I'd love to be able to design a town like this. I'd love to build one with a large town square with bars and cafe's surrounding it. Have plenty of space for people to park their cars on driveways so that the streets aren't cluttered with vehicles. Give as many houses as possible great views across the surrounding countryside and parks.
This is a really excellent plan, and should have been obvious from the start and employed earlier in the 20th Century, but I suppose the Modernist movement has clouded architecture, the arts, urban planning and design for quite some time now. It’s an idea long overdue so I’m glad Prince Charles took the plunge and decided to commission this. Perhaps it’s come at exactly the right time actually, given that ordinary people are becoming even more bored of ‘innovative’ glass and steel cages and Corbusier-style soulless housing estates, and are finally beginning to insist on more spiritually-enriching and traditional architecture and design of cities. If every ugly and soul-crushing tower block was razed, and homes made in their footprints with these sorts of design principles, for not only the previous residents but also new residents - I think we’d have a happier country and would be taking a bold step in a new direction, one which casts an eye back to the past in order to forge a brighter view of the future. Poundbury isn’t completely perfect, but then that is an unattainable goal, and as a lesson for the future the village - its merits and drawbacks alike - is invaluable. One thing I’d add is more front gardens, and I also loved Carl Lubin’s initial idea for a tall church spire. Most towns, architects, developers and planners are still too afraid of the culturally-despotic, very loud minority of zealots who insist on ‘new’ architecture only, but those whinging nobodies’ arguments are rapidly losing traction, and seen for the hot air that they are, and places like Poundbury will lend weight to the ‘traditionalist’ architectural and urban planning perspective - which I think is a fantastic result. Many thanks to Prince Charles, and to everyone who made this town possible, with a very honourable mention to Léon Krier, whose genius I think will become widely known in the 21st Century and beyond. Apologies for lack of paragraphs, iPhone app apparently no longer allows line breaks 🙄.
I wished we had something like this in Australia, in terms of the idea of it, possibly with southern european architecture. We have such god-awful suburbia here; we could do a lot better.
i respect the effort. it's not perfect, but it is a step in the right direction. i prefer dutch architecture. the canal houses and the white wash brick in the town of Thorn.
I would love to live in Poundbury. I live in a very old city (in Canadian terms) and all the new buildings are ugly chrome, glass and steel. None of them can compare to the older buildings. They are just plain ugly. It is really sad to see my city go down the drain.
Do you think the average person can afford to buy a house made with handmade bricks etc? The whole town would be filled with the wealthy which would totally destroy it.
I'd love to be able to design a town like this. I'd love to build one with a large town square with bars and cafe's surrounding it. Have plenty of space for people to park their cars on driveways so that the streets aren't cluttered with vehicles. Give as many houses as possible great views across the surrounding countryside and parks.
Nice place to live in.
This is a really excellent plan, and should have been obvious from the start and employed earlier in the 20th Century, but I suppose the Modernist movement has clouded architecture, the arts, urban planning and design for quite some time now. It’s an idea long overdue so I’m glad Prince Charles took the plunge and decided to commission this. Perhaps it’s come at exactly the right time actually, given that ordinary people are becoming even more bored of ‘innovative’ glass and steel cages and Corbusier-style soulless housing estates, and are finally beginning to insist on more spiritually-enriching and traditional architecture and design of cities. If every ugly and soul-crushing tower block was razed, and homes made in their footprints with these sorts of design principles, for not only the previous residents but also new residents - I think we’d have a happier country and would be taking a bold step in a new direction, one which casts an eye back to the past in order to forge a brighter view of the future. Poundbury isn’t completely perfect, but then that is an unattainable goal, and as a lesson for the future the village - its merits and drawbacks alike - is invaluable. One thing I’d add is more front gardens, and I also loved Carl Lubin’s initial idea for a tall church spire. Most towns, architects, developers and planners are still too afraid of the culturally-despotic, very loud minority of zealots who insist on ‘new’ architecture only, but those whinging nobodies’ arguments are rapidly losing traction, and seen for the hot air that they are, and places like Poundbury will lend weight to the ‘traditionalist’ architectural and urban planning perspective - which I think is a fantastic result. Many thanks to Prince Charles, and to everyone who made this town possible, with a very honourable mention to Léon Krier, whose genius I think will become widely known in the 21st Century and beyond. Apologies for lack of paragraphs, iPhone app apparently no longer allows line breaks 🙄.
I wished we had something like this in Australia, in terms of the idea of it, possibly with southern european architecture. We have such god-awful suburbia here; we could do a lot better.
i respect the effort. it's not perfect, but it is a step in the right direction. i prefer dutch architecture. the canal houses and the white wash brick in the town of Thorn.
I would love to live in Poundbury. I live in a very old city (in Canadian terms) and all the new buildings are ugly chrome, glass and steel. None of them can compare to the older buildings. They are just plain ugly. It is really sad to see my city go down the drain.
Grandioso! Gracias desde Colombia
Will look better when the trees are bigger
I wonder how bjarke ingel would have designed it !
If only they used better quality materials. Handmade bricks and tiles, lime mortar and plaster, hand cut slates and etc.
Do you think the average person can afford to buy a house made with handmade bricks etc? The whole town would be filled with the wealthy which would totally destroy it.
Nansledan, near Newquay, is another of the King's projects and the materials are much better, especially the stone walls.
I am surprised that King Charles was involved since there are so few trees - would make a tremendous difference.
It just looks too new. Needs some time to settle.
Bicycles, train station? I don't see any. Just a bunch of cars. It's too car dependent.
The Toy town of Prince Charles.😆