Symposium, Conference
The architecture and landscape architecture of the post-war years remains an expanding area of scholarly activity and research. One focus of this research has been on the reconstruction of Europe after 1945 and how it manifested in many ways, in different countries, based, in part, on the cultural traditions and political situations of nation states. Rebuilding was characterised by numerous large-scale infrastructural schemes, including our primary interests of electrical power generation and the improved transportation delivered by new motorways. The scale of this development necessitated a novel approach to design and implementation and new collaborative practice between architects and landscape architects as they considered the siting, visibility, camouflage and composition of these divisive and distinctive massive forms. These physically engineered landscapes were associated with rapid socio-economic and technological developments, the heyday of international modernism and its wholesale adoption by architects and landscape architects. However, the study of the design of infrastructures and the wider cultural and social impact faded from professional discourse during the latter part of the century and is today characterised by techno centric discourse that precludes the act of design in its formative stages. This project will host a two-day pan-European workshop and a one day conference on the topics of landscape and architecture of post-war infrastructure in February 2019.