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TWISTED VORTEX ABSTRACT HUGE A1 CANVAS ART PRINT 90X60CMS 36X24 INCH MODERN OFFICE WALL POSTER
Often misunderstood, the New Towns story is a fascinating one of anarchists, artists, visionaries, and the promise of a new beginning for millions of people. New Towns: The Rise Fall and Rebirth offers a new perspective on the New Towns Record and uses case-studies to address the myths and realities of the programme. It provides valuable lessons for the growth and renewal of the existing New Towns and post-war housing estates and town centres, including recommendations for practitioners, politicians and communities interested in the renewal of existing New Towns and the creation of new communities for the 21st century.
192 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 19, 2020
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October 26, 2022
TLDR: The historical recount of the development of New Towns is a fascinating account of the implementation of 'Garden City' urbanism. The author's applications of lessons from these sites into the modern housing context is dubious and arguably dangerous.
As mentioned in the above TLDR, I have no quarrel with the historical narrative being told and analyzed here. I am a firm believer in the importance of a beautiful built environment, built to the scale of human; there's nothing I despise more than cookie cutter, car-dependent suburbs. Except for one thing: no homes at all. This is why I call the ideas being advocated for at the end of the book potentially dangerous. The author argues that the UK today is building low-quality housing (which it is), and that instead what should be focused on is a successor to the New Towns project, masterplanned, beautiful partnerships of the national and local. Then, on the next page admits that building one of these places could take fifty years. In a country that (by current best estimates: https://doi.org/10.17861/bramley.2019.04) is lacking nearly four million new homes, the solution to the housing crisis is not a scheme that currently houses two million people after seventy-five years. Everyone deserves a beautiful place to live, but in this case practicality takes precedence to morality. After all, in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, having shelter in any capacity is below any social needs.
As mentioned in the above TLDR, I have no quarrel with the historical narrative being told and analyzed here. I am a firm believer in the importance of a beautiful built environment, built to the scale of human; there's nothing I despise more than cookie cutter, car-dependent suburbs. Except for one thing: no homes at all. This is why I call the ideas being advocated for at the end of the book potentially dangerous. The author argues that the UK today is building low-quality housing (which it is), and that instead what should be focused on is a successor to the New Towns project, masterplanned, beautiful partnerships of the national and local. Then, on the next page admits that building one of these places could take fifty years. In a country that (by current best estimates: https://doi.org/10.17861/bramley.2019.04) is lacking nearly four million new homes, the solution to the housing crisis is not a scheme that currently houses two million people after seventy-five years. Everyone deserves a beautiful place to live, but in this case practicality takes precedence to morality. After all, in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, having shelter in any capacity is below any social needs.
Displaying 1 of 1 review