Denise Scott Brown’s active socioplastics and urban sociology: from Learning from West End to Learning from Levittown

Ugliness in architecture in the Australian, American, British and Italian milieus: Subtopia between the 1950s and the 1970s

“…Denise Scott Brown moved to Philadelphia to study Planning at the University of Pennsylvania in 1958 after having studied at the Architectural Association where she was influenced by Alison and Peter Smithson's approach and New Brutalism. Scott Brown has described the New Brutalists as "a movement of the 1950s and 1960s that related architecture to social realism" (Scott Brown 2004, 109;Charitonidou 2022b). She has mentioned regarding the British context when she relocated in London in 1952: "I landed in post-World War II England amidst the lookback-in-anger generation, in a society in upheaval, where social activism was part of education" (Scott Brown 2004, 109;Charitonidou 2022b).…”

“…Scott Brown has described the New Brutalists as "a movement of the 1950s and 1960s that related architecture to social realism" (Scott Brown 2004, 109;Charitonidou 2022b). She has mentioned regarding the British context when she relocated in London in 1952: "I landed in post-World War II England amidst the lookback-in-anger generation, in a society in upheaval, where social activism was part of education" (Scott Brown 2004, 109;Charitonidou 2022b).…”

“…During her studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Scott Brown attended the courses of urban sociologist Herbert Gans, who a year before her resettlement in the United States of America conducted an in situ study in West End in Boston, a slum cleared area. The study of Gans in West End concluded in his book entitled Us in The Urban Villagers: Group and Class in the Life of Italian-Americans (Gans 1962;Charitonidou 2022b), which investigated the everyday life of the inhabitants. A book by Gans that is important for analysing the criteria according to which an urban or architectural artefact is evaluated as ugly or beautiful is Popular Culture and High Culture: An Analysis and Evaluation of Taste (Gans 1974;Charitonidou 2022b).…”

“…The study of Gans in West End concluded in his book entitled Us in The Urban Villagers: Group and Class in the Life of Italian-Americans (Gans 1962;Charitonidou 2022b), which investigated the everyday life of the inhabitants. A book by Gans that is important for analysing the criteria according to which an urban or architectural artefact is evaluated as ugly or beautiful is Popular Culture and High Culture: An Analysis and Evaluation of Taste (Gans 1974;Charitonidou 2022b). Scott Brown's fascination with Gans's 'new objectivity' goes hand in hand with her interest in the so-called non-judgemental perspective.…”

“…We say we defer judgement. In deferring it, we let more data into the judgement, we make the judgement more sensitive" (Scott Brown in Cook and Klotz 1973, 254;Charitonidou 2022b). The photographs that Scott Brown took at South Street west of Broad Street in Philadelphia, one can discern the impact of Gans's approach on her perspective.…”