New Planning Agenda to combine 3 Great Themes

 
A new planning agenda for the 21st Century combining Sustainability, New Urbanism and the Garden City is the challenge being taken up in the second International Garden City Research Fellowship.

Judges reviewing an international field of entries from practitioners and academics selected the bid by Professor Dennis Hardy, one of the UK’s leading experts on international town planning and development, as the competition winner.

“We were hugely attracted by the aims of the Dennis’ study,” said Chairman of the Judges, Professor Stephen Ward, speaking after the panel had completed its deliberations. “There is clearly some strong commonality between these three great themes - sustainable development, urbanism and the Garden City movement - yet so far no-one has attempted to combine them in a single coherent agenda.”

Professor Hardy, who retired as Pro Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Urban Planning at Middlesex University in December 2005, has written and lectured widely on urban planning history and contemporary policy.

His book credits include “Poundbury: The town that Charles built” and a two volume history of the Town and Country Planning Association. Indeed, TCPA Director Gideon Amos and leading luminary Sir Peter Hall backed Hardy’s bid to win the 2006 Fellowship.

Hardy collaborated with Hall and Colin Ward on “Tomorrow: A peaceful path to reform”, a facsimile edition of Ebenezer Howard’s original text, published by Routledge to mark the Centenary of Letchworth Garden City, where Hardy contributed a concluding chapter outlining the continuing relevance of the Garden City solution to modern day problems.

Welcoming Professor Hardy’s appointment, Stuart Kenny, Director General of Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation said, “His proposals recognised that Howard’s Garden City was more than a physical solution, it also offered an ingenious way to share wealth within a community. We continue to implement and promote this aspect of Howard’s way and encourage its adoption elsewhere.”

Work now begins on the Fellowship study and is likely to result in the publication of a book, hopefully next year.

In meantime, the University of Westminster and Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, joint backers of the Fellowship, have started the search for the 2007 Fellow. Interested parties are invited to visit www.lgchf.com/fellowship for further information. The closing date for entries is 30 November 2006.