Dear colleagues,
Please find a call for papers for a study day in Paris in April 2022 below.
Kind regards,
Pr David Fée
Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris
Health, Housing and Wellbeing in the UK New Towns
International Conference/Study Day, Paris 7th-8th April 2022
The Post-Covid world has put a focus on planning and designing for housing which both contribute to health and wellbeing, and the current debates on climate change and sustainability add another urgent layer. The experience of the UK New Towns and recent experiments in building Garden Towns and Villages have much to offer in that debate.
In association with the New Towns Heritage Research Network, the Centre for British Studies of the University of Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris (a member of the Sorbonne Nouvelle research centre on the English-speaking world) is organising a study day and field trip on 7-8 April 2022 devoted to housing and the challenges of designing for health and wellbeing in a period of climate change using the example of the British New Towns.
The conference will be conducted in English. It will consider the positive lessons to be learned for the planning and design of the New Towns and the challenges of re-design they now face as part of a multi-disciplinary and cross-sector debate.
We are inviting papers from British and French practitioners, civic societies as well as from academic researchers.
Funding is available for accommodation for up to 8-10 participants from the UK. Travel expenses may be paid for depending on our final budget.
Background
The UK New Towns were built in three waves after the war to disperse British population away from the big cities and reorganise the UK urban regions. They were an attempt at planning whole new communities in reaction to the interwar urban sprawl and suburbia. These new towns were planned in a holistic way as mixed, self-standing and sufficient communities. Above all, these new communities were meant to provide modern housing conditions to the millions of new residents that were to leave behind their inner-city homes because of national economic policies, destruction or slum clearance.
Seventy years later, the 32 New Towns have become homes to some 2 million people but have faced multiple criticisms for their post-war modernist architecture, mass production building techniques, ageing town centres or top-down planning principles. Some of the dwelling stock has been demolished (such as Laindon estate in Basildon) and the design of other estates has been profoundly altered (such as the Three hills estate in Harlow) to meet modern standards and residents’ needs and requests. A new wave of redesigns may well be needed to meet the challenges of climate change.
Yet, the UK New Towns could be said to be “ideally equipped to pioneer the move to sustainability” (Anthony Alexander) today in 2021 and meet the challenges of modern times. At the time when the United Nations calls for fairer, greener and healthier cities, and underlines that the health pandemic has mostly affected dense urban areas. New Towns can be at the forefront of this. When public transport is being shunned by weary commuters and remote working has become the new normal, they offer carefully designed inclusive neighbourhoods that can locally provide all the necessary community facilities and services to residents.
Besides, it could be argued that their planning principles can also help meet the UK’s current housing crisis that is partly caused by the decade-long gap between housing output and requirements (Bowie, 2017). However, resolving the housing crisis is highly contested in England, now made even more complicated by further proposed planning reforms and controversial proposals for ‘levelling up’ declining regions. Thus, the role of the existing New Towns and proposed Garden Towns and so-called Healthy Towns in meeting housing needs for the 21st century is uncertain.
Finally, it can be argued that New Towns can help provide lessons, both positive and negative about how planning can address climate change and health issues. The first-generation New Towns offer examples of extensive networks of cycling lanes, footpaths and car free pedestrian areas that could be revived and provide a blueprint for low-carbon neighbourhoods in new communities. Good design and place making in the form of master-planning based on these New Town principles can provide unique opportunities (TCPA, 2021). However, the second-generation New Towns abandoned this approach and were planned specifically around accommodating the motor car with a consequent decline in city centre viability and neighbourhood shopping.
In spite of this, some New Towns particularly Milton Keynes have been at the forefront of innovation to turn around their car-based designs to make their city more sustainable in transport and housing.
For all these reasons, the growing concern for sustainability at the global and UK level warrants a reflection on the potential contribution of New Towns (past and present) to the issue as well as the relevance of their planning and housing heritage in meeting contemporary challenges.
The conference organisers welcome papers that could focus on:
The housing crisis and UK New Towns
Innovative housing design and re-design in the UK New Towns
The Covid 19 pandemic, health questions and UK New Towns
The evolution of New Town planning and housing heritage in the face of modern challenges for sustainability
The expansion or wider regeneration of New Towns
Proposals for contributions including title and abstract of 300 words should be sent to Professor David Fee by November 30th 2021 at [log in to unmask]
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