‘The core’
The centre as a concept in twentieth-century British planning and architecture. Part two: the realization of the idea
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21500276 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eliza Darling (0000-0002-7007-6735, History, Philosophy & Culture, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK, corresponding author), Alistair Fair (0000-0002-8884-0965, University of Edinburgh) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 525-557 |
| Publication date | 2023-05-04 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Planning Perspectives (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0266-5433 • E-ISSN: 1466-4518 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02665433.2022.2149611 |
| OpenAlex | W4310299224 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 15 |
This article is the second part of a discussion of what we term the ‘centre-idea’. This idea, we argue, was fundamental to British modernist architecture and planning praxis from the mid-1940s onwards. It represented an active spatial environment in which people could develop their selves and their interests at a time of expanding democracy, which required new forms of community association. We locate this idea’s roots in the pre-war British voluntary sector, specifically the activities of the Peckham Experiment and the Pioneer Health Centre which housed it, and evidence its long-term influence on post-war architecture and planning theorization. The article begins its discussion in wartime Britain and it traces how the ‘centre-idea’ was absorbed into the committees, plans and discussions which underpinned post-war reconstruction. It also documents how a CIAM dominated by Anglo-American theorists developed the idea into a particular understanding of, and approach to, modernist design and planning. These two strands are brought together in an analysis of their realization in a series of now state-sponsored projects, which include the Design Centre and the South Bank Arts Centre
Aesthetics · Archaeology · City centre · Democracy · Historiography · Political science · Politics · Praxis · Sociology · The arts · Architecture, Modernity, and Design · Historical Architecture and Urbanism · History · Law · Philosophy · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Architecture
| Highly cited | No |
|---|