Remaking cities: images, control, and postwar replanning in the United Kingdom

Abstract

The production of space in postwar UK towns, whether bomb damaged or not, was characterised by a series of authoritative planning reports, vividly illustrated by perspective drawings and maps. In this paper aspects of the imagery and production of these documents are discussed. They depict strikingly modernist urban landscapes, albeit sometimes clothed in familiar architectural style or materials. They are a symbol of control, particularly in the rise of the new, modernist, paradigm in planning thought. They present idealised sanitised visions of streets, public spaces, and buildings in which the users are little represented. However, the majority of these documents, although influential, were never carried out in this drastic fashion. These images thus represent a microcosm of changing attitudes in architecture, planning, and urban design at a key point in time; and strong links can be drawn to current perspectives on the representation and production of urban space.