Tag Archives: sustainability

RIBA Building Futures – Carwood 2035

A month or so ago I was flattered to be asked to write a ‘think-piece’ on the Future of Villages by the RIBA Building Futures team. The Building Futures website aims ‘to promote public and political debate on the future … Continue reading

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Forest Village #5: Sustainable Development?

As a model for the development of a new settlement, Center Parcs offers a really powerful proposition. Most green-field development replaces green-space with houses. In a Center Parcs they depend on each other. The forest is regarded as an asset … Continue reading

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Forest Village #3: The Concept

When the Forest Village concept was set out on paper, the accepted ideal minimum size for a new settlement or urban extension was around 2,000-3,000 homes – large enough to sustain a useful hub of local services, including a primary … Continue reading

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Forest Village #2: Houses and Trees

I will explain the real origin of Forest Village later, but I was prompted to write it down after reading another think-piece about houses and trees, by Mischa Balen, then of the Adam Smith Institute. The article ran in Planning … Continue reading

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On the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)

Earlier this week I was asked by a journalist from Building Design ‘what does the NPPF mean for architects?’ This caught me on the hop, despite the fact that I’ve been meaning to write something on the NPPF for some … Continue reading

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Rural Sustainability #2

My Twitter ‘drag-net’ continues to throw up interesting nuggets that wouldn’t have come my way otherwise. This piece by Jamie Shorten in Town and Country Planning magazine, from 2007, addresses some themes which I touched on briefly all the way … Continue reading

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What’s this village doing here?

A rare sortie abroad in the last couple of weeks has reminded me that despite the great cost of holidaying overseas (in cash and carbon), it does give one the opportunity to see new things and have time to think … Continue reading

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The Norfolk Way

I finally managed to get together with Mid-Norfolk MP George Freeman at his constituency office in Dereham last week. I’ve been keen to talk to him since seeing his ideas on sustainable rural development – his ‘Norfolk Way‘ campaign – … Continue reading

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Urban or Rural? The Sustainability Question

My mind has been on other things this week, away from the immediacies of the Community Right to Build (Localism Bill out soon?) and my rambling treatise on architecture in a rural context. I’ve actually been thinking about sustainability, aided … Continue reading

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CRTB: How Many Homes?

As I said in a previous post, the ‘sustainablility’ logic behind the planners’ preference for large-scale development, centred on a limited number of highly serviced, highly accessible centres, is lost on most ‘normal’ people. It seems only common sense to … Continue reading

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