In the journal Anamnesis, Wilfred McClay has an insightful
analysis of urbanism and its relationship to conservatism.
McClay notes that during World War II the British House of
Common was destroyed by the German air force—and Winston
Churchill had a very definite opinion about how it should be
rebuilt: Churchill did not have a professional understanding of
architecture. But he showed at the outset that he understood
what was at stake better than a whole battalion of experts. “We
shape our buildings,” he said, “and afterwards our buildings
shape us.” He went on to explain, briefly but powerfully, why
the Commons building should be rebuilt exactly as before, and on
the same foundations. This was not merely a sentimental gesture,
born of a desire to maintain aesthetic continuity with the past;
or a patriotic one, meant to keep faith with the ancestors. It
was meant to preserve functional continuity as well. The
preservation of the shape and size of the small oblong Chamber
of the Commons might seem a matter of i