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Why All Should be Rosy in the Garden City

04 June 2014 | Updated 01 January 1970
 
The 2014 Wolfson Economics Prize has unveiled a shortlist of five finalists - each focusing on the development of new Garden Cities.

The shortlisted entries, though all very different from each other, are seen as providing ‘valuable’ ideas about how best to deliver a new garden city which is ‘visionary, economically viable and popular’.

The finalists will be challenged to refine their submissions in the second round of the completion. Finalists will be given until 11 August 2014 to develop and resubmit their entries, from which the Judges will choose an overall winner. The winner will receive £250,000.

 

The five finalists are:
  • Barton Willmore, led by James Gross. Barton Willmore is the UK’s largest independent planning led town-planning and design consultancy. Barton Willmore's entry sets out a 10-point plan for the delivery of a new garden city, arguing for the development of a cross-party consensus and the production of a National Spatial Plan to identify suitable locations for new garden cities.
  • Chris Blundell FRICS FCIH, Director of Development & Regeneration at Golding Homes. He is a development professional with over 30 years’ experience and has entered in a personal capacity with the support of Golding Homes. His entry argues that a garden city should accommodate between 30,000 and 40,000 people (about the size of Letchworth) and that its delivery should be led by Garden City Development Corporations.
  • David Rudlin of URBED, with Nicholas Falk (also URBED) and input from Jon Rowland (John Rowland Urban Design), Joe Ravetz (Manchester University) and Peter Redman (Managing Director, Policy and Research at TradeRisks Ltd). URBED is an urban design and research practice. His entry argues for the near doubling of an existing large town in line with garden city principles, to provide new housing for 150,000 people (about the size of Oxford or Canterbury).
  • Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity, led by its Head of Policy Toby Lloyd. This entry proposes a new garden city on the Hoo Peninsula (Medway, Kent) commencing with a settlement of up to 48,000 people (about the size of Welwyn Garden City) at Stoke Harbour as part of a larger cluster of settlements eventually totaling 150,000 people.) The entry proposes a model designed to attract massive private investment into the provision of high quality homes, jobs, services and infrastructure. The delivery model prioritises speed and volume over profit margins, aims to acquire land at low cost and transfer valuable assets to a Community Trust for the long term. Local people would be offered unique opportunities to invest in the city, including through buying shares.
  • Wei Yang & Partners in collaboration with Buro Happold Consulting Engineers, led by Pat Willoughby. Wei Yang & Partners is a London based practice with an international portfolio of master planning, town planning, urban design and architectural projects. Dr Yang is also advising the Chinese Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development on its urbanisation programme. Their entry argues that an ‘arc’ beyond the London Green Belt (stretching from Portsmouth to Oxford to Cambridge to Felixstowe) is the best location for the development of new garden cities; and that the government should publish a New Garden Cities Strategy, identifying broad ‘areas of search’ for suitable locations, with a 30 year timescale.

 

Pictured: Simon Wolfson, founder of the Wolfson Economics Prize

Article written by Mike Gannon | Published 04 June 2014

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