About the project

This project is led by Principal Investigator Christine Wall with Professor Linda Clarke as Co-Applicant. It is funded by University Strategic Research Fund, £23,750, January – July 2016.

This project, Architecture and building labour: using oral and visual evidence to enrich policy and practice in the built environment, catalogued and deposited the archive of the Constructing Post-War Britain oral history project archive at the Bishopsgate Library and Institute.

This archive was launched in 2017 on a new digitisation platform. A portable exhibition of seven banners based on the above project was displayed for the first time, together with promotional literature, at a one-day symposium on Architecture and Building Labour: Afterword or Prologue. The project also included the compilation of a new bibliography, digitised into a searchable reference set, and including previous publications on architecture and labour by Wall and Clarke.  

Contact

For further information, email:

Professor Emerita Christine Wall at [email protected] 

Professor Emerita Linda Clarke at [email protected]

Outputs

  • Beech, N., Clarke, L., Wall, C. and Fitzgerald, I. 2016. ‘On Site’ in: Lloyd Thomas, K., Amhoff, T. and Beech, N. (ed.) Industries of Architecture, Routledge.
  • Clarke L. (2019) ‘Direct Labour: Building Somers Town’ in 100 years of social housing in Somers Town, Spirit, Issue 02, Somers Town History Space Publication
  • Wall, C. (2018) ‘William Arrol and Peter Lind: demolition, construction and workmanship on London’s Waterloo Bridges 1934 -1946’, in Proceedings of the 6th International Construction History Conference, Brussels, July, ISBN 978-1-138-33235-5
  • Clarke L. (2018) ‘Introduction for Building Capitalism’ pp 591-598 and ‘From Craft to Qualified Labour: a comparative approach’ pp 737-766 in L’Histoire de la construction/ Construction History: Relevé d’un chantier européen /Survey of a European Building Site, Tome/Volume 1, eds d’Antonio Becchi, Robert Carvais et Joël Sakarovitch, Histoire des Techniques, 13, Paris: Classiques Garnier,  
  • Clarke L. (2018) ‘Contradictions between Artisan and Wage Labour Production: Non–Simultaneity in the Building of Somers Town from the End of the Eighteenth Century’, in Producing Non-Simultaneity: construction sites as places of progressiveness and continuity eds., Eike-Christian Heine and Christoph Rauhut, Routledge 
  • Wall, C. 2018. Constructing Brutalism: in situ knowledge and skill on London's South Bank. in: Heine, E.-C. and Rauhut, C. (ed.) Producing non-simultaneity: construction sites as places of progressiveness and continuity Farnham, Surrey Ashgate. pp. 95-109
  • Wall, C. 2018. Normierung im Praxistext – Arbeit und Normierung im Großbritannien der Nachkriegsmoderne. Arch+. 233, pp. 142-147.
  • Wall, C. 2015. Modular men: architects, labour and standardisation in mid 20th century Britain. in: Lloyd Thomas, K., Amhoff, T. and Beech, N. (ed.) Industries of architecture London Routledge.

  • 2016, July 15 Architecture and Building Labour: Afterword or Prologue? 10.30am-5.30pm, Board Room, University of Westminster Regent Campus
  • This symposium sought to discuss the changing relationship between the role of the architect and building worker, as well as the role of labour in the production of architecture. The exhibition was also presented and was well attended by about 50 participants. Speakers included:
    • Introduction: Labour and Architecture: Christine Wall ProBE/University of Westminster. 
    • The social production of built forms: Fran Tonkiss London School of Economics.  
    • The socially engaged architect: Geraldine Dening.   
    • Architects for Social Housing: DeMontfort University Leicester.
    • Translating Sergio Ferro: labour and design, Katie Lloyd Thomas Newcastle University 
    • Design as part of the construction process: Jörn Janssen CLR. 
    • Disputes and divisions between building workers and architects: Linda Clarke ProBE/University of Westminster. 
    • The gap between site and design office: Colin Gleeson ProBE/University of Westminster Producing the West Bromwich temple: cultures of work and querying ‘history’ Megha Chand Inglis Cardiff University.
    • Breaking down barriers for women into construction: Tessa Wright/ Kath Moore Queen Mary, University of London.
    • Women into Construction Low energy construction for design: the need for collaboration, Anne Thorne Anne Thorne Architects.