Designing for “touch”, “reach” and “movement” in postwar (1946–1972) English primary and infant school environments

ABSTRACT

This article examines the use and interpretation of the terms “touch”, “reach” and “movement” in Ministry of Education (later, Department of Education) official publications known as Building Bulletins between the years 1949–1972. A close critical reading of Building Bulletins concerned primarily with school design for young children (infant and primary schools) in the English context has been carried out and the results of this exercise are discussed in the wider context of close relationships established between architects designing schools and leading progressive educationalists in Britain. The wider international context, particularly progressive educational design in the USA, is used to further understand the use and interpretation of these terms. The article contributes to a current interest among historians of education in exploring material and sensory histories of schooling.

KEYWORDS:

• School building design
• architecture
• progressive education
• materialities
• senses
• buildings

Acknowledgments

This article has benefitted greatly from the observations and suggestions made by the expert reviewers and I wish to thank them for that. The editors of this special issue, Geert Thyssen and Ian Grosvenor, must receive special thanks for their invitation to contribute the piece and all of the subsequent encouragement, patience, and skill they have shown in nurturing it.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The Building Bulletins were HMSO publications, produced by the Development Group within the Architects and Building Branch (ABB) of the Ministry of Education, UK.

2. David Medd, interviewed by Louise Brodie, Architect’s Lives: National Life Stories. The British Library (2006) 72.

3. Charles Edward Montague, “The Faculty of Delight”, no date. In Leonard Marsh (1970) Alongside the child in the primary school. London: A. and C. Black.

4. The Building Bulletins. BB 1 (1949/1955) The Primary School; BB16 (1958), Woodside Junior school at Amersham; BB3 (1961) Village Schools; BB36 (1967) Eveline Lowe Primary School.

5. David Medd, interviewed by Louise Brodie, Architect’s Lives: National Life Stories. The British Library (2006) 89.

6. Former pupil of Crow Island School quoted in Elizabeth Herbert “ Design Matters: How school environment affects children” Educational Leadership. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. USA September 1998. Herbert was principal of Crow Island School at this time.

7. School furniture dimensions: standing and reaching. Department of Education and Science. London: HMSO (1967).

8. The statutory body maintaining the list in England is Historic England. This is true of Finmere Primary School (1960); Woodside Junior School (1958), Amersham; Templewood primary school (1950), Welwyn Garden City; Aboyne Lodge (1950), St Albans.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Catherine Burke

Catherine Burke is Reader in History of Education and Childhood at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, UK. Her research focuses on 20th and 21st century progressive education with a particular interest in material contexts. She collaborates with architects designing schools today who are interested in drawing useful knowledge from past efforts to design schools to fit the child. She is currently working on transatlantic transferences of knowledge about the design of education during the “open learning” era of the 1960s and 70s.