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Semester 1

Architecture in Britain, 1951-97: Brutalism and Beyond (ARHI10048)

Subject

Architectural History

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed 3 History of Art/Architectural History courses at grade B or above, and please note that we will not consider History courses unrelated to Art, or practical Art courses, towards these pre-requisites. We will only consider University/College level courses. **Please see Additional Restrictions below**

Course Summary

This course engages with a dynamic and sometimes controversial subject: the post-war architecture of Scotland and Britain. Beginning with the immediate post-war context of reconstruction, it then examines how architecture and planning became tools by means of which to express and shape modernity. Through the study of buildings, texts, and the media, we will not only look at key buildings and architects but will also situate the architecture of this period in the wider political, social and cultural context. We will explore the ideas that shaped design, and the complex realities of practice. This period of architectural history continues to generate exciting new work by historians and arouses much public debate, especially where the conservation of its architecture is concerned.

Course Description

This course examines architecture and planning in Scotland and the wider UK between 1951 and 1997. We begin with the ending of post-war austerity in the early 1950s, and we conclude with the early days of New Labour in the late 1990s. During this period, new towns were built from scratch and others were comprehensively remodelled. Large sections of the population were rehoused by both the state and by private enterprise, new schools and universities were built, new shopping centres responded to changing patterns of consumer behaviour, and new environments for culture and leisure were created. Architecture and planning were tools by means of which to shape and reflect a range of agendas. For both the political left and right in the 1950s and 1960s, modern architecture and urban reconstruction embodied a dynamic, modern nation; during the 1970s and 1980s, some of the architectural products of the preceding decades were increasingly critically received as a new set of social and political agendas supplanted the 'post-war consensus'. This course will focus on the boom years of the Welfare State, c. 1951-75, but will conclude with the challenges that developed during the late 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. We will consider not only constructed buildings and urban developments but also unbuilt schemes, and the ways architecture was represented in print, image, and film. Our references will include some of the famous names of the period, such as James Stirling and the Smithsons, but we will also look at 'anonymous' architects working in public practice, as well as a range of designers whose work is now less well-known. We will explore the ideas that informed the architecture of the period. We will place it in a wider context, to understand how it related to its political, social and cultural context. The course is usually taught through a mixture of lectures and seminars of 1-2 hours. There are usually also visits to archives at Historic Environment Scotland and Edinburgh University Library, and at least one key site in the Edinburgh area. Post-war architecture continues to attract the attention of architectural historians. You will be able to engage with the latest research, and, potentially, to start to develop your own research agendas which might be continued at postgraduate level or through work in conservation.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

Additional Restrictions

Unless you are nominated on a History of Art exchange agreement, visiting students are only permitted to enrol in one 3rd year History of Art or one Architectural History course each, per semester, before the start of the relevant semester’s welcome period – and spaces on each course are limited so cannot be guaranteed for any student. Enrolment in a second course from this group will depend on whether there are still spaces available in the relevant Welcome Period, and cannot be guaranteed. It is NOT appropriate for students to contact staff within this subject area to ask for an exception to be made; all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. This is due to the extremely limited number of spaces available in this very popular subject area.

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