As Found: Lost Practice

As Found:

Lost Practice

As Found:

Learning was a Class Issue

In post-war peacetime Britain, architects were involved in creating a whole mass of new public buildings whose purpose was to help reshape our society in a spirit of social co-operation. Buildings, and the jobs created through making new buildings, were a central part of helping the economy recover after the war effort. Architecture and planning became vital in stimulating economic growth, and were also seen as central to helping find solutions to educating the population, providing civilised conditions in which to exist, and creating a fairer, more open kind of society.

__ During the post-war era access to education was promoted, and sought to open up possibilities for all and help remove barriers in society between have AND have not.

Lost Practice

In As Found: Lost Practice, a series of public information posters identify the key motives and ideas that helped create a critical mass of new public schools during the post-war modern era. The posters communicate what these drivers were by setting out some of the lost ideas, practice and thinking that helped shape our built environment in support of a new spirit of the age.

Additional posters illustrate three Scottish examples of buildings that this lost practice created. The first is a primary school in Cumbernauld created by the then relatively young team at Gillespie Kidd & Coia; the second is a high school in East Kilbride created by the more established practice of Basil Spence & Partners; the third is a high school in Kirkcaldy by the Fife County Architects.

The school of thought was to make a fairer, flatter society, and architects were employed in creating the space required to do this.

Schools Programme: Architecture and Design Scotland

Uffculme Open-Air School, Birmingham F. Barry Peacock and Bewlay 1910

Image: Š DR

As Found:

Learning was a Class Issue

In post-war peacetime Britain, architects were involved in creating a whole mass of new public buildings whose purpose was to help reshape our society in a spirit of social co-operation. Buildings, and the jobs created through making new buildings, were a central part of helping the economy recover after the war effort. Architecture and planning became vital in stimulating economic growth, and were also seen as central to helping find solutions to educating the population, providing civilised conditions in which to exist, and creating a fairer, more open kind of society.

__ During the post-war era access to education was promoted, and sought to open up possibilities for all and help remove barriers in society between have AND have not.

Lost Practice

In As Found: Lost Practice, a series of public information posters identify the key motives and ideas that helped create a critical mass of new public schools during the post-war modern era. The posters communicate what these drivers were by setting out some of the lost ideas, practice and thinking that helped shape our built environment in support of a new spirit of the age.

Additional posters illustrate three Scottish examples of buildings that this lost practice created. The first is a primary school in Cumbernauld created by the then relatively young team at Gillespie Kidd & Coia; the second is a high school in East Kilbride created by the more established practice of Basil Spence & Partners; the third is a high school in Kirkcaldy by the Fife County Architects.

The school of thought was to make a fairer, flatter society, and architects were employed in creating the space required to do this.

Schools Programme: Architecture and Design Scotland

Uffculme Open-Air School, Birmingham F. Barry Peacock and Bewlay 1910

Image: Š DR

Whole school space Food for Thought

Apparatus

__ The connection between food, health and school attendance and performance was made.

POOR NUTRITION AND POVERTY WERE LINKED TO ILLNESS, WHICH LED TO THE PROVISION OF MEALS AT SCHOOL.

The following government acts helped establish the provision of food: _ 1906 Education (Provision of Meals) Act _ 1921 Education Act – free meals _ 1944 Education Act _ Labour 1945 – 1951 Free school meals for all

__ Key influences: Dr George Newman (the Surgeon General and public health physician) and Rudolf Laban (leading thinker in physical benefits of movement).

From the late 19th century model of physical training to child-centred activities, physical teaching became specialised in the 20th century. Physical training became physical education

For some, the only hot meal was given at school in the warm and dry.

Entire schools ate together as one family group in well-tempered hygienic conditions.

Sports and exercise were modernised away from the idea of training towards education via government acts and new ideas. Ideas of movement and growing were promoted. Good health and keeping fit supported the newly formed NHS. Gym, Balwearie High School Fife County Architects 1964

Image: Gavin H McConnell archive

Dining room, Kilsyth Academy Basil Spence 1954

Image: © RCAHMS. Licensor www.rcahms.gov.uk

Whole school space Food for Thought

Apparatus

__ The connection between food, health and school attendance and performance was made.

POOR NUTRITION AND POVERTY WERE LINKED TO ILLNESS, WHICH LED TO THE PROVISION OF MEALS AT SCHOOL.

The following government acts helped establish the provision of food: _ 1906 Education (Provision of Meals) Act _ 1921 Education Act – free meals _ 1944 Education Act _ Labour 1945 – 1951 Free school meals for all

__ Key influences: Dr George Newman (the Surgeon General and public health physician) and Rudolf Laban (leading thinker in physical benefits of movement).

From the late 19th century model of physical training to child-centred activities, physical teaching became specialised in the 20th century. Physical training became physical education

For some, the only hot meal was given at school in the warm and dry.

Entire schools ate together as one family group in well-tempered hygienic conditions.

Sports and exercise were modernised away from the idea of training towards education via government acts and new ideas. Ideas of movement and growing were promoted. Good health and keeping fit supported the newly formed NHS. Gym, Balwearie High School Fife County Architects 1964

Image: Gavin H McConnell archive

Dining room, Kilsyth Academy Basil Spence 1954

Image: © RCAHMS. Licensor www.rcahms.gov.uk

Office for public works Working capital

Playground

__ Jobs in design, construction and also in the places being made created security in people’s lives.

__ Whatever space and time mean, place and occasion mean more. Modern school gave people a safe place to play, the time to do so, and the occasion to be social.

Public works STIMULATED the post-war economy, making demand for goods, services and labour. This moved the country forward in a socially empowered way.

Before the grazed knee came the sprint toward my best friend After school we ran and ran until There was no more light it was just the two of us. no one saw.

Playscape, Amsterdam Aldo van Eyck

Image: © Amsterdam City Archives

Ministry of Works personnel 1956

Image: © F rom the Dictionary of Scottish Architects, courtesy of David Ross

Office for public works Working capital

Playground

__ Jobs in design, construction and also in the places being made created security in people’s lives.

__ Whatever space and time mean, place and occasion mean more. Modern school gave people a safe place to play, the time to do so, and the occasion to be social.

Public works STIMULATED the post-war economy, making demand for goods, services and labour. This moved the country forward in a socially empowered way.

Before the grazed knee came the sprint toward my best friend After school we ran and ran until There was no more light it was just the two of us. no one saw.

Playscape, Amsterdam Aldo van Eyck

Image: © Amsterdam City Archives

Ministry of Works personnel 1956

Image: © F rom the Dictionary of Scottish Architects, courtesy of David Ross

Bog Standards Health & Hygiene

Seats of Learning

__ In 1971 10% of homes in the UK still had outside toilets. IN TENEMENTS A TOILET SHARED BY FAMILIES WAS NOT UNCOMMON. Modern Schools offered new standards of sanitation and washing for children.

Governments rolled out integrated programmes of public architecture across the UK. Health improvements were seen as a key part of creating a healthy country and reducing burdens on society caused through illness.

__ The school and public building programme produced opportunities for industry, design and technology to create products for new school environments, often using the best creative talent to produce ergonomic, hardy and honest objects.

Public health was a major factor driving increased standards in hygiene and cleanliness. the spread of infectious disease was still a problem for society.

Polio, TB and Smallpox still remained life-threatening.

Craftwork was a byword in the modern era. We made things that were simple, effective and well crafted.

Childrens school chairs 1940’s

Image source: www.hickeyanddobson.com

Outside toilets, Ludworth Primary School Demolished 1980

Image source: www.ludworth.org.uk

Bog Standards Health & Hygiene

Seats of Learning

__ In 1971 10% of homes in the UK still had outside toilets. IN TENEMENTS A TOILET SHARED BY FAMILIES WAS NOT UNCOMMON. Modern Schools offered new standards of sanitation and washing for children.

Governments rolled out integrated programmes of public architecture across the UK. Health improvements were seen as a key part of creating a healthy country and reducing burdens on society caused through illness.

__ The school and public building programme produced opportunities for industry, design and technology to create products for new school environments, often using the best creative talent to produce ergonomic, hardy and honest objects.

Public health was a major factor driving increased standards in hygiene and cleanliness. the spread of infectious disease was still a problem for society.

Polio, TB and Smallpox still remained life-threatening.

Craftwork was a byword in the modern era. We made things that were simple, effective and well crafted.

Childrens school chairs 1940’s

Image source: www.hickeyanddobson.com

Outside toilets, Ludworth Primary School Demolished 1980

Image source: www.ludworth.org.uk

Gillespie, Kidd & Coia Kildrum Primary School Cumbernauld 1961

Basil Spence Duncanrig Secondary School Glasgow 1955

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Hardy as-found materials were intended to create an honest aesthetic for these buildings. In the post-war era steel was in short supply and needed for manufacturing uses, whereas concrete was a readily available material and economical resource.

Lightness and openness were seen as a part of a newly confident post-World War 2 society, and technological advances made during the war years were put to good use. In this case, the lightweight structural framing creates a window onto a large artwork expressing the ethos of the school – and the pleasures of peace.

___ 2 A single-storey primary school that is both functional and expressive: the building is laid out to create a sheltered inner-court play area around which the whole school was wrapped.

___ 3 The campanile forms a centrepiece of the inner-court play space and ties a modern solution to the school to the past, by making a historical reference.

It looks to the past and the future.

___ 4 The walls both protect space and inform the language of the building. Windows are both an abstraction and experiential. Openings are sized and located at different heights to relate to the idea of the growth of the learner, and to form a language of pattern.

Images: © The Glasgow School of Art

___ 2 Craft, art and design were all given space in new public buildings, and art for and by the people began to emerge.

Learning places were free to all at the point of access through the provision of state-funded and managed new schools for everybody.

___ 3 Modernity found a place in city and country. Design began to absorb international thinking established by practitioners and thinkers such as Alvar Aalto, Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier on how to truthfully express materials and form to create buildings of their own time.

Images: © RCAHMS. Licensor www.rcahms.gov.uk

Gillespie, Kidd & Coia Kildrum Primary School Cumbernauld 1961

Basil Spence Duncanrig Secondary School Glasgow 1955

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Hardy as-found materials were intended to create an honest aesthetic for these buildings. In the post-war era steel was in short supply and needed for manufacturing uses, whereas concrete was a readily available material and economical resource.

Lightness and openness were seen as a part of a newly confident post-World War 2 society, and technological advances made during the war years were put to good use. In this case, the lightweight structural framing creates a window onto a large artwork expressing the ethos of the school – and the pleasures of peace.

___ 2 A single-storey primary school that is both functional and expressive: the building is laid out to create a sheltered inner-court play area around which the whole school was wrapped.

___ 3 The campanile forms a centrepiece of the inner-court play space and ties a modern solution to the school to the past, by making a historical reference.

It looks to the past and the future.

___ 4 The walls both protect space and inform the language of the building. Windows are both an abstraction and experiential. Openings are sized and located at different heights to relate to the idea of the growth of the learner, and to form a language of pattern.

Images: © The Glasgow School of Art

___ 2 Craft, art and design were all given space in new public buildings, and art for and by the people began to emerge.

Learning places were free to all at the point of access through the provision of state-funded and managed new schools for everybody.

___ 3 Modernity found a place in city and country. Design began to absorb international thinking established by practitioners and thinkers such as Alvar Aalto, Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier on how to truthfully express materials and form to create buildings of their own time.

Images: © RCAHMS. Licensor www.rcahms.gov.uk

FIFE COUNTY ARCHITECTS Balwearie high School KIRKCALDY 1964

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___ 1 Local authority output created employment for skilled workers and business for local firms.

___ 2 Functions became expressive, geometrical forms were used in prominent locations on the building to create dynamic new spaces for our modern schools.

___ 3 Balwearie was just one of a series of modern schools produced by the architects department in Fife. Modern schools were not ‘one size fits all’.

The influence of international thinking and practice reached into local authority architects departments and helped create projects following the spirit of their age: a manifesto for change through zeitgeist.

Images: Gavin H McConnell archive