The architectures of childhood: children, modern architecture and reconstruction in postwar England

Between 1935 and 1959, the architecture of childhood was at the centre of architectural discourse in a way that is unique in architectural history.

Some of the seminal projects of the period, such as the Secondary Modern School at Hunstanton by Peter and Alison Smithson, Le Corbusier?s Unit? d?Habitation at Marseilles, or Aldo van Eyck?s playgrounds and orphanage, were designed for children; At CIAM, architects utilized photographs of children to present their visions for reconstruction.

The unprecedented visibility of the child to architectural discourse during the period of reconstruction is the starting point for this interdisciplinary study of modern architecture under welfare state patronage.