One aspect of this essay will consider the Poundbury design experience an holistic approach to planning as a result of a multidisciplinary vision of a “localized” sustainability a vision that has overcome the limits of an analytical consideration of the problem of sustainability that emerged from the debate of the 1990s, after the Brundtland report. Another aspect will attempt to explore the urban form of Poundbury as evidence of a settlement that has derived from a "purely formal" interpretation of consolidate historic towns. An analysis of the responses both in terms of urban morphology and architecture to those principles proclaimed by the movement of New Traditionalism in the sign of “Urban Sustainability”, reveals them as ideal models that misrepresent the true nature of built reality. In fact it is not enough to consider the historic town as evidence of urban conditions in the sign of a sustainable livability if those conditions are merely perceived and transmitted as consolidated forms, rather than principles which have led to configure those forms themselves and so able to define a design methodology as real guarantor of continuity. On the basis of the above assessments, the critical inquiry into Poundbury will focus on the following binomial: the research for an Urban Sustainability and its impact in terms of urban and architectural morphemes. This binomial will be analyzed in the essay from a multiscalar vision of Poundbury: urban organism (Dorchester and Poundbury), urban tissue and architectural organism. The multiscalar approach rooted on the idea one of the characteristics of urban form is that it divides into distinct levels. The patterns found at different levels such as street/block, plot series, plot, building, cell and structure are not interchangeable and the long term success of a design depends on understanding not only the differences but also the relationships between levels. The levels are interdependent (Kropf, 2005).
Poundbury: example of sustainable urbanism signed by a traditional formalism
Nicola Scardigno
2018-01-01
Abstract
One aspect of this essay will consider the Poundbury design experience an holistic approach to planning as a result of a multidisciplinary vision of a “localized” sustainability a vision that has overcome the limits of an analytical consideration of the problem of sustainability that emerged from the debate of the 1990s, after the Brundtland report. Another aspect will attempt to explore the urban form of Poundbury as evidence of a settlement that has derived from a "purely formal" interpretation of consolidate historic towns. An analysis of the responses both in terms of urban morphology and architecture to those principles proclaimed by the movement of New Traditionalism in the sign of “Urban Sustainability”, reveals them as ideal models that misrepresent the true nature of built reality. In fact it is not enough to consider the historic town as evidence of urban conditions in the sign of a sustainable livability if those conditions are merely perceived and transmitted as consolidated forms, rather than principles which have led to configure those forms themselves and so able to define a design methodology as real guarantor of continuity. On the basis of the above assessments, the critical inquiry into Poundbury will focus on the following binomial: the research for an Urban Sustainability and its impact in terms of urban and architectural morphemes. This binomial will be analyzed in the essay from a multiscalar vision of Poundbury: urban organism (Dorchester and Poundbury), urban tissue and architectural organism. The multiscalar approach rooted on the idea one of the characteristics of urban form is that it divides into distinct levels. The patterns found at different levels such as street/block, plot series, plot, building, cell and structure are not interchangeable and the long term success of a design depends on understanding not only the differences but also the relationships between levels. The levels are interdependent (Kropf, 2005).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
