instead chose for a solution à la belge: a wooden framework clad with plaster elements, which could be completed in time for the Brussels’ international exhibition of 1897.

Although the story of this Potemkin structure is well known, the photograph also raises new questions. Based on their clothing, for instance, the workers visible in the image appear to be immigrants, most likely of North-African origin. This visual evidence challenges the common assumption that immigrant labourers only began working in Belgium’s construction industry in the 1950s. Together with the chaotic state of the construction site and the partial or sketchy safety protection, their presence also prompts questions about their legal status, itineraries, and living or working conditions. Were they, as in the 1950s, primarily employed in the lowest-status jobs of the sector—in this case, demolition work? Where and how were they housed, and what was their place as citizens in the society for which they worked?
In the photograph, stones or bricks seem to have been separated from the rest of the debris, which raises further questions about the “metabolism” of construction and demolition. Where were discarded building materials taken? And where did the materials for the temporary arch originally come from? These questions show not only how photographs can be mined for what they visibly depict, but also how much can be inferred from what remains at the margins or outside the frame.

Dislodged from any broader archival context –or perhaps precisely because of this– the image also highlights the potential of construction site photographs to expand and challenge the boundaries of construction history. By engaging with issues such as immigrant labour, material reuse, and architectural waste, the questions they raise connect directly to more present-day concerns. They demonstrate how photographs remain open to continuous reinterpretation, not only serving as powerful tools for recalibrating the past but also for interrogating the present.

The image below illustrates the broader questions that underpin the newly published special issue developed within the framework of the EOS project Above and Beyond Construction History. Edited by the project’s four postdoctoral researchers, who also jointly authored the introduction, the issue explores the ambivalence of construction site photography — oscillating between document and art — as a lens onto historical practices, socio-technical processes, and evolving visual methods. Reflecting on photography’s ambiguity as historical evidence, archive, and prism of positionality, the contributions examine how disciplinary perspectives shape new narratives in construction history.