The 1960s continue to hold an almost mythical place in Western culture, particularly in Britain, where change was widespread and infiltrated many aspects of life. This included architecture, where its role in a modern democracy and the form it should take was hotly debated. Through an examination of the design of university building, the book discusses this phase of architectural thinking. While there were notable buildings being built in other spheres, no other provided the opportunity to express those ideas as freely, while reflecting innovative new thinking about education and society. Somehow, the university buildings of the 1960s seemed to represent the cutting edge of modern architecture in the U.K.

This book provides the first critical analysis and overview of these buildings, designed by some of the leading British architects of the period including Sir Basil Spence, Sir Leslie Martin, Alison and Peter Smithson, Denys Lasdun, Powell and Moya and James Stirling. By placing the buildings in a wider social, cultural and political context, it examines the combination of circumstances and attitudes that produced results that are equally admired and detested and allows us to understand how we might replicate or avoid them in the future.