Healthy communities and new towns February 22 nd 2017

Transcription

1 Healthy communities and new towns February 22 nd 2017 Dr Susan Parham Head of Urbanism, University of Hertfordshire Academic Director, International Garden Cities Institute

2 Principles for health and place not new These didn t start with Ebenezer Howard s Garden City Various earlier attempts to create villages of vision (Darley, 1975) However garden city approaches to healthfulness grew out of 19 th century cities judged as a problem - and became extremely influential

3 Good reasons to look for healthier ways to make places Abysmal conditions for the poor

4 Booth s mid C19 th maps of London s social conditions laid this bare

5 Various 19 th Century utopian ideas for ways to make sociable, healthy and egalitarian new communities Fourier s proposed Phalansterie Godin s Familistère at Guise actually built

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7 st rn Ebenezer Howard proposed Garden Cities (1898) Achieved a workable synthesis between the visionary and the practical to healthfulness was at core of his proposals nezer rural key

8 Garden Cities would be based on three magnets of town, country and town-country, in which all the advantages of the most energetic town life, with all the beauty and delight of the country, may be secured in perfect combination

9 Each Garden City of 32,000 people would be part of constellation of settlements making up the sociable city Sustainable living

10 Each settlement surrounded by productive green space adding to good health for garden city residents

11 Very strong focus on green environments.

12 Moving out of polluted, dirty London affordably first at Letchworth Garden City.

13 Then at Welwyn Garden City again health central to the conception and marketing

14 These ideas took off. Advocated by Henrietta Barnett, Unwin s 1905 plan for an artisan s quarter in Hampstead Garden Suburb in London: Nothing to be Gained by Overcrowding (Unwin, 1912)

15 Garden city inspired healthy suburb ideas reflected in Post WW1 Homes for Heroes in Essex (outer London)

16 The 1920s Neighbourhood Unit and the so-called Radburn Layout from the USA influenced ideas about planning and designing healthy places Radburn, New Jersey

17 Radburn Layout Orchard Park Estate, Kingston upon Hull 1963 (right) Radburn, New Jersey The Meadows, Nottingham, 1970s comprehensive redevelopment based on Radburn layout in form of Neighbourhood Unit (below)

18 New Towns origins: reflecting the legacy of Le Corbusier s Ville Radieuse : with cars on the ground, people in the sky keeping people up in the air away from increasingly central traffic provision and circulation

19 Bomb damage seen as an opportunity for widespread renewal (Jorn Duwel and Neils Gutschow (2013) A Blessing in Disguise: War and Town Planning in Europe) Not just a town planning issue or solely town planners responsibility. Clapson and Larkham (2013: 4) point out that a large number of different players in government and private sector were involved

20 Yet the seeds for New Towns had been planted earlier prewar was live discussion in public policy terms for planning a healthy post war Britain along modern lines Sir John Reith (below left), Sir Patrick Abercrombie (below right) actively promoting massive alteration to planning and housing post-war that would be light, airy and healthy with proper bathrooms and small kitchens to stop working class social habits of dining in the kitchen

21 Published proposed significant decanting of population to new settlements outside London where they could live at healthier lower densities and move around on fast highways and motorways

22 Healthful imagery like the garden city ads earlier. But very different style of architecture and planning

23 Well appointed (and therefore healthful) medium to high rise apartment blocks would replace outdated cramped and poorly appointed old terraces

24 New Towns were designated in Mark One, Two and Three stages (see Clapson and Larkham, The Blitz and its Legacy,2013) Stevenage, Harlow, Hatfield etc designated as Mark Ones overseen by Baron Silkin (designator of Stevenage aka Silkingrad )

25 Hertfordshire has the most New Towns of any county

26 New Towns would help enhance lives better health, better jobs, better people?

27 Town centres like Stevenage New Town s embodied these aspirations

28 As did their housing, facilities and services. Hatfield New Town - Goldings Crescent Stevenage New Town

29 Milton Keynes The apogee of the New Towns approach? A Mark Three New Town most explicitly car centred, with superblock layout neighbourhood units with separate pedestrian pathway systems within superblocks

30 But, by late 1960s growing public concern Comprehensive Redevelopment judged a failure New townscapes and buildings unpopular in social terms Fundamental change in public opinion - conservation approach favoured View that needed to repair and restore rather than replace buildings and places

31 New Towns seen to have problems with area layouts and housing design, tenure and quality - too low density, land uses too separated out and too car dependent? No longer seen as healthy

32 Post industrial decline: New Towns suffered from the unintended side effects and unanticipated social and technological changes that undermined the basis of their design decisions (Alexander, (2009:121). Again massive (negative) health implications among social excluded populations

33 New Towns seen by some as poor rather than healthy and desirable living environments.

34 Considered options for healthy settlements - explored theoretically as series of scenarios for growth including a new garden city (2008)

35 Based on an urban village model rather than a neighbourhood unit/new Towns model of development

36 Fairly recent research (2014) reviews the original research work and looks at the current development, design and planning situation in the county

37 The Observer, (right) BBC News December 2014 (below)

38 Downloadable from

39 Healthful placemaking aspects Any new settlement should start with at least looking at integrated design principles that focus on health through mixed land use, walkability, active travel, local food and jobs etc Avoiding a dormitory housing approach requiring car use Backed with design codes and pattern books that reflect 21 st century elements like communications technologies and low

40 The idea of garden cities (and garden villages) is back on the political agenda - but barriers remain Ebbsfleet Garden City, Bicester Garden Town most developed initiatives Govt has announced series of new garden villages Also seeing proposals for new garden village locally Question mark over scale needed to respond to housing need Strong claims for more healthful approaches (acknowledged in NHS Healthy New Towns programme) s/default/files/documents/garden_city_pe rspectives_final_web_1.pdf