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This Thesis Has Been Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for a Postgraduate Degree (E.G This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Anticipations of Utopia: Discovering an Architecture for Post-War Britain Matthew Latusek PhD in Architecture The University of Edinburgh 2016 Signed Declaration I declare that this thesis was composed by myself, that the work contained herein is my own except where explicitly stated otherwise in the text, and that this work has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification except as specified. Signed: Date: 2 Abstract of Thesis This thesis responds to a growing appreciation for the richness and ambiguity of mid- century architectural culture in Britain. Initially focussing on the enthusiasm for a science-based approach among architects and town planners, the thesis identifies – in the diverse debates of the Second World War and immediate post-war years – an architecture that achieves significantly more than an abstract, inhuman, or totalising utopianism. Instead, it will expose affinities between the enthusiastic pursuit of objective solutions in architecture and planning and the drastically compromised realities, both of the historic city in ruins, and of certain episodes in the history of architecture that enjoyed popularity after the war. The first chapter introduces the problem of utopianism, a concept that has often accompanied critical studies of modern architecture. An appraisal of the utopian tradition highlights the frequent vagueness and ahistoricism of the term, leaving room for an appreciation of utopian speculation as dynamically historical, with the potential to decisively enact change. The second chapter identifies these characteristics in the mid-century enthusiasm for scientific planning, an approach that used quantifiable methods of research in order to legitimise an emerging town planning profession, which had gained added impetus from the transformative social impact of the Second World War. Underpinned by the civic and regional survey, this approach advanced the potential of technocratic management to ‘solve’ the problems of social organisation and physical planning. However, an analysis of specific attempts to speculatively develop the necessary planning machinery indicates a far richer range of concerns. The third chapter shows that the experience of wartime bombing dramatically changed the aspect of Britain’s towns and cities, with the resulting ruins presenting a visceral challenge to the idealising promise of science. But this seeming conflict obscures the relationship between ruination and reconstruction. For the anxiety and exhilaration of destruction was, in fact, embedded in the practice of rebuilding, both in the memories of the builders and of the public at large. Furthermore, an examination of contemporary architectural writing on the subject of wartime ruins displays an attempt to aestheticise and appropriate the ruin’s effects, while simultaneously maintaining an 3 outward attitude of detachment. The final chapter develops this discussion, moving from the ruins of the historic city to investigate the mid-century adoption of architectural history as a justification for design. It will show that while scientific research seemed to promise objective solutions, the study of history received a similar authority after the war. Consequently, the historian could assume a status analogous to that of the planning expert: a fact evidenced by the activities of Rudolf Wittkower and Nikolaus Pevsner. Just as the utopian potential of science was conditioned by its contingency, this chapter will demonstrate that the appeal to history would also inevitably be limited to partial solutions. 4 Acknowledgements Over the years, I have received assistance and support from far too many individuals to fully acknowledge in writing. However, it is important that I mention a few of the more prominent contributors, without whom I could never have achieved the least success in my academic pursuits. In direct relation to the completion of my thesis, the greatest thanks must go to my supervisors, Iain Boyd Whyte and Dagmar Motycka Weston. They always tolerated my lengthy spells of indecision and convinced me – eventually – to stop evading the task at hand and embrace the imperative of beginning and persevering. Without their assistance I simply could not have completed this text. Also, I would like to make a more general acknowledgement of all the figures that have encouraged my academic activities, from school through to university, teachers who have made it possible for me to cultivate the ambition to pursue my personal intellectual pursuits. I would not be here without them. Above all, I must thank my very great friends and my wonderful family. My friends have promised for me a permanent source of happiness, and a guarantee that – whatever happens – we will all be back together again soon. My sisters, Heather and Ruth, who are ever on hand to keep me company and make me laugh, have also been a constant and invaluable support. I love them very much. Finally, throughout the writing of this thesis my parents encouraged me always to keep going, and were ready to talk whenever my progress ground to a halt. They have shown me more generosity than I can ever hope to return: I will never forget their love and kindness. 5 Contents Abstract of Thesis ........................................................................................ 3 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................... 5 List of Illustrations ....................................................................................... 8 List of Abbreviations ................................................................................. 12 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 13 CHAPTER 1 – ‘Tomorrow I Don’t Care What Happens’: Situating Utopias ..................................................................................................................... 32 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 32 The Problem of Utopia and Architecture ............................................................... 35 The Flaws of the Formalist Utopia ........................................................................ 47 A Historically-Situated Utopianism ....................................................................... 53 Chapter 1 – Illustrations ......................................................................................... 66 CHAPTER 2 – Arbiters of Utopia: Technocrats, Experts, and Scientific Planning ...................................................................................................... 69 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 69 The War for Reconstruction ................................................................................... 71 ‘Planning is Politics’: The MARS Plan and the Evasion of Utopia ....................... 81 The Geddesian Survey: Discovering a ‘Synoptic Vision’ ..................................... 92 A New Approach to Town Planning at the AA School ......................................... 99 ‘The Delays and Frustrations of Over-Elaboration’: The ‘Composite Mind’ as an Administrative Model .......................................................................................... 110 The ‘Exacting Trials of Reality’: The Composite Mind in Motion ..................... 123 Chapter 2 – Illustrations ....................................................................................... 133 6 CHAPTER 3 – The ‘Preliminary History of Reconstruction Programmes’: Ruins in the Wartime City........................................................................ 138 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 138 Destruction into Reconstruction ........................................................................... 141 History and the City in Ruins ............................................................................... 144 Surreal Encounters and the Trauma of War ......................................................... 149 The Ruins of Technological Progress .................................................................. 155 A Traumatic Inheritance ...................................................................................... 160 ‘The Beauties of Our Fast Vanishing Architecture’ ............................................ 167 An ‘Aesthetic of Destruction’: The Wartime Ruin Gaze ..................................... 173 ‘Fragments of Distinction’: The Ruin in the Modernist
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