Landscape

Brook, Richard and Csepely-Knorr, Luca (2025) Landscape. In: Cooling Towers : A celebration of sculptural beauty, industrial history and architectural legacy. Batsford, London, pp. 54-71. ISBN 9781849949460

Abstract

The rapid modernisation of the British landscape in the post-war period necessitated the positive adoption of strikingly powerful forms, particularly those of power generation, which were bound with consensual ideals of progress and technologically driven futures. The relationship of these large structures with the variety of landscapes around them was a task that needed masterful spatial planning and communication that succeeded in convincing the public about not just their necessity, but also their role in creating a vision of a new, modern countryside. Through the work of the landscape architectural profession and the nationalised industry of the CEGB, the disposition of large sculptural objects, such as cooling towers, in the landscape ensured that their commanding presence became part of the shared iconography of modernity. The need for power stations to be close to water for cooling purposes meant that many were sited in flat expanses and visible for miles, sometimes in dramatic clusters as was the case with Drax, Eggborough and Ferrybridge, that drew their water from the Rivers Aire and Ouse, upstream of their confluence. They are sentinels, signals and symbols, imbibed with senses of place, pride and purpose through their position and aspect.