In England for 30 years, an experimental city is being built, the project of which was conceived by King Charles III

Vice tells what he did

Poundbury is an experimental urban development project on the outskirts of Dorcheter, located in the south-west of England. The construction of this urban settlement began in the 1990s. The leadership of the project was assumed by the Duchy of Cornwall and Personally King Charles III, then Prince Charles, who had previously repeatedly criticized the post -war trends in urban planning.

The Poundbury project positions itself as a new view of urban planning, inspired by the principles of new urbanism , the purpose of which is to rejection of the usual suburban development in favor of compact planning and walking availability of all services necessary for residents.

“When I took this enterprise for this, I was sure that Poundbury would break the templates of traditional housing development and create an attractive place for life, work and rest. Many told me that nothing would work out of this, but I am happy to say that skeptics were wrong and now Poundbury is a prosperous urban settlement, ”Poundbury’s official website quoted the king as saying.

Despite the fact that the project “embodied social, economic and planning innovations”, many critics laughed at the “His Majesty’s whim” and called Poundbury a “feudal dysnealend”.

However, after about 30 years of construction, the settlement came to life. Now more than four thousand people live in it, it provides more than two thousand jobs. It has about 200 stores, cafes, offices and enterprises. The Guardian wrote in 2016: “If Poundbury is a game, then over time this game has become very convincing.”

One of the main attractions of Poundbury is the statue of the queen-mother, the grandmother of Charles III Elizabeth. The three -meter monument made of bronze is located almost in the very center of the settlement, on the same area. Vice journalist Sofia Smith Gayler, who visited Poundbury, notes that although the settlement project was focused on creating a convenient environment for pedestrians, a huge parking lot is located next to the statue. About the inhabitants themselves, she writes that they clearly prefer to move on cars.

According to the census for 2020, more than a third of Poundbury residents were people over 65 years old. Sofia Smith Gayler got acquainted with the local magazine published by the Public Fund. She drew attention to a number of advertisements about the services of a manual therapist, hearing and physical education centers for people over 50 years of age, as well as for advertising traveling on luxurious cars and a selection of capital management tips. In the photographs on the Poundbury website, many elderly people can be seen .

Sofia Smith Gayler talked with residents of neighboring settlements, who said that in order to live in Poundbury, "you need to be a person of a certain type." They also talked about the woman whom the locals reprimanded the fact that there were too many flowers in her garden.

Prices for housing in Poundbury are about 700 thousand pounds. The local real estate agent gave the VICE 52-page booklet with the rules of residence and construction. From it, she learned that Puffer's chimneys should not be “inappropriately wide”. It also turned out that most of the chimneys that she saw is actually unfunctional and intended only to preserve the “traditional silhouettes” of buildings.

The booklet said that Poundbury does not approve of launching paths on top of the lawns in kindergartens in front of houses, and also do not allow the use of artificial grass. In addition, the settlement is prohibited by the installation of solar panels if they can be seen from the street, and any new eco -technologies that “imply a change in appearance or represent a potential inconvenience for other residents” should be agreed with the regulator.

VICE journalist notes that Poundbury is beautiful, how beautiful a suburb from the film “Edward of the Hands-Blinds ” would be beautiful if he was shot in England. Even tourists, she writes, photograph the statue of the mother-mother half due to national mourning in the UK, and half due to the fact that Poundbury has nothing more to photograph.