S OMETHING C ONCRETE + M ODER N

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, industry in the North East was booming. The impoverished conditions of the 1930s that caused the town of Jarrow to march on London were a thing of the past. High demand for steel and coal secured employment at an all-time high. Having escaped the Luftwaffe relatively unscathed, poor quality of the housing stock and lack of maintenance ensured there was high demand for new housing across the region. There was an abundance of public architecture too. The gravitas of the old Victorian Civic buildings was replaced by something altogether less formal and more public. Britain’s new Welfare State called for a renewed emphasis on comfort for the many rather than luxury for the privileged few. This dogma was to transform housing, workplaces, government buildings, schools, leisure facilities and transport throughout the region.

The Welfare State found its expression in the architecture of the modernist movement. The success of the Festival of Britain, opened in 1951 had wet the public appetite for something new and graduating architects enamoured with the teachings of the German Bauhaus and inspired by the work of Le Corbusier were ready to put these principals into practice.

Something Concrete and Modern charts the development of architectural expression in response to the economic challenges and social optimism that characterises the North East region. Often dismissed as a period of regretful architectural and planning blunders, the book will examine key buildings and projects of the era 1945-1979 that expressed gallant architectural and social ambitions of architects, engineers and public figures that lead to the vast transformation of the region’s towns and cities.

Something Concrete and Modern chose local design studio TAC Design (www.tac-design.co.uk) to complete the branding and website for the project, with supporting marketing material to follow over the coming months l www.somethingconcreteandmodern.co.uk