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Citation - Scopus: 15
Thomas Sharp's Collaboration With H. De C. Hastings: the Formulation of Townscape as Urban Design Pedagogy
(Routledge, 2009) Erten, Erdem
This paper focuses on the collaboration between the Architectural Review's (AR) chief editor and proprietor Hubert de Cronin Hastings (1902-1986) and planner Thomas Sharp (1901-1978) in the formulation and dissemination of Townscape as urban design pedagogy in the period between 1935 and 1955. This pedagogy proved effective in questioning the modernist planning attitude defined by the CIAM congresses and the prevalent Garden City mentality of the New Town proposals during post-World War II reconstruction efforts. Growing out of the shared interests and ideological affinities of the people engaged in British post-war reconstruction, 'Townscape' emerged as the result of a collective effort of those affiliated with Hastings for which Nikolaus Pevsner, Thomas Sharp and Gordon Cullen assumed major roles. If the Architectural Press has been the linchpin of this propagation by several books including those by Sharp and the articles published within AR, Sharp's role as a practicing planning consultant was influential, but more importantly institutional in disseminating 'Townscape'. The intermittent collaboration between Hastings and Sharp was a part of Hastings's unrelenting effort in conceptualizing a model of environmental intervention linked to ideals of cultural continuity. Townscape series remained a part of AR during Hastings's editorial reign for more than a quarter century, repeating the same message for different contextual cases as an instrument of teaching its readers how to perceive, visualize and intervene into the urban environment, as much as Townscape was an inseparable component of Sharp's career as planner, lecturer and author that established precedents for many planners to follow.
Citation - Scopus: 4
Postwar Visions of Apocalypse and Architectural Culture: the Architectural Review's Turn To Ecology
(Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2008) Erten, Erdem
In the post-war era, Hubert de Cronin Hastings, the owner and editor (until 1971) of the English periodical The Architectural Review (AR), saw mankind facing its demise through its own scientific creation, the atom bomb. Hastings's editorial policies for the AR were very much influenced by the prospect of impending nuclear disaster during the Cold War and the decline of the British Empire in a world divided into the mandates of two superpowers. While the post-war period brought mistrust of the promise of emancipation through technology and science for those like Hastings, for others there was all the more reason to believe in these ideals with the dawning of a consumerist society and the development of pop culture. Within this cultural context AR aimed to develop and sustain an environmental culture as a holistic strategy in order to respond to planning problems. Targeting not only architects but local and national authorities as well as the 'man on the street', AR launched a series of campaigns that aimed to increase environmental awareness against post-war industrial transformation and the rise of consumerism. After the decline of the affluent consumer society of the 1960s and the devaluation of the pound in 1967, AR revamped its structure and contents and launched its 'Manplan' campaign, reacting against economic crisis and environmental decline. Taking issue with 'Non-Plan: An Experiment in Freedom' written by Reyner Banham, Peter Hall, Paul Barker and Cedric Price in New Society in 1969, 'Manplan' demanded centralization and comprehensive planning against decentralization and dispersal as a means of planning democracy. According to the editors, scientific progress enjoined to consumer culture and ever-expanding economic growth brought a ruthless exploitation of resources as well as destruction of the natural landscape. Before the journal itself went into economic crisis and Hastings left the editorial board, the first issue of the pioneering journal The Ecologist themed 'A Blueprint for Survival' was brought on the board's agenda by Hastings. In the light of global warming and increasing rate of environmental disasters today, the history of AR's editorial campaigns deserve renewed interest. This paper focuses on the neo-romantic ideology that underlay the post-war editorial policies of AR motivated by approaching environmental disaster within the continuum of a quarter century.

Architecture / Mimarlık

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