“Faith Not Works”: Chance Encounters and the Origins of Britain’s First Consultancy in Architectural Acoustics

Britain’s first independent architectural acoustic consultancy came into being at the close of World War I. Given the demonstrated disinterest in and lack of credence afforded to acoustics in architectural education and the complications encountered in incorporating acoustics into building design in Britain prior to the war, the emergence of a professional consultancy was neither predictable nor systematic. Yet this new direction in architecture did emerge, arising from a particular set of circumstances and a confluence of mindsets. Through an examination of the origins of that consultancy, this article weaves together the threads of chance, intellectual cohesion, and wartime circumstances that set the stage for a new form of applied design and scientific expertise. By drawing on personal letters, diaries, war documentation, government correspondence, and contemporaneous journals, it maps a trajectory of thought and interdisciplinary collaboration that took shape under the most unlikely of circumstances.