ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the relationship between urban photography and internationalist phenomena of the postwar years, and addresses three examples of architectural projects associated with such initiatives: the Paris headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization, Coventry Cathedral and the site of the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedachtniskirche, West Berlin. It argues that a sector of Berlin which 'for generations has housed the chief disturbers of world peace' should be left in ruins 'to serve as a warning forever to evil doers'. All were the subject of controversy and public debate, as well as being the vehicle for public relations work by competing interest groups, individuals or institutions seeking to address a range of transnational audiences. Architectural modernism and photography were considered to be viable means of communication with such audiences. Likewise, the abstract qualities of Snoek’s architectural imagery struck Spence as the most appropriate means of representing his architectural effort.
