Modernism in the Suburbs: A Critical Study of the Architecture and Design of Kenneth Wood Associates,1955-1984

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

In 1984 Prince Charles addressed 700 guests at a gala evening celebrating the 150th anniversary of The Royal Institute of British Architects. His criticism of modern architecture stimulated significant professional and public debate. That debate continues today, re-invigorated by the furore over Richard Rogers' scheme for London's Chelsea Barracks and recent recommendations by English Heritage to list architectural landmarks of the 1960s and 1970s, including Milton Keynes shopping centre. As architects, critics and communities continue to grapple with the social and aesthetic value of 'modern' architecture, and that grappling continues to inform the environments that are produced and demolished, and in which we live, work and socialise, it seems important to persist in investigating our historical relationship with modern architectural design in a range of social and geographical settings. This study considers that relationship with reference to the work of Kenneth Wood Associates. Kenneth Wood trained at London's Regent Street Polytechnic and established a private practice in Surrey in 1955. The work of Wood's practice, which includes private houses, small housing schemes, churches, offices, schools and recreational buildings, although critically appreciated by contemporary writers and professional colleagues, such as J.M. Richards and Michael Manser, is absent from the historical record of English architectural design of the postwar period. The research explores the reasons why the work of this successful architectural and design practice has been overlooked by architectural and design historians and considers its critical legacy. A particular concern of the research is to examine the role that geographical location has played in determining critical and historical responses to the work of Kenneth Wood Associates. The removal of wartime building restrictions in the mid-1950s created significant opportunities for newly qualified architects to establish private practices and Wood is one of many modernist-trained architects who embarked on careers in the suburbs at that time. The work of these architects, who played an important role in the development and dissemination of architectural modernism in the postwar period, remains significantly less well-documented than that of their metropolitan peers. Viewed through the lens of speculative development the suburbs have often been represented as sites of architectural uniformity and imitation, removed from the more progressive concerns of the city. Yet the example of individual buildings often appears to challenge that view and suggests that closer examination of the work of successful suburban firms, such as Wood's, may be helpful in opening up new perspectives on the diverse contexts and conditions in which modern architecture was produced after the Second World War, and in which attitudes to modern architectural design were shaped.