Especially if one lives out here in the southwestern United States, we take for granted that American modernism flourished in abundance, mainly in small and large offices, schools, churches, restaurants, and other commercial buildings. In residential architecture, quite a few developers and designers built communities on modernist principles, among these were Eichler and Haver. Among just these two, 30,000 to 40,000 homes were built.

In Britain, though, we have a different impression. Having settled into a Victorian comfort, even after the devastation of World War II, we think that Britain, rather than forsaking the past, decided to settle into what it had known instead of chucking the lot and moving into a brave new world.

In spite of our conceptions, and in spite of the relatively small percentage of new houses built in Britain right after the war (.02%), a few designers did pop up to help Britain enter the international modernist movement.

 

 

Denys Lasdun’s work is easily placed in the Brutalist style of modernism. His buildings do not have the lightweight, airy feel of the Internationalists such as Mies van der Rohe or Le Corbusier. Although he is said to have admired these two architects, we get more of a feeling of Louis Kahn.

His most famous design is the Royal National Theatre in London.

 

 

Some have compared his style to Frank Lloyd Wright and some truth exists in the way he uses horizontal planes to create visual lines. However, he certainly lacked the “organic” elements that make Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings distinctive. Also, Wright used applied decoration and architectural details such as half-circle windows and repeating circular patterns to emphasize certain aspects of his designs. More of an Internationalist, Lasdun avoids extraneous detail.

 

 

 

 

 

Alison and Peter Smithson early on were greatly influenced by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. One of their best works was the Smithdon High School, Hunstanton, Norfolk completed 1954. The building is in the mode of Mies van der Rohe but stripped down a bit with raw and exposed elements. This unrefined impulse leads the two to follow ideas that they called “New Brutalism”.

 

 

 

In Britain, many of the modernists found activity in creating housing complexes due to the nature of the makeup of the economy and government at the time. Britain suffered tremendous economic problems due to the cost of the war against the Axis Powers. In fact, famous government papers lead to a great deal of subsidized housing and social programs. Whereas in the United States with an emphasis on individual residential housing based upon private funding, in Britain, and in particular in the large cities, housing projects went begging for architects and designers. I should mention that in Britain these units are called “council flats”.

 

 

A favorite feature of the Smithsons is the delight in exposing an external frame. However, this is also a part of the International Style such as Mies van der Rohe’s Seagrams Building in New York.

 

 

One example of the rough, raw nature of their “New Brutalism” is the Economist Building in London.

 

 

Geoffry Powell, Peter Chamberlin, and Christoph Bon formed a partnership after winning a competition in 1951 to create the Golden Lane Estate.

 

 

The Great Arthur House was the tallest residential building in Britain at the mid-century.

They also developed the Barbican Estate development.

 

 

 

Then there is Patrick Gwynne especially known for his The Homewood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As with Frank Lloyd Wright, Patrick Gwynne designed all the furniture and finishings for this house.

 

 

Peter Womersley is probably better known outside Britain than other designers and architects from the period. His designs fit well among the body of International Style architecture. Nevertheless, his designs also include Brutalist architecture as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Aldington was another British modernist architect who created structures in the International Style. Many also had an Organic Style as well.

 

 

 

 

 

This has been just a few names. Unfortunately, not many people outside of England and Britain as a whole know many British names associated with modernism in the mid-century. Because of the communal nature of this sort of architecture in England, possibly the lack of an amenable attitude toward modernism is the result. One thing can be said is that British architects were a little late to the game and were greatly influenced by the International Style of Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The varieties of modernism did not exist in Britain as it did in Germany and the United States, for example.

Here is a video about British modernism:

 

 

HBosler