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BUILDING CENTRE 1931-2021 The Festival of Britain Opening in May 1951 and lasting until that September, the Festival of Britain was timed to coincide with the centenary of the Great Exhibition in 1851. 16
Focused entirely on Britain In 1951 towns and cities across Britain still bore the devastating scars of the Second World War, and after more than a decade of rationing, austerity and making-do, gloomy post-war Britain needed a lift. The exhibition was designed to promote a feeling of recovery and demonstrate Britain’s contribution to past, present and future in the arts, science and technology and industrial design. The site chosen for the Festival was the South Bank of the Thames, previously derelict with railway sidings and old Victorian buildings and greatly damaged by wartime bombing. The total area of the site was around 27 acres, and included a new river wall which reclaimed over 4 acres from the Thames and enabled the future construction of an embankment walk. The new South Bank site was intended to showcase the principles of design that would feature in the post-war rebuilding of London, together with the creation of new towns around Britain. Although reactions to the Festival were mixed what it undoubtedly achieved was the complete change of character of the South Bank. The only permanent building was the Royal Festival Hall, but the area eventually developed into the South Bank Centre, an arts complex housing the Royal Festival Hall, the National Film Theatre, Queen Elizabeth Hall and the National Theatre. Southbank Arts Centre A complex of exhibition gallery, large concert hall, and small concert hall squat on the south bank of the Thames wrapped in concrete walk-ways. A classic example of ‘brutalism’, all ‘bêton brut’ (French for ‘raw concrete’), uncompromising forms and radical separation of functions (pedestrians from traffic; inside to outside; served and service spaces). Southbank Arts Centre, London. Architect: Greater London Council Architect’s Department; Main Contractor: Higgs and Hill; 1968 17
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Page 3 and 4: Contents 4 Overview 6 History of Th
Page 5 and 6: Founded in 1931, the Building Centr
Page 7 and 8: 1939 ‘Women in Architecture’ ex
Page 9 and 10: 1966 W A Balmain, a contractor at T
Page 11 and 12: Battersea Power Station Scott’s e
Page 13 and 14: Arkon MkV Prefabricated bungalows
Page 15: Royal Festival Hall, The only perma
Page 19 and 20: Coventry Cathedral Coventry was sev
Page 21 and 22: Sir Leslie Martin (1908-2000) and S
Page 23 and 24: Dawson’s Heights By the mid-1960s
Page 25 and 26: Lloyd’s Building Many were surpri
Page 27 and 28: Waterloo International Railway Stat
Page 29 and 30: Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid (1950-2016
Page 31 and 32: Eden Project Inspired by polymath B
Page 33 and 34: Mellor Primary School A small exten
Page 35 and 36: In the 1930s, the majority of archi
Page 37 and 38: What’s next? Because it is provin

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