Annual review 2006 - The Prince of Wales

THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT
The Prince of Wales handed
over keys to the 100th tenant
to be given affordable housing
in Poundbury, Dorset.
The Prince of Wales joins a seminar
group at a conference at St James’s
Palace on the subject of health and
urban design.
The Prince of Wales visits the
Royal Arsenal Woolwich housing
project, 30% of which will be set
aside for key workers to part-buy
under shared-ownership schemes.
The Anchor Mills development
in Paisley, near Glasgow.
Courtesy of Jim Hermet.
The Prince gives a speech at
the National Building Museum,
Washington DC after receiving
the Vincent Scully Prize for his
contribution to the debate on
architecture and urban planning.
His Royal Highness’s desire to protect and sustain the
natural environment is matched by his interest in the built
environment and how it affects the quality of people’s
lives. The Prince believes more can be done to create
urban areas that encourage a sense of community and
pride of place, and which foster the well-being of those
who live there and alleviate social problems.
To help put his ideas and principles into effect, in 1992 His Royal Highness
set up his Institute of Architecture, which six years later evolved into
The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment, which today provides
consultancy and education services for large-scale urban development
and regeneration projects.
The best-known example of the Foundation’s principles at work is found at
Poundbury in Dorset where for the past 16 years The Prince has overseen the
development on Duchy of Cornwall land of an urban extension to Dorchester.
The Duchy has helped foster a sense of community in Poundbury by integrating
private and social housing, designing pedestrian-orientated streets, alleviating
commuting pressures by integrating offi ce and commercial facilities in
residential areas, and by designing buildings that refl ect local character
and architectural tradition.
In June 2005, His Royal Highness met the 100th tenant to be given affordable
housing in Poundbury. After giving Rebecca and Antony McDonald and their
four children the keys to their home, which is run by the Guinness Trust,
The Prince said: “This is a marvellous day and an important landmark in the
whole development”, adding that Poundbury had proved wrong those critics
who had argued that affordable and private housing could not survive
alongside each other.
The planning and design principles at work in Poundbury are also being
applied to a town extension being developed on Duchy of Cornwall land
in Newquay, Cornwall, and at both locations one of the main ambitions
has been to create a community that is healthier for its residents. In January
2006, The Prince said, in a speech to a conference at St James’s Palace
on health and urban design co-hosted by his Foundation and the King’s
Fund, that better design of homes and neighbourhoods can help alleviate
health and other social problems.
32 | ANNUAL REVIEW 2006