Thursday 11 March 2021, 6pm
Join event online via Microsoft Teams

Boom Cities: Architect Planners and the Politics of Radical Urban Renewal in 1960s Britain

With Otto Saumarez Smith (University of Warwick)

This talk will cover a constellation of ideas about the radical renewal of the central areas of British cities in the 1960s. It is devoted to exploring the changes wrought on British city centres during that decade—a process with lasting repercussions for the built environment and for society more generally.

The talk will discuss how, around and about the pivotal date of 1963, various political cultures informed and interacted with the widespread ambition to totally reshape British city centres. Instead of focusing on the experience of any single city, or attempting to make a survey of all cities affected, the talk instead uncovers both the planning philosophy and the political, cultural, and legislative background that created the conditions for these processes to occur across the country.

Otto Saumarez Smith is Assistant Professor in Architectural History at the University of Warwick and a Trustee of the Twentieth Century Society.

________________________________

Click here to join the event online via Microsoft Teams (or copy and paste the link below into your browser).

Tips: Microsoft Teams works best on Chrome or Microsoft Edge. If you experience issues joining the event, it might be because you are already signed into Teams with a different account. Try opening an incognito window in your browser to get around this problem. If you try to join using a mobile device, you may be asked to download the Teams app.

We recommend testing the link in advance of the meeting. Feel free to contact us if you have trouble (assc@bbk.ac.uk) and we will do our best to help.