Between the Material and the Immaterial: The Power of Paperwork

The publication of the County of London Plan in 1943 set out the London County Council’s aspirations for a better postwar society. Identifying the urban defects which blighted the County’s development, the Council’s architects were charged with translating abstract concepts of infrastructural, sociological and health improvements into spatial and architectural considerations. Converse to the expectations of Henry Russell Hitchcock, the bureaucratic structures they established empowered rather than constrained their capacity for innovative architecture.

This paper investigates the means by which the Plan encapsulated the multi-faceted nature of practice within the LCC Architect’s Department, and how the immaterial connections they established with financial, political, and material resources at their disposal sought to address the specific agency of the architects who worked there.