Bread & Butter and Architecture

Author: John Summerson
Year: 1942
Source type: article
Raw file: raw/articles/summerson_1942_bread_and_butter.md

Summary

Summerson argues that the architectural profession underwent a fundamental shift between 1925-1938, moving from the ideal of the independent "brass plate" practitioner toward salaried employment in municipal and corporate architectural departments. This shift was driven by economic conditions (the Depression), the influence of Continental functionalism, and the recognition that future architectural opportunities would lie with public authorities and corporations rather than private clients. He advocates for the profession to embrace this change, improve conditions for salaried architects, and prepare for post-war reconstruction led by departmental architecture.

Key Claims

• The traditional model of the independent architect serving aristocratic/private clients was already dead by 1938—the Depression killed it
• Salaried employment shifted from being seen as "unambitious" (1925) to "enthusiastic alternative" (1935-38) among young architects
• The R.I.B.A. was outdated—structured around the independent practitioner model and hostile to departmental architecture (the President called it "stale chocolate" in 1938)
• The A.A.S.T.A. (Association of Architects, Surveyors and Technical Assistants) emerged as the "Left wing of architecture," affiliated with T.U.C., filling the role M.A.R.S. was too "supine" to perform
• Most post-war reconstruction would necessarily be handled by municipal architectural departments, not private practices
• The best architecture was still coming from private practice, BUT only because departments were poorly organized and badly paid—not because private practice conditions were inherently superior
• The "high fliers" (Corbusier, Wright) had broken enough barriers—the task now was rendering architecture "effective in English life" through planning and professional reorganization
• Modern architecture is "as 'obscure' as some modern poetry" and ordinary laymen "cordially detest it"
• Prefabrication would likely lead to conservatism in design (Auguste Perret-style "classical modernity") rather than aesthetic adventure

Connections

Concepts: everyday-architecture, authorship, salaried-architecture, architectural-profession, bureaucracy
Authors: summerson-john, le-corbusier, frank-lloyd-wright, auguste-perret
Debates: genius-vs-bureaucracy, private-practice-vs-municipal-architecture
Related source notes: agarez-mota-2015-bread-butter-architecture

Direct Quotes

"To such offices as these, young A.R.I.B.A.s began to turn for those three essential things for any born architect—bread, butter, and the opportunity to build."

"When, in 1938, a President distinguished for his learning and eloquence referred lightly to departmental architecture as 'stale chocolate' there was a volcanic row."

"The fact that the best type of architect has not, hitherto, been enlisted in the chief sources of architectural output is proved by a glance at the centre or suburbs of any town... It only proves that the departments—often poorly organized and badly paid—do not attract the best brains."

"'Modern' architecture simply cannot make a direct appeal to the barely existent susceptibilities of the ordinary layman, who as a rule cordially detests it: architecture which stands or falls (figuratively) by an organic unity of siting, plan, elevation and sections is as 'obscure' as some modern poetry."

"The high fliers—the Lloyd Wrights and the Corbusiers and their satellites—have broken as many barriers as needed breaking for the present. They have liberated architecture and equipped it for all the real-life adventures which are looming ahead. The next thing to be done is to render architecture effective in English life."

"The shops, the pubs, the big bold cinemas, the tonic banks, the housing estates, the schools, the hospitals—a high proportion of all these are the work of the architectural 'salariat'. And a high proportion are not a quarter as good as they ought to be."

"Ghastly fascias leer at the Saturday shopping-crowds with the leer of a Jew capitalist in a Nazi cartoon." (on chain store architecture)

"From the 'learned society' condition of its origin it [the R.I.B.A.] will have to develop into something rather like a Trade Union and at the same time, perhaps, become a centre of, or at any rate the mouthpiece for, technical research."

Open Questions

• How does Summerson's 1942 vision of salaried architecture relate to later developments in neoliberal privatization?
• What became of the A.A.S.T.A.'s vision for the profession?
• Did post-war reconstruction actually deliver the "real architecture" Summerson hoped for from municipal departments?