I talked in the last post about how growing trees can change the appearance of an urban edge over time, which reminded me…
…of this lovely diagram showing two founding principle of Milton Keynes: (1) no building taller than a mature oak, and (2) plant enough trees and the city will eventually disappear. Milton Keynes has its detractors, and some genuine weaknesses in today’s terms, but you shouldn’t knock it ‘til you’ve been there. Rove the suburbs by bike in the summer time to get a proper feel for the place.
PS: I did a short piece for BD a few years ago on housing in Milton Keynes, complete with an annotated map for architectural tourists. It’s behind a pay-wall now I’m afraid – but here’s the map at least: MiltonKeynesMap
More about ‘Roofs Across Fields’ here.