On Architecture, Aesthetics and Poundbury

How can architecture help make places beautiful again? Ben Pentreath, Pentreath and Hall

"There is no doubt in my mind that the factors which make Poundbury truly revolutionary and truly important, go way beyond the role of the architect...But it’s really not a development that ‘fits in’. It was Poundbury’s bad luck, of course, that the land allocated by West Dorset Council all those years ago was on top of a prominent hill – as Krier says, wistfully, all the best sites were already taken! – but I suppose it’s also true to say that the town on the hill, with Krier’s intentional hard edge between the urban form and the rural landscape beyond, even with its tall bastion wall in places, exaggerates the effect. Approaching Poundbury from any direction, these days, from a distance, and seeing the buildings high on the skyline, overlooked by the dome that for better or worse, I’ve designed – I often end up in my mind with the image of an Italian hill town rather than a Dorset settlement. And I wonder if I’m alone in this?"

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"As Poundbury matures, and creates its own energy, it has without doubt achieved that most elusive quality – a real sense of place: it is most definitely, to coin the current phase, of somewhere, not anywhere...But I’ll be honest: as a model for wider development, both in the county and in the country, I sometimes worry that it is too rarefied, too special, too designed, too varied, too bespoke, to be a relevant, simple and imitative model for the future".

Thanks to Dorian for the link.