A Blessing in Disguise: War and Town Planning in Europe 1940–1945

“There is a sense, in which the demolition that is taking place through the war has not yet gone far enough.” This astonishing statement was made in the thick of the Second World War (1942) by the influential American social and cultural critic Lewis Mumford. In most of the cities hit hardest by the air-raids, something akin to planning euphoria did in fact break out at that time. In all the countries of Europe, the devastation of the cities was acclaimed as a liberating factor. In this volume, historians and architects from various cultures analyse the ideas and convictions on which post-war urban planning was modelled. To illustrate the points, a number of towns and cities in different countries are discussed with reference to the planning schemes proposed for them and other documents.