The Rebuilding of England
It is to be hoped that.Sir John Reith, who is to be head of the new Ministry of Public Works and Buildings, will realise that his task involves much more than vigorous organisation of the extensive building programmes of the Ministry of Supply and other departments, though that alone is important ; it also demands constructive and imaginative preparations for the period that will follow the war. The building programme for war needs has already reached enormous proportions, and its direction for immediate purposes will be no small under- taking. But the Ministry has been created with a view to preparing the way, in all that is done now, for the vaster work of subsequent reconstruction. The present is a period of swift transition in which thousands of buildings are going up for war purposes in various parts of the country, and other thousands are likely to have been destroyed by enemy action before we have finished with the war. In the building pro- grammes of today the Minister should not overlook the vital problems which have been disclosed by the report on the IN.-anon of industry. These ought to be related to the rebuild- * programmes, which must soon be envisaged, to replace with something better what has been destroyed. For both proses architects and town-planners are needed. There is not the least reason why even the emergency building of today should be haphazard and unrelated to the future needs of the country and to planning on a national scale. The emergency should become an opportunity.
Previous page
