Orchestration of an Organisation: Redevelopment in Planning and Practice

The publication of The County of London Plan in 1943 set the parameters for the aspirational future (re)development of London, which traversed scales from the urban to the individual, and necessitated coordination across disciplinary boundaries. this paper explores how in its compilation the London County Council confronted a task of unprecedented proportions which necessitated the reorganisation not only of the urban fabric, but also that of Europe’s largest architect’s department. The County of London Plan was the tool which set out what was to be achieved, and also more covertly provided the means by which this would be orchestrated, as the neighbourhood structures proposed paralleled those of the working groups established to deliver them.

In contrast to Henry-Russell Hitchcock’s assertion that architecture was divided into two binary and opposing camps - those of “the architecture of bureaucracy and the architecture of genius” - this professional structure instead delineated a middle ground which enabled the architects of the LCC to operate between both; providing innovative architectural and urban design, supported by the manpower, facilities and mechanisms of their bureaucratic status. In celebration of the Plan’s achievements, this paper looks to the processes which catalysed the Department’s intentions into urban and architectural form.