ABSTRACT
Any successful training in architecture must be attuned to the spirit of the age, of that there can be no doubt. This does not merely mean that design should be 'modern' in the sense of being based on the very latest developments of structure and materials, or of embracing the very latest theories of utilization of land or development of living space. These matters are eddies in a main stream. They are constantly shifting their course; and the architect who tries to canalize them, and set his own ship to sail upon them, may find himself at any time in a backwater. What has got to be comprehended - as far as it is possible - is the main trend of development in our age; social, political, technical. Howard Robertson I
The new establishment? Whatever efforts were made, nationally and internationally, to restore professional life to normality after the disruption of war, it was impossible simply to turn the clock back. Too much had happened in the external environment in which modern architects operated for that to happen. When introducing a questionnaire sent to member groups of ClAM in 1947, for example, Maxwell Fry2 highlighted eight specific differences in new social, industrial and political conditions of the time compared with the pre-war situation:
(a) Increased need for dwellings through bombing and cessation of building.
