Constructing Tradition and Identity: Englishness, Politics and the Neo-Traditional House’

In an increasingly globalized world national governments can be tempted to appropriate indigenous building traditions to support national identity-building political agendas. In England, the prevalence of neo-traditional house design is not, as is often assumed, indicative of the nostalgia of the consumer. Rather it is the outcome of government planning policies concerned with the preservation of regional architectural identities and the visual maintenance of Englishness in the built environment. In turn, these planning policies have been subverted by the nationwide standardized production of ‘traditional’ designs by national house-building companies.