Planning a New Town of the Future, Milton Keynes

  • new-towns

Extracts

Section titled “Extracts”
  • “A central planning team comprised of young architects all under the age of 40. All were schooled in the visionary architecture of Le Corbusier and his ‘Toward an Architecture’ philosophy, the minimalist modernism of Mies Van Der Rohe and the brutalist power couple The Smithsons”
  • “‘father of the city,’ Derek Walker, as Chief Architect of the Milton Keynes Development Corporation”
  • “In some places, there are even signs warning that pedestrians do not have priority – which one could read as the entire planning philosophy underpinning the design of central Milton Keynes.”
  • “Milton Keynes New Town was planned during an age when the general consensus was that the car is king and that cities needed to be planned to accommodate both the car and also plentiful car parking. ”
  • “Pedestrians in Milton Keynes are confined to car-free walkways and concrete underpasses. It is possible to traverse all of central Milton Keynes on foot without having to walk along a highway. ” … “Whilst the network of underpasses will keep people away from general traffic, it can often feel like one is going out of their way to get from A to B.”
  • “The wide streets and low-rise buildings make it a relatively easy place to navigate. This, together with the flat topography means that it’s easy to get one’s bearings and to see far into the distance.”
  • “One could be hard-pressed to locate the true centre, or heart, of CMK. It is difficult to escape the feeling that everything has been planned and organised.”

VITALLY

  • “The utopian architectural vision for Milton Keynes didn’t quite come to pass in its entirety due to a combination of changes to the UK Government, the economic climate, and the resulting changes to socio-economic policy in the 1970s and 1980s. The role of the State was scaled back with an emphasis placed firmly on private enterprise. It was this that so enraptured the Conservative Prime Minister of the time, Margaret Thatcher, who would often be seen for photo opportunities proclaiming the enterprising spirit of Milton Keynes.”