On September 11, 2024. Ignacio G. Galán, assistant professor of architecture, published new research in The Journal of Architecture, titled “Neighbourliness in Concrete: modern construction, ethnic labour and the architectures of New York Italians.” Galán’s research explores the intertwined histories of modern construction and Italian migration in New York City at the turn of the twentieth century. He explains that while the adoption of concrete construction is often discussed as one result of an uncontested technical revolution, the full picture is far more nuanced.
Through the analysis of contemporary architecture, construction, and union journals, as well as accounts from social reformers, ministers, and other intellectuals, Galán shows that these modern developments in construction were critically mediated by labor debates, social clashes, and ethnic conflicts centering on Italian migrant workers, who constituted a majority of concrete laborers in New York City during the period. These workers struggled to identify and be recognized as both members of the new Italian nation and as American citizens. Galán explores how new forms of ‘neighbourliness’ in both work sites and urban neighborhoods were simultaneously framed by industrialization, capitalism, nationalism, and migration throughout this formative period.