Howard reacted to the overcrowded, unhealthy conditions of the industrial city, in favour of spacious communities of twentyfive dwellings per hectare, that had the benefits of both town and country.28 The concept preceded the popularisation of the motorcar and the mass suburban sprawl that followed throughout the twentieth century. The conditions have significantly changed. Today, London is post-industrial and is comparatively clean and healthy. Continuing the spirit of radical settlements in Essex, the thesis uses West Tey as a hypothetical template to speculate reformation, in reaction to ecological decline and the increasing divide between people and nature.
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Figure 1.10 Live project proposals for ‘West Tey’ Garden Community
Figure 1.11.1 Aerial photograph
DESIGN PROPOSAL
When interviewed about the current environmental strategy for the NEGC Concept Framework with current ‘West Tey’ boundary. new communities the County Councillor John Spence, Chairman of NEGC ltd. said: Figure 2.5: Concept Framework
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“The emphasis is going to be on sustainability and quality of design and ensuring that we enhance the linkage of the countryside and the community, the rural and the urban, really well absorbing them both creating clear corridors where people can walk, run, and cycle.” 29 The architectural and planning professions pejoratively provide little guidance for the development of greenfield sites, instead favouring brownfield development, despite the extent of the area. Of course, ecologically-poor brownfield sites should be developed first, but the terms brownfield and greenfield, do not determine the ecological value of land. In The Greening of Cities, Nicholson-Lorn compares the sterility of public greenspaces, with the ecological complexity of brownfield land.30 In many cases, brownfield sites are more biodiverse than the surrounding context, with value to wildlife for their varied structure and freedom from agricultural forces.31 The plotland settlement at Langdon Hills, in South Essex, was developed on former agricultural land but was mainly abandoned by the beginning of the second world war. Biodiversity reclaimed the site ‘leaving only telegraph poles still projecting from the trees,’ and today much of Langdon is a nature reserve and a country park.32,33 It would be arguably naive to assume that all greenfield development is entirely avertable; thus, the project accepts an extent of development inevitability. As the projections indicate that housing and agricultural pressures are unlikely to falter, the thesis aims to engage with rather than disregard the greenfield development debate. Although the national housing issue poses a threat to wildlife, it is fundamentally an opportunity for change.
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28 Howard Ebenezer, F. J Osborn and Lewis Mumford, Garden Of Cities Of To-Morrow (Cambridge, Mass: M.I.T Press, 1973). 29 Cllr. John Spence, North Essex Garden Community Headlines, interview by Author, Essex, 2019. 30 David Nicholson-Lord, The Greening Of The Cities (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987). 31 Ibid. 32 Dennis Hardy and Colin Ward, Arcadia For All (Nottingham: Five Leaves, 2004), 209. 33 Oliver Rackham, Ancient Woodland (Dalbeattie, Kirkcudbrightshire: Castlepoint, 2003).
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Figure 1.11.2 Iterative Plan, Gateway 120, “Presentation to Marks Tey Parish Council”, April DESIGN PROPOSAL 2018. Concept Masterplan Tiptree
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đƫ The purpose of this con demonstrate what could that it could be viable a but it is not the design. what it would necessary as we have yet to fully e collaborate; đƫ It is an iterative process đƫ Marks Tey PC will be a k stakeholder with whom consult.
Figure 1.11.3 Specualtive proposal, Studio LK and Gateway 120, “Presentation to Marks Tey Parish Council”, April 2018.
Figure 1.11.4 Marks Tey and Stanway Future Vision, by Sophie Smith, 2019. https://www.sophiesmith.co.uk/projects/ 9