Academic literature on the topic 'Brutalism (architecture) – great britain'

Between the late 1940s and the 1970s, the New Brutalism attempted to establish an ethical architecture befitting post-World War II Britain. For this reason, it became a popular style for public buildings, including social housing. Brutalist social housing estates were conceived by progressive post-war architects to house Britain’s neediest. Through an analysis of the utopian roots of Brutalism and the decline of the style and its ethic in scholarship and popular culture, I analyze the current redevelopment of three seminal Brutalist housing estates and the rediscovery of the Brutalist aesthetic by contemporary scholars and consumers alike. In this thesis, I argue that due to multiple factors, including a housing shortage across Britain, rising real-estate values and a general consumer interest in mid-century design, these estates are undergoing such regenerations. My thesis enhances our understanding of how social and political influences have shaped post-war British social housing up to the present.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2007.<br>This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.<br>"February 2007."<br>Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-292).<br>The writing of Renaissance architectural history in the period 1890-1914 in Great Britain changed dramatically. Despite modernism's tenet of rejecting history from design, Renaissance architectural history in Great Britain functioned as both an alternative to and a source of inspiration for modernism. At first Renaissance architecture supplied a stylistic alternative to the Gothic Revival; then it acted as a bastion against modernist influences from the Continent. Finally, it provided a foundation of aesthetic principles applicable to modern design. With the advent of university programs in architecture, the writing of architectural history became more formalized, marking the beginning of architectural history's autonomy as a discipline and foreshadowing modernism's rejection of history from the design process. In my dissertation I analyze the perceptions and presentations of Renaissance architecture in order to investigate the relationship between history and design in architectural education, literature, and practice at the turn of the century in Great Britain. An analysis of architectural curricula, designs, and publications from this period reveals the development of an autonomous architectural history and the foundations of a modern architecture.<br>by Katherine Jean Wheeler.<br>Ph.D.

This thesis attempts to account for the appearance, persistence, and eventual decline of an architectural motif, derived from ancient pagan temples, widely used as the principal feature on an increasing variety of building types in Britain, during the period 1630 to 1850. The thesis seeks to do this by defining both the word 'portico' and the architectural forms to which, historically, it was applied, and by examining the religious, political, social, and stylistic contexts in which the portico, as a metaphor for the temple, was utilized. The rationalization within the Vitruvian-Christian tradition of the ancient temple's pagan connotations; the portico's intrinsic capacity to symbolize virtue, distinction, and authority; the changing perceptions of the idea of the temple; and the different nature and sources of both the authority and the architectural style which the portico expressed, are investigated. Architecturally, the portico expressed grandeur, centrality, and an entry; it controlled, defined, and gave focus to urban space. Introduced to Britain by Inigo Jones, and based on classical Roman and Palladian models but with Salomonic overtones, the portico initially symbolized Stuart dynastic claims to divine kingship. As political and economic power shifted to an aristocratic oligarchy, the temple that was Britain, Rome's heir, symbolized a church and state united, and the secular virtues of the Augustan age. Palladio's fusion of Roman temple and villa provided the model for the oligarchy's power base, the porticoed country house. Archaeology and politics combined, first to project mercantile opulence through imperial Roman-inspired neo-classicism, then the more fundamental qualities of the Greek temple. The Pantheon gave way to the Parthenon; the temple of private wealth to the imagined temple of democracy. After epitomizing the characteristic early nineteenth-century public style, the too-pagan Greek portico succumbed - as did the classical ideal - in the anarchy of styles, to the Gothic.

Between 1933 and 1940 between sixty and ninety German architects arrived in Britain as émigrés fleeing from Nazi oppression. The Germany which they left had, until Hitler's intervention, been the centre of European architectural modernism. Making their passage into Britain, they encountered a country whose architectural climate was altogether more traditional. When the first German architects arrived in 1933, architectural modernism was only just taking root, but only a few years later Britain's architectural culture boasted a thriving modernist scene. This coincidence has led historians to draw a direct connection between the presence of German architects and the establishment of modernism in Britain. This thesis, however, advances the current historiography by showing that the role of German émigrés was, rather than to initiate British architectural modernism, to support a development which had taken root before their arrival. Through examination of a number of sources - including personal papers, drawings, photographs, archive material, buildings, and personal interviews - it explores processes of acculturation as evidenced by the work of the émigré architects. A number of in-depth case studies reveal that the new environment in Britain provoked a variety of responses among the German architects, whose work frequently digressed into the realms of British architectural traditions (taking particular inspiration from the architecture of the Georgian period). Looking beyond well-known figures such as Mendelsohn and Gropius, the thesis concludes that the story of architectural migration from Germany to Britain cannot be told in terms of modernism alone. It shows that responses to the émigré situation were highly dependent on the individual architect's background, his or her experience, age, standing and time of arrival, but reveals that, disregarding these differences, all émigré architects to some degree adapted to their new working environment, a tendency which has been described as New Contextualism. Although submitted in the field of History of Art, the scope of this thesis is methodologically and epistemologically wider than might usually be associated with this field. Despite being strongly visually based in its main analysis, the work is inter-disciplinary in approach, incorporating elements of biography, history, sociology, and exile studies, therefore expanding the boundaries of art historical study.

My case study of the building of Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire, is a landmark volume within the fields of architectural and social history in the context of the development of houses of English landed gentry in the seventeenth century.

By 1360 the Perpendicular style was established as the successor to Decorated architecture. During the subsequent one hundred and eighty years, until the Reformation, major building work was carried out at four great churches in the south west of England. The complete reconstructions of St Mary Redcliffe, Sherborne Abbey and Bath Abbey, and considerable work to the precinct at Wells Cathedral during this period, form the basis for this thesis. Through a study of each of these major centres, the issues of workshop identity and stylistic trendsetters are considered. It is shown how the interpretation of documentary evidence has impeded an understanding of these buildings, which can be revealed by an analysis of the fabric. Based primarily on a methodology of buildings archaeology and assessment of moulding profiles, traditional assumptions concerning the chronology and patronage are challenged. The new chronology for works at Sherborne Abbey, and the redating of the commencement of Bath Abbey further our understanding of the nature of masons' workshops, patronage and stylistic development within a regional context. Introspection in masons' workshops during the 15th century, and retrospection in later design in the region, demonstrates a reliance on the innovations of the 14th century, and the significance of the parish church tradition in the region, respectively. The thesis concludes with a discussion on the influence of major church workshops on domestic architecture, and the impact of the dissemination of the lodges in the early 16th century.

Over the course of the nineteenth century, while many towns and cities grew at a remarkable rate, interest in architectural design, planning, and the quality of urban landscapes also increased. By the close of the century a number of associations had been established that were concerned with promoting the care of ancient buildings, the protection of open spaces, or the quality of future urban growth. During the twentieth century associational activity concerned with the quality of urban space has proliferated. Many, if not most, towns and cities in Britain have an organized body dedicated to campaigning and acting for the interests of local identity, development and heritage. Sometimes these are called Preservation Trusts (as in St Andrews or Cambridge), sometimes they are simply named after the city to which they belong (The London Society or The Warwick Society), most commonly they are known as Civic Societies. Regardless of name, they share key objectives: the promotion of high standards in planning and architecture; the preservation of historically or aesthetically significant buildings; the education of the public in the history, geography, and architecture of the local environment. In the early twentieth century these organizations provided a focus for discussions about the nature of urban space and approaches to shaping the development of towns and cities. They brought together a range of individuals, including planners, architects, reformers, academics, artists and politicians, who shared a concern for the landscape of Britain’s cities. Through their discussions and activities emerged an approach to urban development that emphasised socio-scientific methods and ideas in combination with an argument about the affective bonds that connect individuals to a place. The approach was often called civics and the agenda pressed forward by civic associations and their members forms the focus for this study. This work explores the continuities between philanthropic experiment in the later nineteenth century and the civic movement of the twentieth century by demonstrating the connections between earlier and later activities, and emphasising the continued involvement of a number of key individuals and families. It makes a contribution to understanding professional development in the fields of planning, architecture and urban studies. Key figures in the history of British planning, such as Patrick Abercrombie, Raymond Unwin and George Pepler, formed their early professional networks through civic groups, while architects including Charles Reilly and Aston Webb developed their collaborations through their involvement with the civic movement. Furthermore, individuals whose role in British urban sociology, most notably Patrick Geddes, has influenced the ways in which we study our urban areas first promoted their ideas and methods through the network of civic associations that developed over the course of early twentieth century. Through the analysis this thesis draws in theoretically informed questions. Firstly these relate to the role of voluntary associations and networks in structuring the development of professions, circulating their bodies of specialist knowledge and securing wider participation in urban policy. Secondly, the thesis considers the manner in which spaces come to hold the meaning and memories of particular groups, the significance and power of representations of place and the emerging tradition of spatial history that privileges the micro-processes through which places are created and sustained.