Phillip Gibb

Dissertation: 'Outdoor Rooms': The New Public Square in Post-War Britain,1945-64

New public squares were the subject of much debate amongst modernist architects in post- war Britain. They were one of the key subjects of the 1951 Congres Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) conference _The Heart of the City _and received their first book-length architectural history in 1959. Yet the new squares that were eventually built during reconstruction phase in Britain were different in character to those imagined by CIAM.

They were also the creation of a new and different kind of designer, the 'architect-planner'. This was a new role that combined existing aspects of the work of the architect with that of the town-planner. It was associated most prominently with the figure of Sir Frederick Gibberd, the designer of a model estate at Lansbury in London for the Festival of Britain of 1951 and the new town of Harlow. What was crucial to his practice was what I describe as a process of syncretism which brought together different schools of thought in town planning and architecture.

Whilst architect-planners cleared a distinct role for themselves by engaging in public debate, their models of 'outdoor rooms' were affected by the two other major stakeholders involved in the shaping of the public realm. Through the period studied in this dissertation, the influence of private enterprise increasingly took precedence over public authority in negotiations over the form and appearance of new public squares.

These squares have become the subject of urban renewal schemes. This dissertation considers the value of these spaces and the achievements of the architects who designed them. In so doing, it provides new perspectives on the changing relationships between architects, authorities and retailers between 1945 and 1964.