Shorter Notices
When We Build Again. A Bournville Village Trust Research Pub- lication. (Allen and Unwin. 8s. 6d.)
WHAT a tantalising book! The result of three years' research into Birmingham housing, its relation ti. industry and the development of the surrounding region, the Maps. charts and photographs are excellent, yet the reader lays down the book with a feeling of disappointment. For we know little more about Birmingham itself than we knew before. The wealthy and middle- classes are barely mentioned, though this survey is intended as a basis of post-war re-development. " Research " has meant a superficial observation of the industrial " hands "—how far they have to go to work, what fares they pay, what rents, whether they keep their gardens tidy. Even at this limiting level a thousand other things known to the town could have had life breathed into them—how people amuse themselves, how and where they worship, what they read and eat, what health and educational services they have. Above all, what in this great city is dear to its citizens and should be preserved, what is lacking, how society can be reintegrated, from top to bottom, as a living whole. There is undoubtedly room today for keen investigation by amateurs into the structure of their own cities to supplement the technical work of professional planners. It is a thousand pities when, by ignoring the stuff of which their town is made. their conclusions have neither the precision of the expert nor the affectionate interpretation of the connoisseur.
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