Post-war Architecture in the United Kingdom

Post-War Architecture in the UK

Post-War Architecture in the UK [Shivang Madaan, Aaditya Chaudhary]

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Post-War Architecture in the UK

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Abstract The beginning of architecture, construction, and advancement was born from the need to be guarded—from the elements, fauna, or enemies. Towers, castles, ditches, and parapets, were all made to prepare for and defend. Because of its unique expression of lifestyles, architecture can be the first thing to be attacked and destroyed during wars.

Various architectural schools and styles were born because of World Wars and how architects approached different means of fixing the consequences. For example, The Bauhaus movement was founded by Walter Gropius six months after the end of World War I. It desired to rebuild society and fix the adversities of the war.

Another example is Brutalism. Post-war architecture in the United Kingdom is a style that emerged after the war and was used for rehabilitation projects. Brutalist buildings are characterized by minimalist construction that relies on the use of simple, naked building materials and structural elements. They embody the bare building materials and structural elements over non-functional, ornamental design.

Meanwhile, Japan, like Europe, also had an enormous deficit of housing after the war, due to the bombing of many cities. Japanese architects, therefore, merged both traditional styles and modern techniques.

Post-war architecture is quite compelling and highly essential. It teaches us the various contrasting ways of rising from destruction and, most importantly, rising towards the future.

Keywords: fauna, ditches, parapets, architectural schools, consequences, brutalist, ornamental, compelling.

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Post-War Architecture in the UK The conception of architecture, structure, and cultures was born from the need to be (Tracey, n.d.) defended—from the climate, from animals, or adversaries. Towers, forts, moats, barricades, and revetments were all made to prepare for and protect. After that, came production, technology, battle machines, explosives, and spacecraft; fortress and towering only made it uncomplicated to be found and attacked, and places were ruined to the bone.

Architecture became more of an apparatus to live and pay tribute: dwellings, soldiers’ quarters, and mausoleums. Because of its innovative expression of lifestyle, architecture can be the first thing to be besieged and ravaged during warfare.

(Bauhaus Architecture: Origins and Characteristics of Bauhaus, 2022)

Various architectural schools and styles were born because of World Wars and how architects approached different means of fixing the consequences. For example, The Bauhaus movement was founded by Walter Gropius six months after the end of World War I. It desired

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to rebuild society and fix the adversities of the war. Another example is Brutalism. It is an architectural style that emerged after WWII in the United Kingdom, among the rehabilitation projects of the post-war era.

Brutalist buildings are characterized by minimal construction that is based on the use of basic building materials and structural elements, over a lack of decorative features.

Meanwhile, Japan, like Europe, also had an enormous deficit of housing after the war, due to the bombing of many cities. Japanese architects, therefore, merged both traditional styles and modern techniques.

(THE JAPANESE HOUSE: ARCHITECTURE AND LIFE AFTER 1945, 2017)

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How does War Affect Architecture?

Cities and property can become a purpose of violence when locations exhibit ‘the nonessential or sinister distinction and when the command of space becomes an instrument of force or coercion. But architectural principles or urban planning can also provide asylum from violence, a safe sanctuary, a substitute or accessory to it in tempestuous surroundings. The repercussions of crises affect how people construct, discern, and occupy spaces and places. The community has to consider new systems of spatial classification and management: security check zones, military-controlled zones, landmine fields, dormant zones, humanitarian asylums, usable sites, prohibited areas, etc. Places have to change their social function of most of the places. For example- a place of worship becomes a lodging house or a clinic, a school becomes a barracks or jail and a transitional place between two fences becomes the ground for collaboration. Even with those changes, communities are likely to re-purpose all those social places into known social places of importance through coping strategies or use and redevelopment of customs. For all intents and purposes, the loss of their land and habitat is correlated to the loss of communal links. Extreme changes in space and the environment can only lead to a disruption of society.

(Fly_and_Dive, n.d.)

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Post-War Architecture in the UK The UK's post-war architecture may be quite lifeless. The word ‘Subtopia’ is used to depict the bland, characterless landscape that has developed over the last century. The number of dwellings in this sector has increased from 7.7 million in 1900 to over 26 million today (Tracey, n.d.). Accommodation provision by the end of warfare, particularly in metropolitan centres, was believed to be insufficient, not only in quantity but in quality as well. War had impacted the amount of housing stock, but additionally, much bygone housing had been earmarked for knocking down before the war. All this boom in post-war architecture in Britain was directed at avoiding disease outbreaks like cholera, dysentery, rickets, scurvy, and typhoid. All these diseases are propagated by overcrowding, bad hygiene, incompetent facilities for the preparation of meals and the pollution of houses from neighbouring industries.

(Spain, 2010)

Brutalism has welcomed a lot of foul press over the years, with many of its structures being described as soulless, characterless carbuncles of concrete that have blighted the British urban landscape. The term brutalism is not derived from, as is often thought, from the commanding forms of the buildings, but the French word for ‘raw concrete: béton brut. The term was coined by Swedish architect Hans Asplund in 1950, but it was popularized by the

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architectural critic Reyner Banham. (The rise and fall of Brutalism in the UK, 2017) Brutalism in the UK was born out of a want to overhaul the war-ravaged towns and cities of the UK, quickly and efficiently. The brutalist material of preference- concrete, the second most consumed material on the planet after water, was readily available, and, crucially, affordable.

There was also an aesthetic fixation for a style that was bold and forward-thinking and celebrated a more promising future past post-war temperance. Brutalism, which departed so radically from contemporary and classical architecture, and prioritized function over form, was seen by many as the perfect solution. these structures often represent new advances in building technology. I believe all buildings should be preserved and maintained, even if they are disliked by the mainstream. As long as they are structurally sound, then we should preserve our planet's architecture and allow future generations to understand the process of development and how places change over time.

Public Architecture in post-war Britain- A major characteristic of the post-war period was a large amount of structural experiment and innovation, not all of which were successful. All generations have had construction failures, which generally when they were thought beyond repair, were pulled down and replaced. In our times, the sense of historical value has become so strong, and the urge to preserve so great, that buildings which would in the past have been disposed of without comment, now become causes ce'lbres as they are expensively restored, sometimes at a price exceeding their original cost. Thus, for example, the concrete cladding of Gibberd's Roman Catholic Cathedral at Liverpool is to be repaired for six million pounds only twenty-eight years after the building was finished. These much-publicized cases of technical failure are in a sense not so much the fault of the building, as of historians and preservationists whose influence has interfered with the natural life-cycle (Forty, 2014).

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So, if we transfer our attention to perceptions of post-war architecture, it would be fair to say that the subject that has figured largest in public consciousness was the very obvious use of non-traditional or industrialized systems of construction. Historians have rightly and understandably shown a lot of interest in the preoccupation with the realization in the architectural form of the non-traditional means of construction.

(Gibberd’s Realisation, n.d.)

What interests me is the extent to which architecture plays a part in this reflexive perception. Any public building - a railway station for example - or even any public space - a street - can provide the setting for reflexive perception. But the majority of public buildings in which we both see and are seen belong to someone or some agency, and one's experience of the other is always subordinate to the purposes of the owner. In the railway station, the dominant requirement is to travel, and the form of the building ensures that one does this in the manner, and in the state of mind, that has been ordained by the railway operator. Similarly in the shopping centre, the primary aim of the architectural experience is to ensure that one view as many of the commodities on sale as possible.

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Post-War British Church Architecture- The Festival of Britain, which opened in London in 1951, was a very formal way of celebrating the rebirth of post-war British architecture. However, it lacked any reference to churches. The Festival of Britain was one of the more significant events in the direction of British architecture and its role in rebuilding the country after the Second World War. It was seen as a symbolic public act of national reassessment. The festival was founded in London in 1951 and was seen as an important event in the formalization of new architectural and urban objectives. This was in line with post-war British policies on city planning and social welfare. One of the main architectural features of the estate was the Trinity Congregational Church, which was completed in 1951. It was a modern structure of reinforced concrete frames filled with yellow bricks and copper, designed to be light and airy. On 7 October 1951, Cardinal Bernard William Griffin (1899– 1956) laid the foundation stone of the Catholic church of Saint Mary and St Joseph by Adrian Gilbert Scott (1882–1963).

The church, among the first to be funded by the War Damage Commission, would be completed in 1954, boasting a revivalist Byzantine-Romanesque style. (Grieco, 2021)

Conclusion and the Future of Post-War Architecture-

“The recent past is just as worthy of respect as the distant past- and it needs it much more. We have a greater responsibility for modern buildings. We must hand them on to posterity untampered with.”

- Denys Lasdun, 1995 While scientific breakthroughs indicated great improvements for the people of the world, they also provided the hazard of annihilation in the form of a nuclear attack and pollution.

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While global commerce brought consumerism to the people, the gap between wealthy and poor grew wider. The brutalization of culture saturated through industrial innovation and architecture and shaped the way we lived and reacted to the post-war earth. Brutalism was not the only form of architecture that could have formed the foundation of post-war architecture in Britain, but it was a prevalent form of Modernism through the late-mid 20th century and it was Modernism that captured the spirit and energy of the people, that formed a pervasive aspect of the architectural career. (Das, 2021) ‘What is also clear is that the term Brutalism is a style that, in Britain at least, managed to develop within it a broad range of materials and responses to briefs and sites.’ (Clement, 2012) Roughly cast concrete was, of course, an element used in most of these buildings, but wasn't always the first choice. Other materials, such as brick, stone and marble, were used to great effect while remaining convincingly modern. Many of the buildings were not stray embers that had been installed in the middle of many historic buildings. The architects often took great care in integrating their designs with the site in terms of colour, texture, dimensions, and stylistic elements.

Despite the criticism of some Brutalist buildings for their aesthetic qualities, the style has been revived more recently. Postmodernism is all about borrowing from styles from the past and recombining them. Neo-brutalism is a popular trend in architecture in the 21st century.

What is important for the future of Brutalism is that it is understood within the broader context of architectural history. There may not be a lot of people who like it, but that doesn't mean that it deserves less respect than more traditional styles. By studying Brutalism, we can learn a lot about our past and appreciate its architectural style. Although Brutalism may not be popular today, it is still an important part of architectural history.

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Works Cited Bauhaus Architecture: Origins and Characteristics of Bauhaus. (2022, February 25).

Retrieved from MasterClass: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/bauhausarchitecture-explained Clement, A. (2012). In Brutalism: Post-War British Architecture (p. 155). Marlborough: The Crowood Press Ltd. Das, D. (2021, October 15). The History of Modernism and How it Changed the World.

Retrieved from Corbusian: https://www.corbusian.com/modernism/ Destructivism. (n.d.). Retrieved from Arch 2O: https://www.arch2o.com/destructivism-howdoes-war-affect-architecture/ Fly_and_Dive. (n.d.). The City of Homs in Syria. Retrieved from Shutterstock: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/city-homs-syria654582493?irclickid=Woq2XeXktxyIRGAw3s3n1VaUkD23B0Bq2oBUk0&irgwc=1&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=linkp rice&utm_source=1193708&utm_term= Forty, A. (2014). Being or Nothingness. Public Architecture in post-war Britain.

Gibberd’s Realisation. (n.d.). Retrieved from Liverpool Metro Cathedral: https://liverpoolmetrocathedral.org.uk/the-fourth-cathedral/ Grieco, L. (2021). Post-war British church architecture and the Italian model. In Post-war Architecture between Italy and the UK: exchanges and transcultural influences (pp.

236-238). London: UCL Press.

Spain, A. (2010, July 29). Brutalism in the UK. Retrieved from ArchDaily: https://www.archdaily.com/70676/brutalism-in-the-uk

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THE JAPANESE HOUSE: ARCHITECTURE AND LIFE AFTER 1945. (2017, August).

Retrieved from Ala CHAMP: https://champ-magazine.com/architecture/the-japanesehouse-architecture-and-life-after-1945/ The rise and fall of Brutalism in the UK. (2017, May 03). Retrieved from SELO: https://selo.global/rise-fall-brutalism-uk/ Tracey, J. (n.d.). Post-war architecture in Britain: the Spirit of Optimism. Retrieved from Mid Century Magazine: http://midcenturymagazine.com/architecture/post-wararchitecture-in-britain/