RURAL
Number 17 July 1991
A review of current Architectural and Environmental Issues and events in the Cambridge area produced by theCambridge Association of Architects. The views in this newsletter are those of the individual contributors and not of the Association. Newsletter co-edited by David Raven and Colen Lumley. ‘Cambridge Architecture’ Trumpington Mews, Trumpington, Cambridge. CB2 2LS
RURAL ISSUE
The spring issue of Cambridge Architecture concentrated on the city of Cambridge and some ofthepressures for change. Similar pressures affect the surrounding rural area. This issue guest edited by David Yandell considers some oftheforces at work, how these translate •'o policies and how these work through \ fleet detailed design.
Honey still for tea? When yougotoSainsbury's and find apples from Chile at 29p a pound it makes you realise how dramatically the relationship between Cambridge and its locality has changed. Most ofthefamous orchards that feda market town inthefirst quarter of the century and textured the early ordinance surveys, have gone. Ina village like Cottenham at the turn of the century 2,500 people hada close working relationship with the surrounding rich land either directly as famiers or in associated services such as basket makers, wheelrights, carters, well-borers etc. Now, in a village like Fen Ditton maybe4 or5, out of 350, farm the surrounding land. The villagers, like discarded shells, are reinhabited, primarily as dormitories. The village fringes get used fordog-walking, ( kicking and car boot sales. The surrounding â. ..ring is no longer symbiotic, rather alien, massive and threatening — polluting with chemicals, until recently filling the autumnal skies with smoke and denuding thelandscape. Cambridge itself always seems tohave hada patronising relationship with its surrounding villages, used when academic preoccupations drop (is there honey still for tea?) or dipped into by reps and boffins from theScience Park for those clinching business lunches.
planners remains firm. How artificial the location and form of those proposed settlements seem. Should it be east or west, should it wreck Wilburton or should it be where no original villager would have ever lived? What form should it take now that its working relationship with the land is extinct? Should it havea whimsical Hansel and Gretel aesthetic or should it be rational and unsentimental likea French ‘bastide’? Now that the village's sensitivity to geology, local climate, drainage and farming pattern is unnecessary should it be justa suburban off-cut? In the same way that we stress the importance of the Cambridge green open space so we should extend the same argument into the surrounding area. Instead of uniform dense growth along the roads, relate new growth to existing green areas such as the underrated and neglected Coldhams Common, andcreate new green areas such as theCherry Hinton pits. Disperse the population more into the 200 odd villages. Respect thehistoric form of these villages, don't diston them. Allow thewhole Cambridge area to absorb gradually an increase in population so that every capillary expandsa little and no vein, such as Homingsea Road, becomes varicose or in need of ‘by—pass’ surgery. Encourage work places in villages. What's wrong with them so long as they havea compatible scale and are not noisy or offensive? Walk towork and communciate by fax. Restore the variety of building types, bring back the granaries, forges, watermills and dovecotes as offices, workshops, labs and studios. Give village kids ‘work experience’ as they wander home from school. Maintain the tradition and personality of the place and make it one that is alive all day long. Revitalise the post office/store. Maybe, at least this would bea ‘holding’ arrangement until the demands and need for ecological balance become more urgent and appreciated, anda new organic arrangement
Much is made ofCambridge's interpenetration with thecountryside. The ‘green fingers’ so frequently identified are the traditional routes in and out of Cambridge forthose seeking pastoral release. The converse of these are the roads leading through thecountryside but into the built up arms of thecity. These aregenerally dangerous, tedious, choked — with mundane, low key development on all sides. Some ofthevillages have become subject to massive distortion. Amorphous, tumourous lumps have grown todisfigure the earlier senstive forms that interlocked with their surroundings and were somehow conscious of the topography. But the desirability of villages, their place in popular affection and in the concepts of
mid C19
between settlement and landscape begins to establish itself. D.Y.
Green Field Sights
Douglas Rule (Cambridge Landscape Architects) There might have beena time whena discussion on rural architecture would have been exclusively concerned with individual buildings, the local vernacular, building structure, details and aesthetics. The relationship between building design and landscape would nothave been given particular attention. However, now thesituation is such that the scale of changes in therural landscape are fundamentally altering the context of development. This is apparent nationally, and Cambridge with its pivotal position ina rapidly developing region, is surrounded by examples. Changes in agricultural land use practise can have immediate and dramatic effects turning green fields to lemon yellow and open fields with remnant hedges intoa patchwork of blocks of woodland. The previous tendency to forest only the poorest land is being reversed and the establishment of large areas of lowland forestry will be an increasing trend. There isa halt in the progressive intensification of arable farming anda move todiversification and the major changes which result often do not require planning permission. There arealso increasing demands forrural, locally based, recreation facilities and these too can change the appearance of extensive tracts of the countryside. In other words therural landscape in which new buildings might be sited is itself undergoing radical change. In parallel with this there are changes inthe way we use towns and cities. This too concerns the relationship between buildings and landscape. Here thetendency is to accommodate large scale developments for