Overview
With the end of World War Two in 1945, Britain needed to rebuild. This need was particularly salient in the cities that suffered destruction from Germany’s aerial bombing. How did Britain’s architecture schools respond to the rebuilding effort? In this talk, Richard W. Hayes discusses a little-known episode at London’s Architectural Association during the immediate post-war years. Instructors acted quickly to lease two lots adjacent to the school that had been levelled by a bomb dropped in the Tottenham Court Road. A ‘practical training’ scheme was devised to teach neophyte architects basic construction by involving them in manual labour. The site was also used for temporary classrooms built in accordance with Ministry of Defence techniques to accommodate returning service members. The result was a period of progressive change at the school, which reflected the upbeat mood of the country, when ‘Build Now’ seemed to be a nation-wide rallying cry. This progressive ethos was also reflected in the gender ratio of students at the Architectural Association. Although the school began admitting women in 1917, it was not until the war years that the number of women equalled the number of men. The episode thus reveals the extent to which a willingness to embrace change during the war years persisted in the war’s immediate aftermath.
Speaker
Richard W. Hayes is an architect and architectural historian educated at Columbia and Yale universities. His scholarship focuses on architectural education. In 2007 he published The Yale Building Project: The First 40 Years (Yale), a comprehensive history of an influential educational programme. Additional research was published in Architecture School: Three Centuries of Educating Architects in North America (MIT), Agency: Working with Uncertain Architectures (Routledge), The Journal of Architectural Education, and Architectural Theory Review. The recipient of numerous grants, awards and fellowships, Hayes was a Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge in 2009 and 2013 and is now a Life Member of Clare Hall.
Details
This is a hybrid event, which will take place in-person in the Gatsby Room (Chancellor's Centre) and also on Zoom.
If you would like to attend online, please register for the Zoom link.
Refreshments will be available for the in-person audience.
Access
This event will take place in Gatsby Room on the first floor of the Chancellor's Centre. It has step-free access with a lift and there is an accessible toilet located each floor of the building.
Wolfson Humanities Society
The Humanities Society organises regular talks spanning a wide range of topics which take place every Tuesday during term time - please sign up to their mailing list to keep up to date with their upcoming events.
Photo Courtesy of the RIBA ref 39689
