Architects all sneering at this tells you all you need to know about the industry today. They design their glass and steel monstrosities in a vacuum, what I like about developments like Poundbury is that they take into account how each building will complement the surrounding area.
I blame the developers, not the architects. The developers set the budget and the project parameters. Architects then only have tiny number of options. And I also blame the entire planning system.
@@Anon-u3i Yeah, a lot of problems with modern urbanism aren't completely the fault of architects. They're not blameless, but developers and government regularly tie their hands with requirements and regulations that boil down to "fill this plot of land with as many standardised homes as possible, in the fastest, cheapest manner possible". There's little room for architects to do anything, because the entire system is centred around meeting quotas and making money, and no one making the decision cares what happens after the homes are filled. Honestly reminds me of the commie-blocks of the USSR and Warsaw Pact. Similar mentality, similar problems.
Yes, it looks quite nice. It's a bit like Disneyland though. Converted dockside warehouse style buildings where there never was a warehouse or a Dock look utterly phoney. In London there are warehouses converted into flats next to the river, because that's where you build riverside warehouses.
@AndriyValdensius-wi8gw Not as bad as most new developments. These houses have been made to get better with age. Not look dreadful in 20 years like the more modern style buildings .
Isn’t beauty a place where birds sing? . This is just a pretty facade hiding intense environmental destruction. And the ridiculous number of cars means it’s now a pollution choked hell hole.
Why this hate for your fellow human beings? Why the verb "annex" - the dictionary definition of which is : "add (territory) to one's own territory by appropriation." Source: Oxford languages You think the poor displaced human beings you refer to have territory already? Goodness me.. I hope you won't be forced to leave your home one day. @@DavidPhilopott-bq9uv
@daydays12 Annex is probably a nice way of saying "squatters" People who move into property that isn't theirs and live there. We have this problem in Democrat run cities in the United States. Criminals are allowed to exploit laws designed to protect leaseholders from dishonest landlords. Of course these squatters don't have leases. They just find an empty property and more in. Many are in our country illegally on top of that. It's not "hatred" for our fellow man. It's a visceral dislike of criminals!
It sadly won’t because the market will deliver what is cheap and quick. That means minimalising planning and architecture. Local authorities will typically approve things if it gets houses built and won’t prioritise style, design, aesthetics or, frankly, amenities.
Some builders are producing small developments of individually designed houses, not the cookie-cutter street scenes you see on other developments. I bought such a house last year on a small Davidson's Homes development who are proud of the street scene they create.
It looks wonderful! It's definitely possible to criticise it -- the lack of vegetation, the overly wide streets, the amount of cars -- but the overall impression is very positive. The criticism Charles at one point made against the architecture establishment was entirely warranted. If anything, any criticism against Poundbury is that they didn't go far enough.
In another video about Poundbury it said the builders couldnt afford anymore trees because of cuts to the budget. Maybe due to inflation, who knows, of unforseen building issues. Price of lumber in Canada went up by 65% in 2020-3021. For a while we couldnt even get kumber, and new house building was halted.
I do like the wide streets, this is something that should have been implemented after the Great Fire in 1666. However England wasn't ready for continental style wide boulevards which is a shame as it would allow for better town planning in this day and age
It is quite phenomenal, well done King Charles. I am glad other places have decided to do something similar. The fact that it keeps traditional building skills going is wonderful.
@charleswhite758 Yes and no in fact. Yes the walls are usually breeze block based and then they are clothed in brick. Not pretend or brick veneer like the trendy blocks of flats in London docklands for example, but honest to goodness brick. The nearest they come to your matchstick timbers is the insistence that the sash windows are wooden ones. Not a triple glazed uPVC door or window anywhere in Poundbury, nor satellite dish, nor many other signs of modernity. By design!
@charleswhite758 Hoist by my own petard. I didn't make it as clear as I had hoped it seems. By "clothed in brick" and referring to the tower block faux frontages I meant real proper common or garden brick bricks. I know that you'd benefit from seeing them being built in the light of day, rather than on screen. It's unnerving to discover that what we think is true, no doubt about it, because we saw it on screen and know our stuff thank you; is somehow streets apart from reality. Happens to me time and again and I enjoy being brought down to earth because it reminds me that we're all human and fantastically fallible thank God!
@@maryjones5710 As a brickie who's work on Poundbury, I can tell you there is very little traditional building to be found. In fact, if I were to tell poundbury residents some of the building practices employed by the developers, they would put their homes on the market.
It looks like a lovely place to live or just stroll about. I know it's a wet Sunday but it's so nice to have green spaces and park benches and elegant buildings.
Stroll about with all that traffic noise and pollution, and difficulty crossing the major roads? . No trees, vast amounts of tarmac...looks like any other housing estate but with major roads running through it and a total lack of trees
The city where I live in France, and I live right in the centre, advertises its ambition to have nature in the city. It is making quite a good effort at it..many mature trees and mirror water pools and fountains right in the centre...a large tree has recently been planted near the front door of the building where I live. Not many cars in the centre and the public transport is good which keeps car use lower...the public transport is free on Saturdays and Sundays. @@solamano7239
No signs, no road markings, wide roads and open space. I love it! This goes to show that when you remove all the clutter telling people what to do they can make their own decisions, traffic slows down and it creates a safer environment for all. The town looks like it has been there forever.
Spot on. As a Landscape Architect I cannot emphasise just how much all the signage, clutter and guardrail roadmarkings etc etc create such awful visual mess. When you look at old photographs it is the lack of this stuff along with pre plastic window fenestration and lack of motor traffic which are the three major aspects that please. Here they have achieved two out of three. If only we could stop designing around the motor car too.
@@mikedowd2094I think it’s mostly a cultural thing. Where I live, I’d prefer signage and markings. It signals that the government has actually built something and this isn’t a rural area. Wide roads for areas with large populations of cars are essential and in Europe where cities are supposed to be walkable, they seem foreign and out of place. I think for the UK, however, these settlements are perfect. Albeit until the social drive for urbanisation doesn’t come to an end, towns like this will fade away as the youth will be more attracted to showcasing their peace of mind online and to others rather than having it in real life. I’d prefer newer towns and cities to be a mix of American and European settlements. Kinda like what Australia has done. Keep the cars but also the walkable nature.
You hit the nail on the head. I visited Prague recently and its historic centre has many of the same features as Poundbury: no road signs, beautiful stone buildings, a variety of architectural designs. Prague's historic centre was built mostly in the 14th century, and it is one of very few (possibly the largest and best preserved) medieval city in Europe that has survived intact to this day. Goes to show that we can still build beautiful places today, just like they used to do centuries ago.
So how do people get their bins emptied? For terraced houses, and there seem to be a lot of them, it surely means hauling heavy wet potentially-smelly wheelie-bins thru the house from what I assume are enclosed small back yards. All those posh houses having that problem makes you think.
Loving all the brickwork. It's the small details that i appreciated. The roads will be safe for vehicles and pedestrians for the following reasons: No road furniture, no speed bumps, no road markings, no signs. Road and town planners could learn from this. I like how there is loads of space between opposite buildings giving room for relatively wide roads, off road parking, grass and trees. Again, this makes things safer by affording clear visibility. Top marks.
The roads are a nice idea in theory but the reality is that someone was killed on a blind junction there in the last few years. I think the general idea is that everyone is supposed to drive slowly and it's safer for all but really drivers get bored, don't have anything stopping them, and drive at speed through completely unmarked junctions. I'm learning to drive around Poundbury at the moment and believe me it's a nightmare.
Really? The cars can barrel along at any speed they like? Horrible. Lots of tarmac for cars , one or two spindly bushes. ( = nature??) I imagine it is pretty windswept
I think you've miassed the architectural point, Jon - nothing is a "copy". Each building is an often intriguing mixture of traditionally established styles.
It really is a good place to live in! We live 5 minutes from the Post Office shop , and my morning newspaper, and everything else we need is handy. The developers have stuck with the original concept of 40% affordable housing [more than can be sad for some], and the mix of housing, work-places, shops and offices works well. The few restrictions placed on the residents make for good neighbourly behaviour. The large number of green spaces make this a most attractive town - it's just a pity that the walk shown here missed the Great Field, and the play park for the young.
What not to love about this fabulous place. But on top of all the harmony and sophistication they put the electric grid underground. Thats a dream town. Charles showed once again that he is a man with strong determination that gets results. First it was love of his life Camilla, then this amazingly beautiful town he’s built despite of all the mass media mockery and bureaucratic and political obstacles. I hope the place will stay centuries without graphites and other signs of “diversity makes us strong” nonsense.
Please educate yourself on the WEF policies, who is behind the WEF, the running of the Duchy and what charles did to Diana as you sound too young to remember her.
"putting the electric grid underground" is the way we do it in the UK; underground cabling to houses and businesses is standard. Poundbury is no different to any other village, suburb or city in this respect.
A little research will show that he was a supporter of the World Economic Forum and its globalist, marxist agenda. A supporter of 15-minute cities and 'climate change' lockdowns. No friend of the people. Attractive as the town is, for that reason alone I would never live there.
If the people who live there like it, then it's a success. One of the things that shows that it was not in fact built between about 1790 and 1860 is the absence of churches!
Way better than standard suburbia. The 'looks like a set' thing may be because it is new and will look less like that with age. The other possibility is that it is to do with the dominance of the visual in architecture - would be interesting to see some discussion of this. With vernacular architecture people build for utility and comfort as well as beauty - comparing vernacular architecture and architect architecture on this would be interesting.
I doesn't work because 'old' 'traditional ' villages/towns were not 'planned' to look like they did but grew organically with different families and individuals providing different parts and the ones serving the needs of the others. This place has eliminated anything organic and the possibility of anything organic as exemplified in the vast expanses of tar macadam, cars and zero mature trees
@@daydays12 Thanks. I agree with the thrust of what you're saying. That the ongoing organic adaptation brings different results to 'grand plans'. A qualification though - there was some legislation about who could do what where. There were new towns established - and were free of taxes and so forth.
It's very pretty, but I am glad I live in a slightly scruffy inner city suburb in the north of England. For one thing, we have a lot more trees, dozens of different bird species, and foxes. For another, we have neighbours we actually talk to and keep an eye out for. And another, we live within walking distance of three cinemas, five theatres, a world-class music centre, a Norman castle, several museums, two universities and a Premier league football club's home ground. Although I have to admit we don't have anything like the Cerne Abbas Giant, a BIG win for Dorset.
You are so right. the only 'living' things in the housing estate in the video are cars. Vast expanses of tarmac, no trees so certainly no birds or anything natural. Windswept too and difficult to cross this major roads Nothing organic about it at all
@@APAL880 Compared to the very opposite to what you say in the big city in France, where In live. I live in the very centre and there's no 'glass and steel hells cape', there are many trees, lots of small shops and amenities within short walking distance..a major electronic store in the beautiful old Stock Exchange building right in the centre, an excellent tram system and v good 'priority' buses all free at the week ends , a railway station which melds into a botanical garden a lovely ' old quarter' spared from British and American bombing. One of the reasons this city centre is so success is that lots of people live in it and do not need cars to do their day things like shopping, doctor/dentist cafés pubs bars, hospital clinics, theatres opera restaurants etc all within walking distance plus made accessible by a very good and cheap tram, bus and even ferry bus system. If cycling is your thing it is easy to get around on the dedicated cycleways. I could go on. I think you need to compare MK with places like the one I live in rather than with glass and steel hellscapes
@@daydays12It’s has green spaces developed in but it’s a new build so nature will take a few more years to establish in gardens and spaces. Also it’s winter in the video so nothing is in bloom yet.
in the video there were no mature trees - I guess they'd all been cut down. I saw may be one or two spindly bushes. The small area grass I saw was closely machined which is not ecological at all. It seems the automobile is the dominant form of wildlife in that housing estate. I was negatively surprised. @@squirepepe8657
In the video I saw no mature trees - I imagine they'd all been cut down. I saw may be one or two spindly bushes. The small area of grass I saw was closely machine mowed, which is not at all ecological. It is clear that the priority in this housing estate is the automobile. I don't know if you think 'nature' is able to come back from the devastation caused by property developers. Tar-macadam and concrete and severely machined grass and one or two isolated spindly bushes is not going to enable 'nature' to come back. You are asking a lot of 'nature'. It makes me cry to see this massive destruction and indifference to the natural world going on all over the country, not just in Poundbury. I bet a lot of wonderful promises were made before the green fields, hedgerows and woodland were bulldozed. Poundbury was started in 1993 so it is not exactly 'new build' whatever that means. I understand there's even a concrete square, Queen Mother Square which judging from photos appears to be a car park with statues of the Queen Mother and other 'Royals'. This place is the opposite of organic and is anti 'nature'. @@squirepepe8657
wow, @giabe8470 said it was 'horrible' in the comments. Have they been to any new development in the UK? This is light years ahead of your crappy Jones, Red Row, Barratt and David Wilsons. I'm from Manchester and visited, there's nothing being developed thats remotely like this in the North. It's all heap of crap cheaply made boot strapped lego sets. Also, people need to understand Poundbury is a residential development, it's not a town! Dorchester is the town, 5 mins away. It's got everything you need in walking distance. We really liked it, and that's coming from a couple of Mancs. I'd challenge anyone to find a NEW residential development that is as good as this. The play park in the Great Field is like something out of Centre Parcs
Glad to see streets not lined with parking meters unlike here in the States. I think over time some street trees can be added and the ever present asphalt can be replaced with better paving at critical points.
You are just saying it is a desert motor town....just aspphalt and noisy polluting cars. >Looks like it's pretty windswept too. No trees, no signs of public transport
Beautiful place. The sneering architects all live in equally cute places like Hampstead, but they don't want the rest of us to live anywhere but in bleak concrete disasters.. It needs a few EV chargers though, and a bit more "going on".. I'm slightly reminded of The Prisoner village though
Dorset is probably my favorite srea in the UK. I used to deliver food down there in my mid 20s, sround 2006. I delivered to a school right down the road from Poundbury. Always thought it was quite a posh place with alot of rich people. But absolutely stunning area. I would live to live there.
35% is social housing and it also has low cost craft centres so those IN the social housing can also learn skills with which to earn money. He really did think about everybody living there, not just those with lots of money.
Very tranquil, definitely could help lift the spirits. Architects, Developers, Banks, take note. Would be interesting to have an update in the Spring with the sun out and more activity to see how things are on a more typical day.
I absolutely love it. I like both modern and old architecture but I love this. The houses, the apartments, the overall design. I find architects and critics that sneer at it a bit condescending. These are the same people that design impersonal skyscrapers and shopping centres of course. People who think cities should have more Shards or Tesco superstores.
The buildings in London are also real, it's just they don't suit modern living. In all honesty I wish houses in Central London were a bit more ambitious and spacious than they are presently, there wouldn't be so much need to butcher the facades to preserve the look.
It's very human scale, which is appealing, and the architectural styles borrow from some of the best of British design over the centuries--very successfully. The "film set" aspect doesn't worry me, since it mostly means there's no litter and the houses and gardens are well maintained. It does look very quiet, but then it's an upscale community on a rainy Sunday afternoon, so that shouldn't be unexpected.
I know what you mean by film set. I visited many years ago, when it was relatively new, and it spooked me. I think it has the Uncanny Valley effect. It seems to mimic an organically developed older town, but it’s a bit off. Is it because it’s too new, too perfect? I think it might be because genuine old places have random changes and updates. It reminded me a bit of Portmeirion. Despite that, it’s better than a lot of modern developments. It’s a pity they didn’t throw in a few modern eco houses to showcase good modern design.
Thank you so much for that! I didn't know 'Electric Dreams' . I've just started watching it. It is very interesting. Greetings to you from a Brit living in France..
The question is: how well will the buildings age. I assume for the most part they are still based on modern materials and construction methods, which are generally as cheap as will meet regulation. Will the general aesthetic survive 20, 40 or even 60 years? I’m not so sure. For example, anything that is concrete rather than stone or slate is immediately on a durability timer.
They used local tradesmen and locally sourced traditional building materials actually. It’s the real deal. Which is why it was over budget and they had to compromise on the street design quite a lot. It was supposed to be nicer with cobblestones and stuff.
It looks like a Hornby Skaledale OO gauge layout on a 1:1 scale! Although it is a less ghastly infliction on an environmentally sensitive area than could have been built, you get the feeling that the future of this place does not hold anything good. Thanks for uploading.
I so agree with you. Greetings to you you from a Brit living in France. The large city where I live talks about bringing nature into town..it to a large extent it does; it and keeps cars mainly out of the centre provides excellent public transport , free on Saturday and Sunday. The housing development inn the video seems to hate nature and prefers tarmac and cars and non ecological closely mown grass aieee
To me it it is a blot on the beautiful Dorset landscape. Soulless. Forced, fakery. I believe the properties are leasehold to boot, mmm. So win, win for the Duchy. (I'm not anti monarchist but makes you think). I liked the idea behind it but not how it has evolved.
@@andreathomson4376 I wasn't very happy about it when I drove past there. Dorchester used to be like Casterbridge as depicted in the Thomas Hardy novels. I agree with your comment!
Thanks so much for that. I agree absolutely. Any trace of the natural world... fields, hedges, woods, even trees have been thoroughly erased and replaced by tar-macadam and cars.
I really enjoyed this. EXCELLENT work. I have always wanted to see Poundbury. The new builds look wonderful so authentic but I can see what you mean about a film set. It's absolutely gorgeous. I didn't spot ANY double yellow lines on the streets...excellent! I hope it doesn't get ruined by the influx like so many other towns in Britain.
It just looks like a normal English town. Reminds me of when I was a kid. It's amazing that these days we are so far gone that it takes a special experimental effort just to get a normal town built
It reminds me of an army barracks, somewhere like Aldershot, and also parts of south London. Everything is very block like, quite harsh in many ways. Very eighteenth century. The areas with grass and trees are nice. I’d have to visit to see if I like it. The fact that many houses have three or even four floors is good use of space, though I guess many are flats. Overall it’s rather strange, hard to know what to think.
Wow that place has changed a lot since I drove a bus through there. I did 3 years down in bridport driving the x53 and the 31 before moving back to London. How I wish I still lived down there. I still miss it and it’s been 15-20 years
I was trying to figure out what is unusual about Poundbury. And then the penny dropped. There are no overhead electric cables. It makes the place look so open, fresh and uncluttered. I know it needs more trees and I hope that will happen. It is so quiet and I wonder where all the people are. I think Poundbury is a brilliant concept which hopefully the architectural business will take on board and learn from. So much modern architecture is ugly and soulless. Poundbury is a pleasure to look at an gives a feeling of wellbeing. King Charles beautiful vision of comfortable, pleasing living ìs inspiring.
Having their electrical grid hidden underground protects this town from possible future EMPs in which case the residents of this place will be among a few ones who will survive apocalypse.
Do you live in the U.K.? Exposed overhead electric cables are rare here - in town they are nearly always buried, in fact I’m pretty sure it has been a requirement of building permission for years.
@davidpaterson2309 No, I live across the water in Ireland. Overhead cables are very common here. It's been years since I visited the UK, so I'm afraid I'm a bit out of touch. You've given me an excuse to pop over to visit my nephew. OK, it's a pretty pathetic excuse lol.
Thanks for the video. I’ve been curious about Poundbury for years, but I’ve never seen a walk-through like this. First impressions: incredibly car-centric (car noise was really intrusive); and I’m astonished by the lack of street trees in the more central/urban quarter. You say it reminds you of London (I thought they claimed it would be like Dorchester?), but London would have had plane trees in the gentrified neighbourhoods that Poundbury tries to imitate. I think the reason the buildings look just slightly odd is that they don’t actually have the exact proportions to be true copies of their original models; they are stylistic copies but built to contemporary standards. It does look like the construction and material choices are of good quality, which you’d expect for an elite development.
'I think the reason the buildings look just slightly odd is that they don’t actually have the exact proportions to be true copies of their original models' that's exactly it, and what gives rise to what another poster has described as the uncanny valley feel of Poundbury. Also, what town that size would have a street of grand stucco terraces immediately next to one with homes built in a vernacular style and then round the corner something that looks like a converted warehouse from the docklands of a large city?
@@ballyhigh11 Yes, the odd juxtaposition of mismatched styles gives the place the feel of an open-air museum rather than a place that’s grown organically over many years.
I love it and I do like that style of architecture. Notice - no yellow lines either. I was disappointed in York where you have the beautiful old architecture but in some streets the town planners have allowed really ugly modern buildings that don't fit in at all. For a comparison with Poundbury you should do concrete city Milton Keynes with its grid road layouts if you are ever up that way.
@@daydays12 I grew up in Coventry another concrete monolith. Successive councils even before and after WWII did more damage to the fabric of the city than the Luftwaffe.
It looks and must of felt the same when most of the housing stock was built round 200 years ago, so fresh but in the same time true to our traditional styling and architectural designs, I quite like it.
What a wonderful Legacy to leave. As The Prince of Wales , Charles had great architectural foresight. This New town will make their own memories . 🤗🤗❤️
Whenever I've been to Poundbury, I've come away feeling deeply depressed - it's a hodge podge of 'nice' architectural styles jammed up one to the next with no organic rationale. I begin to long for some graffiti, or something broken, to make me feel it's alive. (Cf: Port Meirion.)
I so agree with you even though I've never been there. What you write is interesting. It was used in a TV series called "Electric Dreams" first episode 'The Commuters' where it represents a kind of hell. It is a good episode and available on You Tube.
The buildings seem to be ageing quite gracefully, and I like the mix of building heights and materials. Scale and proportion wise I like how there'll be a cluster of buildings sharing a relatively unified theme without being street upon street of the same, it's visually stimulating having a unique building on a corner or an interesting shape.
Nearly everyone mentions the lack of trees. They were all bulldozed together with hedgerows streams and ponds and fields at the beginning of the project. It is a tar -macadam place designed round the motor car. Cars do not blossom in the Spring or react to sunlight. The place was started in 1993 and there is not a single relatively mature tree!
Yes. Most commenters mention this. I guess this is part of the design around the motor car. Lots of asphalt and wide roads with no obstacles for cars, no cycle lane. Virtually zero trees or any other plants. Is it because trees are untidy and unruly and organic.. have lives of their own?
I’ve visited Poundbury and i thought how impractical it was. You might think it looks pretty but it’s a just a heap of rabbit cages. You would not find Charles willing to live there. It’s a place for his serfs. For example, it would feel unsafe, living in a house where your windows abut the pavement so any passing lout can bang on the glass in the middle of the night. Also there must be noise from traffic right outside your window as there are no front gardens to separate your house from the street. And who wants the inconvenience and expense of having your window frames and the front door sanded and repainted annually? And the noise you get from neighbours when you live in a terraced house or a flat. The steps outside the Bonjour Cafe are just the right height for someone to fall over them. A trip hazard.
I 've never visited but its looks pretty terrible on the video. It is useful to know that that impression is justified. Thank you for providing the reality check.
Why would it? There is nothing natural to respond to Spring.. no trees, no plants, no birds, just cars. I don't know if car noise becomes more joyous in the Spring!
Very nice looking area, would also be interesting to know how people who live there feel about it. Maybe that would be interesting for you as well to have small interviews with local about the area?
I lived just across the road from the Poet Laureate ~11 years ago for a while, and I really liked the area. I've got some friends that live there now, and others that have lived there. I really like the vibe of the place.
I think you have nailed it by describing it as a film set. That is brought about by constructing it over a short space of time. Towns and villages evolve, sometimes over several hundred years and usually with a mixture of architectural styles. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the development is predominately 'Georgian' in design. If there was a true small town that had evolved there may be a mixture of tudor, stuart, georgian and possibly victorian.
Thank you very much for that. This place is exactly as you describe it. Its is inorganic trying to imitate the result only of hundreds of years of development without the development.
Mmmmm... Considering it was a Sunday in the middle of Winter I think it looks nice, very Georgian style looking. Would like to see it on a nice sunny day in the middle of Summer next time 😀👍
It would be no different. Cars do not blossom in the Spring or become dark green and give shade in Summer. There are zero mature trees in the place or even any other plants that I could see.. just a patch of severely mown grass- which is anti ecological . I am British but live in the centre of a big city in France... it is Spring know and the hundreds and hundreds of trees here in the centre a re greening and others are blossoming. That's what makes Spring! That Poundbury looks dead. Nothing natural to respond to the seasons
The architecture of the buildings is, to my eyes, pleasing in general tone, build quality and variety. Certainly a lot better than most suburbs from the 1960s onwards. No signs of vandalism, delapidation, drunkenness, mess on the streets, a huge plus. There is a very strong sense of the English middle classes: extremely car-centric, almost an open hostility to pedestrians, cyclists, really anyone who would like to stroll around and sit a bit on a bench in the park or the central square. Private wealth (those very very solid front doors) meets public poverty (almost no trees, sidewalks made of asphalt, no traffic calming measures, nowhere to safely cross the street, central square is a sordid parking lot). So, a mixed bag. As an avid city walker and cyclist I wouldn't feel welcome here.
Very well said! As a human being who like trees, plants, birds, streams and anything organic I wouldn't be welcome there either. Car-centric as you say, hostile to cyclists and pedestrians. Central square a sordid parking lot plus statues of the Royal Family!!!!
Architecturally looks Georgian, though much of it with its enormous formal buildings, warehouse styles and wide roads, great empty spaces and massive gateways in places unfortunately can give the appearance, in part, of a military barracks. Needs to be more people friendly.
Exactly as you wrote - a military barracks plus expanses of asphalt, zero trees or anything else organic except savagely mown grass ( anti ecological), and lots of noisy cars on wide roads. Depressing place. It was used to represent a sort of nightmare/ hell in one episode of a TV series in around 2017. It resembles in its' feel - but with extensive woodlands, which Poundbury does not have that place in Wales used for the dystopian series " The Prisoner" in the 1960s.
It's designed for cars, as long as they're not electric. Lots of parking but no driveways. Looks nice, not without issues though. For being brand new that does seem like an oversight.
Yes. I guess all the mature trees and hedgerows were bulldozed. Here, where I live ( I'm a Brit) in France developers are obliged to integrate existing mature trees , hedge rows and other natural features, like ponds, streams etc into their plans. This Poundbury place has taken the opposite view ( seems to be the UK view) i.e; - destroy all the plants, trees, streams, ponds etc, cover everything with tar- macadam for motor cars and build fake olde worlde buildings and do no planting.
Georgian / London feel - not bad. Hopefully more trees over time. Nice quality architectural elements - sash bay windows, smart doors. I would say all a bit samey - but almost inevitable from an all-done-at-once development.
Indeed . started in 1993... designed around the motor car, just tar-macadam and cars... wide roads for cars. No cycling certainly. No trees or any plants either.
I remember when it was a field ,my niece had her wedding reception at the broadsword hall 😊😊 ,its very classic but as you say it does look a bit like a film set around kensington gardens
King Charles we could do with more towns like your beautiful Poundbury ..What a pleasant place it must be to live in 😍instead of concrete and steel monstrous looking buildings ..
It’s clean, elegant and tidy, lovely place to live. And as for £500,000 for a house, that won’t buy you a small 3 bed ex council house anywhere in oxfordshire or Berkshire.
Infinitely better than any normal housing development of the last century. Tasteful architecture, and thoughtfully designed to accommodate both vehicles and pedestrians, with business premises slotted in amongst the residential. If I had to be in an urban setting, this would be my choice.
What I feel makes this town a bit eery, except the weather, is that it was designed to grow old, to age gracefully abd that hasn't happend yet. Most trees aren't close to mature, stuff hasn't changed from the original plan. But all that will happen and I'd bet that this town will become nice and cozy over the next 50 years and still be that way when other new developments have already been torn down and rebuilt three times over.
While the standard of building looks reassuringly high, and making allowances for the fact that the video is shot on a wet and miserable December Sunday, I still find Poundbury slightly creepy and soul-less. What is it that the Japanese say about pots? They say that perfection is for the gods and that a flaw brings life to the object. We are used to certain amount of quirkiness and tat in our environment and there is a marked lack of quirk or tat and dissonance (think Beethoven) in this architecture. I think developments like Port Sunlight, Bournville or Letchworth Garden City are more successful because the building styles are more varied.
I just found out today that the chef at the Two Rivers Meet Exercise (leisure) Centre, is the chef who used to own the Sandwich Box & Cafe at 825 Christchurch Road, Bournemouth. I was told he's a very experienced chef.
Yes. That's what it is .. barracks designed around the motor car. Almost zero trees, plants or anything organic. I wonder if the inhabitants live regimented lives. I guess there are many rules and regulations in Poundbury.
I think that it looks great overall, however, one trick that they have missed out on at least from my having watched the first 6 minuts of so is the planting of trees and greenery along the streets. This would have added greatly to the beauty of these town scaps and made it much more enjoyable for residence. Living in Munich it's one thing that I really enjoy.
it looks like what the developers have been tearing down since the 1970s, I like it a lot but I have fond memories of the past before out-of-town shopping developments when people lived within walking distance of the shops and the schools they went to, and people worked in the area they lived in,
