Locating Exhibition Design as a Means of Marketing Architectural Modernism in Inter-War Britain

Throughout the interwar period many dialects of modernist visual languages were developed and often mediated by the technologies of photography, film, and design. This negotiation of modernity was a key feature characterizing the exhibition designs of architect Oliver Hill (1887-1968). Taking Hill’s designs for the “Exhibition of British Industrial Art in Relation to the Home” at Dorland Hall in 1933 as a starting point, this paper investigates Hill’s commitment to consumer education. Exhibition designs, such as at Dorland Hall, proved a perfect vehicle for Hill’s educational imperatives in elevating consumers’ understanding of “good design.” Through a close reading this paper highlights how Hill embraced fashionability, both in terms of market consumerism and in terms of the power that fashion had on improving taste and standards in design during that time.