Less Is A Bore

The economic crises of the 1970s signalled the end of the post-war consensus which viewed state intervention in economic and social aspects of people's lives as not only entirely acceptable, but entirely necessary. Since 1945, Modernist architects had benefited from this political outlook.

The need to physically rebuild the country, and the desire to avoid the mistakes of the past, coincided neatly with Modernist theories on planning and the Modernists' conviction that their architecture could engineer a better life for the country's citizens.

By the end of the 1970s, high-rise tower blocks, planned housing schemes, New Towns, steel and glass office blocks and schools, were common elements in the British urban landscape.

But Modernism's ubiquity had led to its fall from favour. Economic crises were accompanied by social crises: unemployment, poverty, drug abuse, alienation and family breakdown soon became synonymous in the public mind with the Modernist housing estates which were supposed to banish such problems forever.

Architects on both sides of the Atlantic began to look beyond the Modernist orthodoxy. One of the earliest pioneers of the new 'Post-Modern' Movement was American theorist and architect Robert Venturi. His take on Mies Van Der Rohe signalled his rejection of Modernist theory; "Less is not more", he wrote, "Less is a bore."