Wolfson rewards grand-scale sprawl idea

摘要

A scheme to double the size of up to 40 English towns by building homes for up to 6m people in new greenfield suburbs has won the £250,000 Wolfson Prize - which was supposed to encourage new garden cities. The judges unanimously gave the award to David Rudlin of URBED and his colleagues for his scheme to add 150,000 population greenfield urban extensions to the towns. The move is set to perpetuate the hundred year old conflict in the garden city movement between the purists who insist on garden cities at new remote sites and those prepared to accept garden suburbs as part of the sprawl. "I am delighted that our distinctive approach to building garden cities has been recognised by the judges, as will the good people of the fictional city of Uxcester that we created for the submission," said Mr Rudlin. "We believe that the expansion of existing places like Uxcester to create garden cities has the potential to make a significant contribution to meeting our housing needs as well as creating places that are attractive and popular, and that fulfil their economic potential."