Prince of Wales Promotes Health, Wealth, and Courtesy

I'm starting to like HRH the Prince of Wales. Or maybe I like Hank Dittmar, the head of the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment, who I suspect is the brains behind the operation. Hank Dittmar is still Chairman of the Congress for the New Urbanism, and has been president of the Center for Transit-Oriented Design, a founder of Reconnecting America, executive director of the Surface Transportation Policy Project, on the White House Advisory Committee on Transportation and Greenhouse Gas Emissions and chair of the Metropolitan Working Group of the President's Council on Sustainable Development. He probably knows what he's talking about.

A few weeks ago, the Prince gave a controversial speech in which he condemned the spate of new residential towers of nine to twenty stories and the "buy to let" investors and the urban planners who seem to promote them. He drew the parallel between courtesy and good manners between individuals and what he calls vandalism against the heritage and remaining beuatiful areas of our cities. He gave several arguments in favour of adaptive reuse of existing building rather than redevelopment, and of building adaptably for the long term, one hundred years rather than twenty. He wants new construction to fit into the existing context.

And, finally, it is worth understanding the purpose of a building, or group of buildings, within the hierarchy of the buildings around it and responding with an appropriate building type and design. Doing this often implies the composition of a harmonious whole, rather than the erection of singular objects of architectural or corporate will which merely panders to ego-centric imperatives.

He discussed the principles of planning the entire built environment, with public spaces, a mix of uses within walking distance, legibility and proportion, mix of private, social and affordable housing. But he was particularly scathing about tall buildings near heritage sites, but not against tall buildings in general, which he thinks may be suitably clustered a bit outside the old city. His reasons for objecting to tall towers, especially residential ones, are not all aesthetic but also social and environmental.

Many people believe, erroneously, that the only way to achieve environmental efficiencies in development is by building very tall buildings. Indeed, improving the average density of building in England is critical to achieving "location efficiency," which reduces automobile use and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as minimizing land-take. But these efficiencies only begin to occur at 17 units to the hectare, when public transport becomes feasible, and begin to tail off at densities above 70 units to the hectare, according to a definitive research study from the United States which has recently been applied by my Foundation in a London project. This is because achieving environmental gains is a function of density, access to public transport and walkable, connected streets. Pedestrian street access becomes more difficult at higher density.

This definitive study is probably one by Dittmar and others that I've mentioned before. In my opinion that study is qualitatively right about diminishing returns at the higher end of the density scale but overestimates even the small effect of residential density on transit at the highest end on the scale.

The Prince's Foundation doesn't just follow the latest fads or the current likes and dislikes of someone who happens to have been born into the royal family. It follows an established design theory that is thoughtful and progessive.

The latest news is that the Foundation is embarking on a new project, called Knockroon (isn't that where James Boswell used to live?) in Scotland. The new town will specialize in healthy living, where everything is walkable and cycling is de rigueur. This is intended to demonstrate how the built environment can affect health. And presumably it won't have any tall towers being discourteous to the existing historic Dumfries House (pictured).

Tags: Urban Planning Urban Design Walkable Skyscrapers New Urbanism

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