Cold War Design

Taking the period covered by "Cold war Design: 1945 -1970", I realised that this period really fascinates me, both for what it was and for the way it has been mythologised in culture since then. Specifically, I'm interested in the design and look of computers, machines and architecture from that time. To a lesser extent I'm also interested in the graphic design of that time. Both sides of the political divide interest me: Soviet and Communist era architecture and industrial design, and their British and American versions.

One area that interests me very much is the move from technological optimism to the pessimism and cynicism immediately after this period. This period, from the end of the second world war to the culmination of the Apollo program is endlessly fascinating. The technological utopia never came to pass, but neither did its opposite, the nuclear nightmare. They are inextricably linked, one impossible to envisage without the other.