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ABSTRACT
This paper is the second of two linked papers that focus on the work of the Royal Fine Art Commission (RFAC), which for three quarters of a century held the mantel of the UK Government’s advisor on design in the built environment. This paper tells the story of the organization’s final 15 years when, under a new and charismatic leader, the Commission substantially changed its modus operandi, and came out of the shadows, although without ever fully embracing the modern era of government. Analysis of the archives are supplemented by what the limited available literature tells us about the RFAC and by a small number of interviews with key stakeholders with first-hand experience of the operation of the RFAC; those who either worked for it, were responsible for it within Government, or were reviewed by it. The experience offers valuable insights into the practices and problematics of design governance that today, internationally, forms one of the keystones of modern day planning.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Matthew Carmona is Professor of Planning & Urban Design at UCL’s Bartlett School of Planning. His research has focused on urban design, processes of design governance and on the design and management of public space. Matthew was educated at the University of Nottingham and is a chartered architect and planner. He Chairs the Place Alliance which brings together organisations and individuals who share a belief that the quality of the built environment has a profound influence on people’s lives. In 2016 he was Specialist Advisor to the House of Lords Select Committee on National Policy for the Built Environment and in 2015 won the RTPI Academic Award for Research Excellence.
Andrew Renninger is currently a Graduate student at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. He completed his Masters at The Bartlett School of Planning, UCL, where he worked as a Research Assistant to Prof Matthew Carmona.
Notes
1 RFAC, Twenty-First Report, 9.
2 Richards, Memoirs.
3 Kavanagh, “Lord St-John.”
4 Quoted in Ballieu, “Architecture.”
5 Hillman, A New Look.
6 Chipperfield, Financial Management, 26.
7 The Telegraph, “Lord St-John.”
8 Punter and Carmona, The Design Dimension, 16.
9 Carmona, Housing Design, 28.
10 DoE, Circular 8/87, para 26.
11 DoE, PPG15, para. 3.13.
12 RFAC, Twenty-Second Report, 21.
13 RFAC, Twenty-Third Report, 12.
14 RFAC, Twenty-Second Report, 21.
15 Chipperfield, Financial Management, 5.
16 RFAC, Building.
17 RFAC, Planning, 30–34.
18 This was not a new idea as a sporadic network had been in existence since the 1920s, but most had ceased to operate in the 1980s, http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/b0e6dc99-3c8f-461b-8685-0f7d4669f756.
19 Punter and Carmona, The Design Dimension, 30.
20 Tibbalds, “Planning,” 72.
21 RFAC, What Makes a Good Building.
22 Carmona and Tiesdell, Urban Design, 179.
23 RFAC, Thirty-Second Report, 12.
24 Youngson, Urban Development, 114–115.
25 Ibid., 112.
26 RFAC, Thirty-Second Report, 43.
27 RFAC, Twenty-Third Report.
28 Chipperfield, Financial Management, 5.
29 RFAC, Twenty-Second Report, 11.
30 RFAC, Thirty-Second Report, 13.
31 Ibid.
32 RFAC, Twenty-Second Report, 11.
33 Quoted in Fisher, “Architecture.”
34 Ballieu, “Architecture.”
35 RFAC, Thirty-Second Report, 37.
36 Ibid., 28.
37 RFAC, Thirty-Third Report, 8.
38 Ibid.
39 Ibid.,15.
40 Ibid.
41 Ibid., 16.
42 RFAC, Thirty-Fourth Report, 13.
43 Ibid., 14.
44 RFAC, Thirty-Third Report, 21.
45 Ibid., 25.
46 Gummer, DoE Press Release, 8; 13.
47 Quoted at http://www.rudi.net/books/4872.
48 Carmona, Housing Design, 72.
49 DoE, PPG1, para.3; 15.
50 The Telegraph, “Lord St-John.”
51 Youngson, Urban Development, 113.
52 Ballieu, “Architecture.”
53 Quoted in Ballieu, “Architecture.”
54 Carmona and Wunderlich, Capital Spaces, 99.
55 Quoted in Ballieu, “Architecture.”
56 Ballieu, “Architecture.”
57 Chipperfield, Financial Management, 6.
58 Ibid., 6.
59 Ibid., 23.
60 Where a Minister rather than the local authority determines whether planning permission should be given.
61 The Telegraph, “Lord St-John.”
62 Chipperfield, Financial Management, 20.
63 DNH, Financial Management.
64 RFAC, Minutes 8 February 1924, 2.
65 Ballieu, “Architecture”; Fairs, “Rogers Blasts”; Fisher, “Architecture.”
66 Fisher, “Architecture.”
67 Simmons, “Constraints on Evidence,” 408.
68 Quoted in Fisher, “Architecture.”
69 Lewis and Blackman, “New Body.”
70 UDAL news at http://www.rudi.net/books/11431.
71 Urban Task Force, Towards an Urban, 7.
72 Quoted in Fairs, “Rogers Blasts.”
73 Fairs and Lewis, “Architecture Council.”
74 Quoted in Lewis and Fairs, “Architects Need,” 1.
75 Quoted in Baldock, “Architecture Commission.”
76 Lewis and Fairs, “Architects Need.”
77 Carmona et al., Design Governance.
78 Urban Task Force, Towards an Urban, 80.
79 Chipperfield, Financial Management, 10.
80 Stamp, “Official Aesthetics,” 30.
81 Youngson, Urban Development, 109; 115.
82 Ibid., 115.
83 Delafons, “Democracy,” 16.
84 RFAC, Twenty-First Report, 11.
85 Punter, “A History of … Part 2,” 550.
86 RFAC, Twenty-Fourth Report, 17.