Danish and British architects at work: a micro‐study of architectural encounters after the Second World War

Abstract

Invoking a statement by the cultural geographer David Livingstone – that location is essential to knowing – this paper focuses on Danish school architecture during the 1950s and 1960s and the interplay between local geography and developments and discussions on the national and international scene. Through exhibitions and study tours and international encounters, certain school buildings became icons as places to visit and as spaces to cite and copy, and specific ways of thinking about the ‘child‐centred school’ became institutionalised. In particular, British experiences and contacts with the couple Mary Crowley and David Medd became of importance to the Danes. This was no coincidence and the paper demonstrates that transnational architectural relations were closely linked to a cultural re‐mapping in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Keywords:

• school buildings
• architecture
• experiments
• international encounters
• citational geography
• Denmark
• Britain
• Hertfordshire
• Mary Crowley
• David Medd
• Hans Henning Hansen
• Ole Bang
• Johannes Folke Olsen

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to thank Dr Catherine Burke for assisting her in piecing together the story of Mary Crowley and David Medd’s relationship with the world of Danish architecture.

Notes

¹This article is an elaborated version of a keynote talk at the Annual Conference of the History of Education Society UK, held at the University of Sheffield, December 4–6, 2009.

²David N. Livingstone, ‘Text, Talk and Testimony: Geographical Reflections on Scientific Habits’, afterword in Journal of the History of Science 38, no. 1 (2005): 93–100, p. 100.

³ Barndom og arkitektur. Rum til danske børn gennem 300 år [Childhood and Architecture: 300 Years of Spaces for Danish Children] (Aerkus: Klim, 2010, forthcoming).

⁴Ibid., p. 96.

⁵See William Whyte, ‘How Do Buildings Mean? Some Issues of Interpretation in the History of Architecture’, History and Theory 45 (May 2006): 153–77.

⁶Erik Nørr, ‘Hvorfor blev skoleloven af 1937 først gennemført i 1950’erne og 1960’erne?’ [‘Why Was the Educational Act of 1937 not Implemented before the 1950s and 1960s?’] in Samfundsplanlægning i 1950’erne. Tradition eller tilløb [Social Planning in the 1950s], ed. Else Hansen and Leon Jespersen (København: Museum Tusculanum, 2009), 153–226.

⁷Ning De Coninck‐Smith, Vor lærdoms bygning. Folkeskolens bygninger 1814‐1940 [Folk School Buildings 1814–1940]. Planstyrelsen, report no. 2, 1989.

⁸Quote from the professional journal Architekten M (1933), 21; see also Steen Eiler Rasmussen, ‘To enétages Skoler’, Architekten M (1928), 99–101.

⁹Ning De Coninck‐Smith, ‘Une école de plein air danoise de Kaj Gottlob (1935–1938)’, in L’école de plein air. Une expérience pédagogique et architecturale dans l’Europe du XXe siècle, Anne‐Marie Châtelet et al. (Paris: Éditions Recherches, 2003), 346–57.

¹⁰Max Siegumfeldt, ‘Skoler i Schweiz’, Architekten U (1938), 161–63, p. 161.

¹¹Københavns skoledirektion, journalsag 273, 1939 – Opførelsen af Emdrup skole [Case no. 273, 1939 Copenhagen school board, the construction of Emdrup School] (Københavns stadsarkiv).

¹²Københavns Borgerrepræsentations trykte forhandlinger, 1939–40 s. 652–64 og 1940–41, s. 542–44 [Minutes of Copenhagen City Council, 1939–40].

¹³On Emdrup School, see the following journal articles: Vore Børn (1940), 46–7; Københavns Kommuneskole (1940), 687–89 and 1942, 619–21, Arkitekten M. (1944), 27–44.

¹⁴Travel report September 2, 1954 by Mary Crowley and David Medd, in Under visningsministeriets Byggeforskningsudvalg, Emneordnede sager, 1954–1957, kasse 5 [ Box 5, The Building Research Committee, The Ministry of Education] Rigsarkivet.

¹⁵ Arkitekten U (1948), pp. 158–162 (Hansen), Arkitekten U (1951), pp. 21–32 (Bang) and Arkitekten U (1952), 289–94 (Bang).

¹⁶ Arkitekten M (1952), 60–4.

¹⁷On the role of UNESCO for the dissemination of ideas on new school architecture, see the foreword in Alfred Roth, The New School (Zürich: Girsberger, 1957). On the conscious use of conferences, meetings and exhibitions as a way of creating international knowledge transfer with the UNESCO organisation, see Michael Omolewa, ‘UNESCO as Network’, Paedagogica Historica 43, no. 2 (2007): 211–22 and Catherine Burke, ‘Contested Desires: The Edible Landscape of School’, Paedagogica Historica XLI, nos IV and V (August 2005: 578).

¹⁸On Bang, see Weilbachs Dansk Kunstnerleksikon, ed. Sys Hartmann, Vol. 1 (1994), 170. Hansen, ibid., vol. 3, 1995, 133–4.

²⁰Quoted in Jørgen Sevaldsen, ‘Trade Fairs and Cultural Promotion c.1930–1970: Visualising Anglo–Danish Relations’, in Britain and Denmark: Political, Economical and Cultural Relations in the 19th and 20th Centuries, ed. Jørgen Sevaldsen et al. (Copenhagen 2003), 73–108, pp. 80–1.

¹⁹On Rasmussen, see Weilbachs Dansk Kunstnerleksikon, ed. Sys Hartmann, Vol. 7 (1998), 55–6.

²¹Ibid., p. 81. Rasmussen claimed that this was not the case; the punt, for example, was not, as the critics claimed, to be rowed by the upper classes, who ‘owned a slave’, but was used by ordinary Londoners at the weekend, which he found very democratic. The exhibition and the debate are discussed in Olaf Lind, Arkitekten Steen Eiler Rasmussen (Gyldendal 2008), 84–9.

²²Dansk og engelsk skolebyggeri af idag. Den Frie Udstilling 13.–21. juni 1953 [Danish and British Educational Architecture of Today. Exhibition programme, 1953]. Undervisningsministeriet, 1.kontor, 1054/1953, tilaktet 691/1959 [Ministry of Education, case no. 1054/1953, in case 691/1959], Rigsarkivet. It is possible that this collaboration went back to the years 1946–1947, when an exhibition entitled Danish Domestic Design travelled across England to end up at the Royal Institute of Architecture in London. In 1948, an exhibition of Danish arts and craft, curated by Steen Eiler Rasmussen, was mounted at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (Sevaldsen, 2003, 88–9). On Albinius, see http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svend_Albinu (accessed June 3, 2010); On Arctander, see http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Arctande (accessed June 3, 2010).

²³On Langkilde, see Weilbachs Dansk Kunstnerleksikon, ed. Sys Hartmann, vol. 4 (1995), 500–1, and Jensen, ibid., vol. 4, 1995, pp. 93–94.

²⁴On Jacobsen, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arne_Jacobse (accessed June 3, 2010).

²⁵Further details of these schools may be found in Andrew Saint, Towards a Social Architecture: Role of School Buildings in Post‐war England (London: Yale University Press, 1987).

²⁶See Catherine Burke, ‘Putting Education in Its Place: Mapping the Observations of Danish and English Architects on 1950s’ School Design’, Paedagogica Historica 46, no. 5 (2010: 655–672).

²⁷Report 2.9.1954 in box 5, The building research committee, The Danish Ministry of Education [Byggeforskningsudvalget, Undervisningsministeriet] Rigsarkivet, p. 12.2.

²⁸On Jacobsen, see Carsten Thau and Kjeld Vindum, Arne Jacobsen. Architect (Gyldendal: 2002),

²⁹Report of September 2, 1954 in box 5, The building research committee, The Danish Ministry of Education [Byggeforskningsudvalget, Undervisningsministeriet] Rigsarkivet, p. 12.1.

³⁰Ibid., p. 12.2.

³¹Pædagogisk rapport om studierejse til England fra 16. – 23. oktober 1954 ang. skolebyggeri i box 18, diverse sager, 1954–57, Undervisningsministeriets Byggeforskningsudvalg [Report from study tour to England, October 1954], Rigsarkivet. On Holm, see http://www.denstoredanske.dk/Kunst_og_kultur/Arkitektur/Danmark/Tyge_Holm (accessed June 3, 2010)

³²Klasserummets funktion og udformning [The form and function of class space], Nyt skolebyggeri 5, Undervisningsministeriets byggeforskningsudvalg og Statens byggeforskningsinstitut, 1957.

³³Newspaper cuttings, Svendborg city archives.

³⁴Minutes of the parish council of Rysling 1951–1963 [Forhandlingsprotokol for Sogneraadet i Ryslinge 1951–1963], meeting 8.7.1958, Landsarkivet for Fyn.

³⁵Interview with Leif Kristensen, January 15, 2009.

³⁶Rules, Nørre Lyndelse School, minutes of the teacher’s council, 1953 – Landsarkivet for Fyn.

³⁷Rasmussen, 1953.

³⁸Minutes [Forhandlingsprotokol] Stenstrup sogneråd [parish council] 1954–57, meeting January 15, 1954, Landsarkivet for Fyn, etc.

³⁹U 90 samlet uddannelsesplanlægning frem til 90’erne [National Education Planning Towards the 1990s] (1978), vol. 1, p. 20.

⁴⁰Dpa‐bladet no. 10 (1967): 28; dpa‐bladet no. 3 (1965): 13 and 31; see also Rationelt skolebyggeri på Fyn, 1963.

⁴¹Hans Henning Hansen’s archive, case no. 41–1757, case no. 41–255, 21–2318, 41–2267. 401–497. 401–165, 2135, 2496 and 2952. The idea may have been borrowed from Rungsted school, built in 1953 and designed by Steen Eiler Rasmussen, see Steen Eiler Rasmussen, ‘Rungsted skole’, Arkitekten M (1953): 125–40.

⁴²The evaluations of Tyge Arnfred and Svend Skyum‐Nielsen can be found in the book At lære og være i hvilke rammer? [To Be and To Learn – But Where?], ed. Ellen Nørgaard and Ning de Coninck‐Smith (Kroghs forlag, Vejle, 1990), 99–107 and 108–14.