ABSTRACT
On 4 May 1951 the Live Architecture Exhibition opened to the public as part of the Festival of Britain at Poplar, in East London, a district that was heavily bombed during the war and it was, in itself, a demonstration of the ongoing process of post-war reconstruction.
The chapter explore the contents and the communication strategies developed by the English town planner, educator, and editor Jaqueline Tyrwhitt to present planning and architecture principles at the Live Architecture Exhibition, and the complex relationship between the exhibition and the Festival of Britain. Tyrwhitt was hired in 1950 as script writer and member of the planning sub-committee to organise the material to be displayed. Her experience can give access to an original point of view of what was the role of festivals in the crucial evolution of planning and architecture after the Second World War, the links to the CIAM, the innovation in the planning approach during the reconstruction, and the political use of architecture to gain public consent.
A few key questions are answered in the conclusion: was the Festival of Britain a good occasion to establish a stronger connection between the citizen and the architecture they inhabit? Can a festival be the fostering factor for innovation in town planning and architecture?
