Mary and David Medd’s work: domesticity in Post-war British school design (1949-72): A gendered approach to the Development Projects

What do they have in common the Red House by Baillie Scott and Finmere Primary school, designed and built between 1958-59 by the Ministry of Education? How did the bay windows or dinning recesses, from the Arts and Crafts’ houses by Scott, Shaw or Pugin, come to Post-war British school design to create homely environments? How do these foster an intimate and safe atmosphere that assists belongingness? This research tries to answer these questions by focusing on the schools developed by (specially) Mary and David Medd within the Ministry of Education in Great Britain, 1949-1976. As we will demonstrate, their main contribution to the field of Educational Architecture was the definition of a design strategy known as Built-in variety, where the self-contained classrooms (empty-box-school) disappeared in favour of a variety of dissimilar places. Indeed, the Medds sustained a very innovative view from which primary educational architecture was profoundly reconceptualized, getting closer to a home than to an institution. Actually, we argue that it was precisely that driving principle—school as a home—what was responsible for the dismantlement of the traditional school types. By following Michael Baxandall’s inferential criticism, the writing proposes a close look into the design process as an object of study in its own right, in search for the underlying ((un) conscious) principles. The acknowledgement of some features of the English house has been a good means for comin to understand the Medds’ strategy and its domestic aura, for the schools’ spatial hierarchy recalls the internal spatial structure of Arts and Crafts houses of the late 19th century. This research, focusing on the domestic aspect of Educational Architecture, could constitute a key to reformulate school desing principles, particularly under current circumstances, promoting the definition of small specific and safe areas, adapted to particular educational needs.