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Gordon Russell
assessment of the evolution of the British planning system, the second and by far the largest to a classification and consequent interpretation of urban areas in terms of a series of economic indicators, and the third to speculations as to how the previous analysis might be used in future planning. The first two chapters recount the evolution of planning and are excellent, embodying real insight into how planning has adapted itself to the changing public perception of key urban problems. Indeed, one of the central points made in this book is that the British planning system is predicated on the now false assumption that the 'economic motor' of the nation would forever keep on turning, and thus a central theme in this work relates to the immensely painful transition planning is having to make to a period of relative industrial decline and collapse. The various themes of this first part are pulled together in a series of unanswered questions which face British planning at the present and the authors thus present a set of hypotheses to be addressed by the analysis in part 2, hypotheses which relate to the access to economic opportunities and their spatial distribution in urban Britain. Part 2 mainly consists of an outline and then explanation of classification of urban areas using a variety of socio-economic indicators. An excellent chapter on the national economic condition in terms of urban labour markets, is retold in terms of the restructuring of British industry through automation, deskilling and the related crisis of unemployment. This sets the scene to the classification of 154 urban areas based on 40 economic indicators taken from the 1971 census of population. A conventional cluster analysis is used to effect the classification and the results are then interpreted spatially. This reveals that there are at least two versions of the 'two Britains' argument: the North versus the South, and the inner cities versus the suburbs, and it is hard not to escape the conclusion that these inequalities are more massive than they were a generation or so ago, despite, or perhaps because of British planning. The analysis then veers towards explanation. Occupational structure is examined spatially, the problem of inner city unemployment is examined using a variety of concepts - dual labour markets, restructuring etc, and then comes the central message: that the
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towns which are on their way to increasing prosperity and which are able to promote the highest upward mobility in economic terms are based on light engineering, the bland entrepreneurship of the multinational, and almost a political urban governance towns such as Swindon, Luton, Gloucester. This picture is then reinforced through a study of educational opportunity and a somewhat anecdotal analysis of career structure in local government, displayed in spatial terms.
The conclusions to this study are dramatically spelt out in Part 3; that is, that if you come from a low income family, your children will get the greatest opportunities if you go and live in 'Slough', and with this the book rather uncertainly concludes without ever addressing formally the central question of the desirabilityof these trends. In one sense, I consider this to be a most fittingending for such a book for it leaves one with a real sense of urgency as to taking the analysis further. In short, the historically determinate analysis which the authors
provide is not taken to its logical conelusion, and the authors leave the reader to figure out his own answers to the big question, for it has been sufficient to pose it. All the uncertainty which town planners now feel in engaging their skills, is captured by this book which necessarily raises more questions than it answers, but nevertheless provides one of the best accounts of planning in contemporary Britain I have seen. Yet I am in a quandary as to whether I consider it to be a classic, for it is a strange mixture of speculation and implication, backed by rather traditionally organized positivist research. However, we live in strange times and if the books which contain the essential messages are to be influential, they must mirror these times: The qood city is one such book. I hope it reaches a wide audience for its message is of fundamental import to the present crisis.
Michael Batty, University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology, UK
Design legend K and K Baynes Gordon Russell The Design Council, London, (1981) pp 71 £5.00 Gordon Russell was the Director of the British Council of Industrial Design, the forerunner of the Des/gn Council, during the period 1947-59. (See Figure 1 .) Under his leadership, the Design Centre in London's Haymarket was opened in 1956 an~ he initiated the Design Centre Awards Scheme. Before that, he had organized the 1951 Festival of Britain. When knighted in 1955, he was the first to receive the accolade for services to industrial design. On those counts alone, he was no slouch.
design director of his own firm, Gordon Russell Limited, of Broadway in Worcestershire, manufacturers of high-quality contract furniture. This firm also pioneered the role of industrial design in radio and television manufacture. During the 1930s, it
Furniture design However, before setting the pattern for the development of industrial design in post-war Britain, Russell already had a reputation in the world of furniture design. He was the chairman of the government committee which during World War II gave Britain its Utility furniture, perhaps the first example of state direction in design policy. He was also managing and
Figure 1.
Gordon RusselJ
DESIGN STUDIES
designed and manufactured for Murphy Radio cabinets which made domestic radio and televisionreceivers into pieces of furniture. Russell retiredfrom the Council of IndustrialDesign in 1959, returning to his home in Gloucestershire where he liveduntil the age of 88, designingand writing about design untilshortly before his death in October 1980. A m o n g the English industrialdesign fraternity,he had become a legend in his own lifetime. He was a characterthat many in Britain find easy to admire: of solid middle-classbackground; decorated for gallantryduring World War I; without formal qualificationsyet at the top of his profession;at ease in the corridors of power and in Court circles;generous and attentivein his dealings with the c o m m o n man. The connection between the authors of this book, and Gordon Russell is that they are his son-in-law and daughter. Mr Baynes is Head of the Department of Design Education at the Royal College of Art in London, and has severalpublicationson design to his name. The launching of this book was timed to coincide with an exhibition of Gordon Russell furniture in the London Design Centre.
Designer and his products The book is mainly about Gordon Russell the designer and the furniture he and his firm designed. Its value is that it provides a glimpse into the thoughts of the m a n who i n f l u e n c e d the standard of industrial design in British products and manufactures during the early post-war period. The fiavour is county, with at least three references to the design of a boot cupboard and descriptions of furniture made from yew, laburnum, and mulberry. (See Figures 2 and 3). The book is profusely illustrated with black-and-white photographs of
Figure 2. A dining table in yew with labur. hum legs. Designed by Gordon Russell and made by Adriaan Herrnsen in 1977-78
vol 2 no 4 october 1981
Figure
5. A Gordon Russell room settingat the Paris International Exhibition in 1937
Russell furniture and with line sketches of Kingeombe, Russell's country retreat near Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire. If you are a Russell devotee, this is the book for you. There are very long quotes from Russell's writings and even a quote of Russell quoting someone else. The well-known anecdotes are retold, which gave me a feeling of deja vu. The Baynes', in their special position of being in the family, were able to interview the Grand Old Man on tape. They missed a great opportunity. No talk of a grand strategy for design, no scanning the vistas in search
of a New Jerusalem, no attempt to emulate the style of a MackenzieMacmillan interview. Instead, their's begins, 'We are sitting at one of the yew-tree tables you designed quite recently. How does this reflect a balance between hand and machine? How has quality been achieved?' Boom-boom.
Stanley Moody, City of Birmingham Polytechnic Photographs Council.
by courtesy of the Design
Computers for imagemaking Dave R Clark (ed) Computers for Imagemaking Published for the British Universities Film Council Ltd by Pergamon Press, Oxford, UK (1981) 156 pp, £6.00 and £12.00
One of the most exciting aspects of the development of computer usage over the last few years has been the considerable growth in computer-aided animation. About 20 per cent of all advertisements and station identification symbols on USA television and a smaller, but rapidly growing, percentage of UK film and television titles and ads are now produced using computer techniques. Films such as Star wars, The empire strikesback and Alien feature computer graphicsas
important elements in their storylines and many UK TV documentary programmes such as election broadcasts, Open University lectures and the BBC Money Programme have computerproduced animations or captions as a matter of course. Because of the fast-changing nature of this burgeoning subject, upto-date books on computer animation are hard to come by, so C o m p u t e r s for I m a g e m a k i n g is a welcome addition to the field. Consisting of a compilation of eight papers by various practitioners, the book covers such subjects as perception, hardware generally, the graphics facilities of particular organizations, and the use of computer graphics in teaching and visualization. All the papers are of a
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236
towns which are on their way to increasing prosperity and which are able to promote the highest upward mobility in economic terms are based on light engineering, the bland entrepreneurship of the multinational, and almost a political urban governance towns such as Swindon, Luton, Gloucester. This picture is then reinforced through a study of educational opportunity and a somewhat anecdotal analysis of career structure in local government, displayed in spatial terms.
The conclusions to this study are dramatically spelt out in Part 3; that is, that if you come from a low income family, your children will get the greatest opportunities if you go and live in 'Slough', and with this the book rather uncertainly concludes without ever addressing formally the central question of the desirabilityof these trends. In one sense, I consider this to be a most fittingending for such a book for it leaves one with a real sense of urgency as to taking the analysis further. In short, the historically determinate analysis which the authors
provide is not taken to its logical conelusion, and the authors leave the reader to figure out his own answers to the big question, for it has been sufficient to pose it. All the uncertainty which town planners now feel in engaging their skills, is captured by this book which necessarily raises more questions than it answers, but nevertheless provides one of the best accounts of planning in contemporary Britain I have seen. Yet I am in a quandary as to whether I consider it to be a classic, for it is a strange mixture of speculation and implication, backed by rather traditionally organized positivist research. However, we live in strange times and if the books which contain the essential messages are to be influential, they must mirror these times: The qood city is one such book. I hope it reaches a wide audience for its message is of fundamental import to the present crisis.
Michael Batty, University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology, UK
Design legend K and K Baynes Gordon Russell The Design Council, London, (1981) pp 71 £5.00 Gordon Russell was the Director of the British Council of Industrial Design, the forerunner of the Des/gn Council, during the period 1947-59. (See Figure 1 .) Under his leadership, the Design Centre in London's Haymarket was opened in 1956 an~ he initiated the Design Centre Awards Scheme. Before that, he had organized the 1951 Festival of Britain. When knighted in 1955, he was the first to receive the accolade for services to industrial design. On those counts alone, he was no slouch.
design director of his own firm, Gordon Russell Limited, of Broadway in Worcestershire, manufacturers of high-quality contract furniture. This firm also pioneered the role of industrial design in radio and television manufacture. During the 1930s, it
Furniture design However, before setting the pattern for the development of industrial design in post-war Britain, Russell already had a reputation in the world of furniture design. He was the chairman of the government committee which during World War II gave Britain its Utility furniture, perhaps the first example of state direction in design policy. He was also managing and
Figure 1.
Gordon RusselJ
DESIGN STUDIES
designed and manufactured for Murphy Radio cabinets which made domestic radio and televisionreceivers into pieces of furniture. Russell retiredfrom the Council of IndustrialDesign in 1959, returning to his home in Gloucestershire where he liveduntil the age of 88, designingand writing about design untilshortly before his death in October 1980. A m o n g the English industrialdesign fraternity,he had become a legend in his own lifetime. He was a characterthat many in Britain find easy to admire: of solid middle-classbackground; decorated for gallantryduring World War I; without formal qualificationsyet at the top of his profession;at ease in the corridors of power and in Court circles;generous and attentivein his dealings with the c o m m o n man. The connection between the authors of this book, and Gordon Russell is that they are his son-in-law and daughter. Mr Baynes is Head of the Department of Design Education at the Royal College of Art in London, and has severalpublicationson design to his name. The launching of this book was timed to coincide with an exhibition of Gordon Russell furniture in the London Design Centre.
Designer and his products The book is mainly about Gordon Russell the designer and the furniture he and his firm designed. Its value is that it provides a glimpse into the thoughts of the m a n who i n f l u e n c e d the standard of industrial design in British products and manufactures during the early post-war period. The fiavour is county, with at least three references to the design of a boot cupboard and descriptions of furniture made from yew, laburnum, and mulberry. (See Figures 2 and 3). The book is profusely illustrated with black-and-white photographs of
Figure 2. A dining table in yew with labur. hum legs. Designed by Gordon Russell and made by Adriaan Herrnsen in 1977-78
vol 2 no 4 october 1981
Figure
5. A Gordon Russell room settingat the Paris International Exhibition in 1937
Russell furniture and with line sketches of Kingeombe, Russell's country retreat near Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire. If you are a Russell devotee, this is the book for you. There are very long quotes from Russell's writings and even a quote of Russell quoting someone else. The well-known anecdotes are retold, which gave me a feeling of deja vu. The Baynes', in their special position of being in the family, were able to interview the Grand Old Man on tape. They missed a great opportunity. No talk of a grand strategy for design, no scanning the vistas in search
of a New Jerusalem, no attempt to emulate the style of a MackenzieMacmillan interview. Instead, their's begins, 'We are sitting at one of the yew-tree tables you designed quite recently. How does this reflect a balance between hand and machine? How has quality been achieved?' Boom-boom.
Stanley Moody, City of Birmingham Polytechnic Photographs Council.
by courtesy of the Design
Computers for imagemaking Dave R Clark (ed) Computers for Imagemaking Published for the British Universities Film Council Ltd by Pergamon Press, Oxford, UK (1981) 156 pp, £6.00 and £12.00
One of the most exciting aspects of the development of computer usage over the last few years has been the considerable growth in computer-aided animation. About 20 per cent of all advertisements and station identification symbols on USA television and a smaller, but rapidly growing, percentage of UK film and television titles and ads are now produced using computer techniques. Films such as Star wars, The empire strikesback and Alien feature computer graphicsas
important elements in their storylines and many UK TV documentary programmes such as election broadcasts, Open University lectures and the BBC Money Programme have computerproduced animations or captions as a matter of course. Because of the fast-changing nature of this burgeoning subject, upto-date books on computer animation are hard to come by, so C o m p u t e r s for I m a g e m a k i n g is a welcome addition to the field. Consisting of a compilation of eight papers by various practitioners, the book covers such subjects as perception, hardware generally, the graphics facilities of particular organizations, and the use of computer graphics in teaching and visualization. All the papers are of a
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