Reconstruction: Architecture, Society and the Aftermath of the First World War

Description

Reconstruction explores the impact of the First World War on the built environment – examining the immediate and longer term aftermath of the Great War on the architecture of Britain and the British Empire during the interwar years. While much attention has been paid by historians to post-war architectural reconstruction after 1945, the earlier developments of the interwar period (1919-1939) have been comparatively overlooked. This volume reveals how the architectural developments of this period not only provided important foundations for what happened after 1945 – they are also of real significance in their own right. Sixteen essays written by leading and emerging scholars bring together new and diverse approaches to the period – a period of reconstruction, fraught with the challenges of modernity and democratisation. The collection considers the complex effects of reconstruction on design, discourse, practice, and professionalism, and deals with the full spectrum of architectural styles and approaches, privileging neither Modernism nor traditional styles like the neo-Georgian. It brings to the fore social and political histories of the built environment, and makes important postcolonial interventions into the architectural history of British Imperialism at home and in its far reaches; in Cairo, South Africa, Australia, and India. Cover Contents List of figures List of contributors Acknowledgements Foreword: Towards narratives of modernity after reconstruction Elizabeth Darling Introduction Neal Shasore and Jessica Kelly Section I: Promoting the business of architecture 1 Criticism: The architectural press and the public Jessica Kelly 2 Professionalism: The American influence on British architectural practice H. Horatio Joyce 3 Regulation: The ‘New London’ Eileen Chanin 4 Development: Speculative office development and public sector tenants Jonathan Clarke Section II: Designing community infrastructure 5 Community Centre: New housing estates in Scotland Alistair Fair 6 Public House: The Carlisle experiment and the improved public house Julian Holder 7 Parish: Democratic participation in suburban parish churches Clare Price Section III: Building a rural citizenry 8 Yeoman: Land settlement and cottage smallholdings Rebecca Preston and Joanna Smith 9 Veteran: Annabel Dott and colonial, metropolitan and rural communities Elizabeth McKellar 10 Student: Henry Morris and the first village colleges Kieran Mahon Section IV: Binding subjects through statecraft 11 Citizenship: Welfare and the democratic state in Percy Thomas’s civic architecture Robert Proctor 12 Sir Herbert Baker, Rhodes House and the architecture of memory Geoffrey Tyack 13 Diocese: Cairo Cathedral and the politics of Liberal Anglican Church design David Lewis Section V: Wedding peace with well-being 14 Sickness: Advances in British hospital design after the First World War Harriet Richardson Blakeman 15 Health: Democracy, diversity, dispersal Barry Doyle Index