The UK’s housing chief is throwing his name into the contentious ongoing debate surrounding the role and perception of traditionalism and classical architecture in the country’s design culture and academia.

The Architects’ Journal has details on Secretary Michael Gove’s foreword to a report authored by critic Ike Ijeh for a right-wing think tank that calls for the establishment of a “School of Place” and other educational changes that would “revive” traditionalism “from the annals of obscurity to which contemporary architecture education has unfairly consigned it.”

Gove tied the cause to the country’s housing crisis while also welcoming calls for the elevation of classicism in university curricula without expressly stating that it should be mandated in either educational Part of the RIBA-administered licensure process, stating: “There is no silver bullet to solve the housing crisis, nor to transform British towns and cities overnight or instantaneously deliver a workforce imbued with the skills to make that transformation possible.”

“But it is important we continue to sow the seeds from which future rewards can be reaped and those rewards hold the promise of turning our homes, towns, cities and communities into vibrant, beautiful places in which we can be genuinely proud,” he wrote further, before the intellectual tenets of his arguments deteriorated considerably. “Rome was not built in a day. But it would never have been built at all if those who dedicated their lives and careers to its creation did not first know how to build it.”

It’s worth noting that the most recent Soane Medalist, Peter Barber, is seen as a bridge between the two arrayed schools of thought. Gove’s comments place him alongside King Charles as other prominent officials to have offered a defense of the forms of traditionalism exemplified by architects like Quinlan and Francis Terry and a small cadre of others whose practice focuses heavily on residential typologies.  

“If you're going to classicise, then do it with conviction,” deposed former Prime Minister Boris Johnson once said, offering his own critique of Terry and other designers. “Do it with the proper order. I can't stand pastiche classicism. I don't like the half-heartedness of it all. You should take the classical style and do something amazing with it.”