In schools of architecture students often rely on images; rarely do they have hands-on experience with the actual building. We may say that our first idea of an architectural work comes from looking at a picture, normally a photograph. Yet photography invariably involves a mode of beholding which preconditions not only our perception of an object but also our conception of it and our idea of our relationship to it and with it. The research we propose to undertake aims at studying architecture and photography during the historically decisive period of the Modern Movement, the epoch that has so influenced and inspired contemporary architectural design. The main aim is to create a groundbreaking catalogue (in print and online) that crucially will help to fill a major scholarly gap: that between the three-dimensional work of architecture and its two-dimensional representation (the real object and its simulacrum). The catalogue will be achieved by cross-referencing the published material in major European architectural reviews with photographs preserved in the archives and connecting the images of each building with its plan. The process will generate an active tool of knowledge for the architectural work in question, with a rationale similar to that achieved by Dr François Penz in 6th FP project New Millennium-New Media; the applicant will also benefit from the internationally recognized background of Cambridge University, the foremost school of architecture in Europe. The proposal fully corresponds to the objectives of the IEF: with the European institutions involved it will develop the first network of architectural resources to promote a stimulating dialogue between academic communities across the Continent; making the historical heritage available in a way that will be fundamental to European competiveness, a concrete base, as it were, for future architectural design, which provides an alternative to the solely technological view current in the United States.