British Planners Research Articles

Popular Planners: Newspaper Writers, Neighborhood Activists, and the Struggles against Housing Demolition in Lagos, Nigeria, 1951-1956

As Nigeria prepared for independence in the 1950s, British planners and Nigerian politicians sought to improve Nigeria’s international image by dismantling what they called the “slums” of Central Lagos. This article examines how a loose coalition of residents—including female traders, homeowners, and tenants—challenged the idea that Central Lagos was a slum and pushed for alternative planning proposals that would suit residents’ interests. I propose “popular planners” to describe the residents who drew on their lived experiences and knowledge of colonial planning laws to critique building demolition and demand the Development Board amend its slum clearance plan. Their competing visions, articulated in newspapers, during street demonstrations, and in petitions, demonstrate everyday people’s investment in transforming the city’s future during the end of colonial rule and their opposition to exclusionary planning processes that continue to shape urban policies in Nigeria.

Technology transfer of urban highways and interchange design in the 1960s: The case of the Ayalon Crosstown Expressway, Israel

This paper reconstructs the design history of the Ayalon Crosstown Expressway in Tel Aviv, a project that initiated the technology transfer of American and European transport planning methods to Israel. It examines the unstable, evolving dynamics between agents pushing the technology such as the World Bank and international traffic planning firms, and local institutions pulling or opposing it such as the city, the highway company, and various competing governmental departments. The five successive plans developed for that highway by Canadian, American, French, and British planners offer themselves to comparative analysis of national design philosophies of urban highway systems. Through a close reading of the different geometric plans of one bifurcating interchange, the paper analyses how the technology was adapted to fit the Israeli political, administrative, and economic environment, and identifies a shift in highway planning rationality and techniques for governing mobility at the American source of innovation.

「タウン・プランニング」再考：イギリスの都市計画家は建築的アプローチを捨てたか？

「タウン・プランニング」再考：イギリスの都市計画家は建築的アプローチを捨てたか？

Colin Buchanan’s American journey

In autumn 1962, the British planner Colin Buchanan made an extensive tour of the United States while researching his renowned 1963 report Traffic in Towns, a publication which made him the foremost British planner of his generation. Buchanan was seeking lessons from American experiences that might be applied to Britain, then becoming a mass-motorised society. This paper, which draws on published and unpublished sources, investigates Buchanan’s American visit and the part it played in formulating this seminal report. The other, shorter visits to West Germany, Stockholm and Venice are also considered, but briefly, because of the lack of original evidence. By contrast, the main American visit reveals much about Buchanan’s attitudes to the United States. It is also a case study of how investigative visits can mobilise urban policy knowledge internationally, showing how positive and negative lessons from such exogenous experiences can inform city and national policy formulation.

Jaqueline Tyrwhitt translates Patrick Geddes for post world war two planning

Beginning in Britain during the Second World War and continuing internationally through the 1970s Jaqueline Tyrwhitt (1905–83)—a British planner, editor and educator—played a key role not only in stimulating interest in Patrick Geddes’ planning ideas for post World War Two reconstruction, but also in formulating the Geddessian branch of the planning arm of the postwar modern movement. The range of Tyrwhitt’s contributions must be placed in the context of her efforts to reactivate transnational exchanges of planning ideas and practices that had been interrupted by the war. Tyrwhitt’s work at various educational institutions in Britain and North America, as a member of the inner circle of CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne), as a consultant to the United Nations, and in collaboration with Greek planner Constantinos Doxiadis (1913–75) in the Ekistics movement, positioned her to insert her synthesis of Geddessian bioregionalism and modernist social-aesthetic ideals firmly within the emergent global discourse on sustainable urbanism.

Urban planning visits and Anglo-Soviet communication in the 1930s and 1950s

ABSTRACTProfessional visits allowed specialist groups such as urban planners to learn about Soviet thinking, practice and life. This paper examines the communication and learning which occurred during two specific visits in 1936 and 1957/1958. The paper shows the visual nature of planning assisted non-verbal communication and learning. It also highlights the impacts of different political contexts and the forms of visit, particularly between one-off trips (1936) and reciprocal exchange arrangements (1957/1958). In 1936 the bold and comprehensive Soviet approach to planning was admired, bolstering domestic British arguments for a stronger planning system. By 1957/1958, however, the balance had shifted so that the visit to the U.S.S.R. served more symbolic, quasi-diplomatic and touristic functions. Despite a relatively warm and informal encounter, British planners now found less in the U.S.S.R. to admire professionally though Soviet planners were eager to investigate and apply British planning achievements.

A Springtime Journey to the Soviet Union: Postwar Planning and Policy Mobilities through the Iron Curtain

AbstractThis article builds upon a relatively small but growing literature in geography, planning and cognate disciplines that seeks to understand the variegated geographies and histories of policy mobilities. The article uses a case study of an exchange trip between town planners in the Soviet Union and the UK between 1957 and 1958. It focuses on the experiences of the British planners in the Soviet Union and sets the tour within the wider context of a fluctuating and sometimes turbulent history of Anglo‐Soviet politics, travels and connections. In doing this, the article makes three arguments: first, there is much to be gained by bringing together the geography‐dominated policy mobilities literature with that on exchanges and visits by architects, engineers and planners. Secondly, the greater sensitivity to the histories of policy mobilities allows contemporary studies to be contextualized in the longer history of organized learning between different urban professions. Thirdly, despite the long history of policy mobilities, what differentiates the current era from previous eras is the prominent ‘knowledge intermediary’ roles now played by consultancies and think tanks. As the article will demonstrate, it was branches of government and professional bodies, rather than consultancies and think tanks, that tended to dominate such roles previously.

Knowledge networks and postcolonial careering: David Oakley (1927-2003)

Though largely forgotten now, David Oakley (1927–2003) was a prominent player in his time within the milieu of British architects and planners that operated as “global experts” during the post-war era. Oakley’s career illustrates the evolution of professional expertise and institutional af1filiations within global networks of knowledge such as those of the United Nations, and the role in disseminating this knowledge played by educational institutions such as the Architectural Association (AA) and the Development Planning Unit (DPU) in London or the Liverpool University Architectural School. Over a fifty-year career, Oakley started as a specialist adviser in Britain and the colonies, became an academic on three continents, and finally became a consultant on issues of housing and planning in developing countries. His expertise evolved from the areas of construction and low-cost housing into education and training, urban planning, and ultimately disaster preparedness. Drawing on the architect’s private archive, this paper provides an outline of Oakley’s career which spanned changes in architectural and development thinking from the 1950s to the 1990s, and demonstrates how he participated in the disciplinary debate on architecture’s social responsibilities, in the development of a specifically “tropical” architecture, and in the design of the academic syllabus for new generations of architects in newly independent nations.

The demise of an industrious intelligence centre: the re-organisation of economic intelligence at the end of the Second World War, 1943–1945

During the Second World War, Enemy Branch of the Ministry of Economic Warfare (MEW) was responsible for providing economic intelligence which was used to guide the blockade and strategic bombing of Germany, as well as informing British planners about the enemy's war potential and its ability to equip and maintain its armed forces. Yet, despite its successful work and the realisation throughout Whitehall that economic intelligence would be needed after the war, Enemy Branch was wound down even before the conflict was over. This article seeks to answer the puzzling question of Enemy Branch's demise while the rest of the intelligence community continued to prosper. It puts the demise of Enemy Branch into the context of the ‘Cold War in Whitehall’, the quarrel between the Foreign Office and the Chiefs of Staff over British post-war policies towards the Soviet Union. The Foreign Office briefly took over Enemy Branch in the last year of the war to use its expertise in order to run the Economic and Industrial Planning Staff, but it had no long-term interest in this economic intelligence organisation. The military, on the other hand, had long-term needs for economic intelligence, but was loath to partake in an inter-departmental economic intelligence organisation, particularly when it was controlled by the Foreign Office. In the end, despite its good track record, Enemy Branch succumbed to bureaucratic infighting and the lack of a natural ally to shelter it.

Gordon Culham: living a ‘useful life’ through the professionalization of Canadian town planning and landscape architecture

Gordon Joseph Culham (1891–1979), a landscape architect and town planner, was instrumental in the professionalization of both his disciplines in Canada. He helped lead the disorganized practitioners of the 1930s into the modern age and enabled them to assume their professional role in the improvement of Canada's urban centres. The discovery of an archive of Culham's papers provides a previously unavailable insight into the conceptualization and creation of the professions of landscape architecture and town planning in Canada. Culham characterized this as leading a ‘useful life’. He prepared, practiced and enjoyed the power associated with the professions he helped found in leading this useful life. He was a Harvard graduate who worked with the greatest landscape architectural firm in America, the Olmsteds and with the premier British town planner, Thomas Adams. Culham returned to his homeland on the eve of the Depression with an unrivalled reputation. He brought with him a strong sense of professionalism and helped elevate a small, dispirited community of Canadian landscape architects and town planners into one united organization for almost two decades. Professional specialization was an inevitable outcome but Culham continued to bridge the divide between his chosen fields throughout his ‘useful life’.

DIE GEALLIEERDE BESTETTING VAN MADAGASKAR MET SPESIFIEKE VERWYSING NA DIE ROL VAN DIE UNIEVERDEDIGINGSMAG IN DIE OPERASIES (DEEL1)

Japan's entry to the Second World War in December 1941.and tha startling success of her forces in South East Asia and the Indian Ocean suddenly increased the strategic importance of the Vichy-held French colony of Madagascar. The island's position in relation to the vital British shipping routes around the Cape had already led to half-hearted diplomatic efforts to secure the neutralisation of Madagascar in 1941. British planners now considered that action was imperative, for they felt that Japan's occupation of the island was merely a question of time. Accordingly in December 1941, Major General Sturges was appointed to command an expeditionary force to seile the island's important harbour at Diego Suarez. The decision to attack Diego Suarez was taken in March 1942 and plans were finalised in great haste. In the initial stages of the Madagascar campaign South Africa provided vital aerial reconnaissance and support and also the intermediate base for the mounting of Britain's first amphibious operation in the Second World War. Important co-ordinating work was done by the Command Staff lit Durban. On 25 April the British expeditionary force began to leave Durban. On 5 May the landings at Diego Suarez began, accompanied by aerial and naval bombardment and by decou attacks elsewhere' along the coast. The beachheads were secured with little trouble but severe opposition was encountered in the Antsirana isthmus where the French resisted fiercely from well-prepared positions. Nevertheless on 8 May the capitulation of the French forces in the Diego Suarez area had been negotiated and the first phase of the Madagascar' operations had been successfully concluded at the cost of relatively few casualties.

Between knowledge of landscape production and representation

Between knowledge of landscape production and representation

Comment Adapting planners' professionalism for inclusive processes in neo-liberal environments

The papers in this Special Issue of Town Planning Review largely analyse the situation of the British planner. Even so, colleagues in many other countries will recognise the seemingly contradictory aims and the concomitant tensions that are discussed. Some of the tensions are hinted at in the title of this 'Comment': professional expertise is challenged both by the participatory democracy imperative of inclusiveness and by the efficient management imperative of neo-liberalism. The professionalism of spatial planners has to be constructed from elements repeatedly reshaped and reinterpreted in the contested field between two conflicting ideological currents, the neo-liberal current leading society towards individualism, privatisation and markets, and the democratising current emphasising collective effort through participation, trust, collaboration and integration. The long-term need for sustainability and shortterm macroeconomic necessities complicate the picture. Planners' professionalism is in flux, as the battlefront in the ideological war rages backwards and forwards. This flux, and the struggle of a vulnerable profession to keep its head above water when squeezed between strong ideological currents, is the leitmotif of the present collection of papers. This 'Comment' is structured in relation to the theme of neo-liberalism. It will be strongly indicated that neo-liberalism is not the only complex of ideas to affect British planning, and, that it is surely not an hegemonic influence on planning professionalism. I start with some remarks to the articles dealing with themes that have obvious references to the discourse on neo-liberalism: public/private (Moore) and citizen/customer (Clifford). This is followed by a response to the article discussing the problem of combining performance management and entrepreneurship (Gunn and Vigar), indicating that planning devoted to the first of these aspects of neo-liberalism may have problems realising the second. Finally, I comment on the two articles clearly showing that neo-liberals have not won the struggle for shaping the professionalism of British planners. The quest for trust (Tait) and a New Vision (Inch) points to other forces of influence. Public/private Changes along this dimension are directly related to the war of ideas mentioned above, and they affect land use, forms of public-private cooperation and institutional innovations. Neo-liberalism leaves its mark on the city through the many ways public space is transferred to private use. Collaboration in public-private partnerships gives the private sector a more prominent role than before, and there are more private planning initiatives. Planning is itself being privatised to some degree when private consultants do planning work, when private developers take over the plan-making, and when planning-related tasks, such as building control, are outsourced (Hawkesworth and Imrie, 2009). Even if the public sector is still huge, many agencies have been separated from the big public organisations they used to be parts of. They are now at arm's length from the politicians and are managed like private businesses in nearly every respect. Planners bring along their public sector ethos to a working environment that demands adaptation to the logic and values of private business. This is likely to create tensions (Sager, 2009). As hypothesised in this issue, hybridisation of professional planner identities will emerge. Citizens/customer Serving customers is relatively easy in that it is mostly about producing goods and services of a standard that is satisfactory considering the price. Serving citizens is comparatively much more difficult. One must satisfy their preferences as political beings who care about the environmental effects of production, for equity aspects of distribution, and for social consequences of consumption. If planners were to be a profession that provides a service to customers, this would downplay their role in mediation of space and making of place. …

Hostages to history? The surprising survival of critical comments about British planning and planners c. 1942–1955

Unravelling processes of decision-making is central to most planning history. While archives can helpfully supplement published plans and even oral histories, many archive files [such as those in the UK's National Archives (NA)] are fragmentary and lifeless. This short note explores the surprising survival in the NA of some very acerbic and personal commentaries, demonstrating a lack of regard of the civil servants of the Ministry of Town and Country Planning for planning and planners, including some of the best-known planners of the period. This sheds new light on decision-making and professional relationships.

Cover for Thor: Divine Deception Planning for Cold War Missiles

In the late 1950s, as intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) replaced bombers, the development of Soviet ICBMs prompted fears of strategic vulnerability in the West. The Eisenhower administration's decision to deploy Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBMs) on the territory of NATO allies sought to redress the perceived vulnerability until American ICBMs were ready. British deception planners considered how to enhance the threat posed by the IRBMs. An outline plan codenamed ‘Celestial’ was intended to persuade the Soviets that the otherwise vulnerable missiles could not be readily neutralised. This article explores this deception and how such planning also sought to convey accurate information alongside disinformation. It also suggests that deception planners appear to have given little heed to the potentially counterproductive consequences of such an operation.

What is a Good Plan? Cultural Variations in Expert Planners'Concepts of Plan Quality

This article presents the results of a field research study examining commonalities and differences between American and British operational planners' mental models of planning. We conducted cultural network analysis interviews with 14 experienced operational planners in the United States and the United Kingdom. Our results demonstrate the existence of fundamental differences between the ways American and British expert planners conceive of a high-quality plan. Our results revealed that the American planners' model focused on specification of action to achieve synchronization, providing little autonomy at the level of execution, and included the belief that increasing contingencies reduces risk. The British planners' model stressed the internal coherence of the plan to support shared situational awareness and thereby flexibility at the level of execution. The British model also emphasized the belief that reducing the number of assumptions decreases risk. Overall, the American ideal plan serves a controlling function, whereas the British ideal plan supports an enabling function. Interestingly, both the U.S. and UK planners viewed the other's ideal plan as riskier than their own. The implications of cultural models of plans and planning are described for establishing performance measures and designing systems to support multinational planning teams.

Soldiers Against the Bomb?

The current economic crisis and two costly wars have put much strain on British defence planners. Government expenditure is being placed under increasing scrutiny. There have been voices claiming that Trident is an unnecessary expense. This article counters this argument and advocates the necessity of maintaining and renewing Britain's nuclear deterrent.

Arts & Crafts and the Great City: Charles Robert Ashbee in Jerusalem

The aim of the paper is to bring together art and the city by linking town planning and the Arts & Crafts movement. This association is evident in the theoretical writing and professional practice of the architect Charles Robert Ashbee (1863–1942), whose work is characterized by a blend of tradition and innovation. Ashbee, a prominent artist, served as a British town planner in Jerusalem, assisting its first governor, Sir Ronald Storrs, in laying out the city and providing services for its inhabitants. In Jerusalem, Ashbee received his only chance to realize his artistic urban Utopia. The paper discusses Ashbee as a town planner and explores his artistic urban ideal, revealing his comprehensive appreciation of the city and its constituent artistic and social traits, and his combination of the modern requirements of a growing city with traditional artistic ideals. This was the basis of Ashbee’s work in Jerusalem and determined many of its results. In many ways, Ashbee’s ideas still guide the development of Jerusalem to this day, embodying a unique contribution of the Arts & Crafts movement to modern town planning.

The Olmsted firm in Canada: a correction of the record

This paper refines the Canadian portion of the definitive Master List of Design Projects of the Olmsted Firm, 1857–1950. This correction then informs a consideration of this American firm’s influence on Canadian planning and landscape architecture. The paper also offers a broader perspective on the transfer of ideas during the early days of the parks movement, planned community expansion, and town planning. It is already well known that Olmsted Sr was one of the leading advocates for urban change throughout North America. To this social consciousness, the Olmsted sons and their associates, who did most of the firm’s work in Canada, added a good measure of business acumen. Their Canadian practice was sustained by public projects, most notably in town planning and suburban development, and numerous private residential commissions. The Olmsteds played a key role during the formative period of the Canadian planning which saw the creation of the Commission of Conservation in 1909. As well as the direct influence they exerted in their 95 projects in Canada, and their persuasive writings and public addresses, they counselled many cities to adopt formalized planning processes and agencies. Their former employees, and one could argue, ‘disciples’, also played leading roles in establishing town planning and landscape architecture in Canada. Three in particular, Frederick Todd, Rickson Outhet and Gordon Culham, established thriving Canadian practices. Overall, it is arguable whether the Olmsteds were the most influential foreign landscape design and planning professionals, given the contributions in particular of the British planner Thomas Adams. However, they were the most prolific foreign practitioners in terms of the number of projects and the legacy they passed on to the country’s founding town planners and landscape architects.

Policing the World: Lord Davies and the Quest for Order in the 1930s

In the 1930s there was an upsurge of interest in the idea of an International Police Force designed to enforce the peace. One of the main proponents of the concept was (Lord) David Davies, who laid out his own masterplan in his massive, The Problem of the Twentieth Century (1930), a book which merits a high place in the interwar literature on international relations. The idea itself had little likelihood of being implemented at the time Nonetheless, it continued to exert an influence on those whose role it was to think about the structure and operation of the United Nations. The simple fact that British planners were amenable to some form of post-war international policing owed not a little to the work of Davies.