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Heating Standards and Obsolescence in Post-War Britain’s Homes for Today and Tomorrow

Author

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  • Savia Palate

    (Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus, Cyprus)

Abstract

In 1962, a short film by Shell-Mex and BP Limited (Companies of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group and the British Petroleum Group) was prepared for the 29th Annual Conference and Exhibition of the National Society of Clean Air in Britain to encourage British households to shift from coal domestic fires to smokeless heating appliances. One year earlier, in 1961, the most influential report on space standards in Britain was published, titled Homes for Today and Tomorrow (also known as the Parker Morris Report ), which advocated for flexibility in the home through larger size homes and better heating. This article focuses on the report’s emphasis on better heating as one way to fulfil the concept of the “adaptable home,” and it introduces the discussions about heating standards during the report’s making, underlining the open domestic fire as an obsolete technology. These discussions, however, were entangled with socio-cultural endeavours and consumerist aspirations for modernisation, placing the removal of an otherwise pervasive domestic element within a broader net of forces, actors, and dilemmas involved in decision-making and planning. This article, composed as a historical acquisition, oscillates from the scale of the domestic fireplace to the housing scale, raising the issue of obsolescence in housing provision, which is still salient today.

Suggested Citation

  • Savia Palate, 2024. "Heating Standards and Obsolescence in Post-War Britain’s Homes for Today and Tomorrow," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:urbpla:v9:y:2024:a:7754
    DOI: 10.17645/up.7754
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Matt Huber, 2013. "Fueling Capitalism: Oil, the Regulation Approach, and the Ecology of Capital," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 89(2), pages 171-194, April.
    2. Matt Huber, 2013. "Fueling Capitalism: Oil, the Regulation Approach, and the Ecology of Capital," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 89(2), pages 171-194, April.
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