‘To Fan the Ardour of the Layman’: The Architectural Review , The MARS Group and the Cultivation of Middle Class Audiences for Modernism in Britain, 1933–1940

Abstract

In 1935 The Architectural Review (AR) declared its intention to ‘fan the ardour of the layman, who is to-day increasingly tempted to follow the current trends of architectural thought’. This focus on a readership outside of the architectural profession placed the magazine in the context of other media concerned with addressing arts and culture to a ‘layman’ audience such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Penguin Books. This article explores the overlaps between the AR, the Modern Architecture Research Group (MARS), the BBC and Penguin, focusing on their combined efforts to cultivate a particular section of the middle class into a public that would appreciate modernism in architecture and design. This discussion emphasizes the role of the media in architectural culture, with particular focus on the work of J. M. Richards as a critic and editor of the AR. By reassessing the role of the media in architecture and by putting discussions of modernism in a broader cultural context, this article presents the promotion of modernism, as a facet of other cultural activities and changes in Britain before the Second World War.