British Design Tradition and Modernity after 1948

by Breward, Christopher; Fisher, Fiona; Wood, Ghislaine

• ISBN13: 9781472505378
• ISBN10: 1472505379
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2015-10-22
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

British Design brings together leading international scholars, designers and journalists to provide new perspectives on British design in the last sixty years, and how it at once looked back to the past with the continuation of traditions that spoke to Britain's design heritage, and looked forwards with the embrace of modernist and postmodernist style. The book responds to and develops new ways of understanding the recent history of design in Britain, with case studies on designed spaces and objects, including domestic interiors, retail spaces, schools and university buildings and transport.

The contributors address significant moments and phenomena in the historical and social history of British design, from the rise and fall of the English Country House style and the Brutalist architectural boom of the 1960s to the modern shopping space, and consider the work of key contemporary designers ranging from Tommy Roberts to Thomas Heatherwick. British Design provides new criticism and analysis on how design, from the immediate post-war period to the present day, has developed and changed how we live and how we interact with the spaces in which we live.

British Design is split into 13 chapters and is richly illustrated with 65 images, 16 of which are in full colour.

Author Biography

Fiona Fisher is a researcher in the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at Kingston University, UK, where she is a member of the Modern Interiors Research Centre.

Christopher Breward is Professor in Historical and Cultural Studies, London College of Fashion, UK.

Ghislaine Wood is a curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Reflections on British Design 1948-2012: Innovation in the Modern Age, Christopher Breward and Ghislaine Wood
Section One: Setting the Scene
Chapter 1: Consumption and the New Spaces and Places of British Post-War Design, Fiona Fisher
Chapter 2: Pop and the Planner's Dream: Affinities and Misunderstandings between Pop and Modernism, Owen Hatherley
Section Two: Country House to Ideal Home
Chapter 3: The English Country House Style, Martin Wood
Chapter 4: Postwar Interiors at the Geffrye Museum, Christine Lalumia
Chapter 5: Bernat Klein: Colouring the Interior, Fiona Anderson
Chapter 6: A Design Anthropology of the 21st Century Ideal Home, Alison Clarke
Section Three: Shops and Boutiques
Chapter 7: The Primavera story, 1946-1967, Cheryl Buckley and Janine Barker
Chapter 8: Tommy Roberts: Kleptomania to Two Columbia Road, Paul Gorman
Chapter 9: Interview with Piers Gough and Julian Powell-Tuck, Matilda Pye
Section Four: The Space of Education
Chapter 10: Ancient Spaces in Modern Dress: Basil Spence at the University of Sussex, Maurice Howard
Chapter 11: “Something fierce”: Brutalist Historicism in the University of Essex Library, Jules Lubbock
Chapter 12: Architects Co-Partnership: Private Practice for Public Service, Alan Powers
Chapter 13: “Hidden Internationalisms" in architecture and education: Primary School Design 1946-72, Catherine Burke
Section Five: The Place of Transport
Chapter 14: Carry On British Business: Interior Design for the Union-Castle Shipping Line and Relations with South Africa in the 1960s, Harriet McKay
Chapter 15: The Heatherwick Studio, Abraham Thomas