A consortium led by Academicians David Rudlin AoU and Dr Nicholas Falk AoU (URBED) have won the challenge set by Wolfson Prize to design a new Garden City.
The team, also including Jon Rowland AoU (Jon Rowland Urban Design), Joe Ravetz (Manchester University) and Peter Redman (Managing Director, Policy and Research at TradeRisks Ltd) submitted their response to the question “how would you deliver a new Garden City which is visionary, economically viable, and popular?”
According to the Policy Exchange, who ran the competition for the Wolfson Prize, their response “argues for the near-doubling of existing large towns in line with garden city principles, to provide 86,000 new homes for 150,000 people built over 30-35 years. The entry imagines a fictional town called Uxcester to develop the concept, and applies that concept to Oxford (2011 population: 150,000) as a case study, showing how Oxford could rival the strategy adopted by Cambridge for growth and expansion. David argues that there may be as many as 40 cities in England that could be doubled in size in this way, such as York, Norwich, Stafford and Cheltenham. 20% of new homes would be affordable housing.”
The Academy would like to congratulate the many Academicians involved in submitting responses to this important initiative.