Poundbury
will grow gradually in response to market demand over the next few decades, adding a
population of some 5,000 people to the existing town of Dorchester, and increasing its
area by about one third. Everything about the development is geared to complementing and
enhancing the existing town.In i 1988, The Prince of Wales appointed the
architect and urban planner Leon Krier to prepare a masterplan for the development.
Krier is well known in Europe and America as a champion of traditional urban design.
His brief was to create an extension to the town that responded to the traditional
architecture of Dorset and also incorporated the principles of A Vision of britain. The
design reflects the English village tradition with the largest possible variety of urban
plots - detached, semi-detached and terraced houses, mews, squares and courtyards -all
creating attractive strectscapes. The masterplan divides Poundbury into four distinctive
areas - or communities - as part of Dorchester.
A key part of the design brief is a set of guidelines drawn up as the Poundbury
Building Code that prescribes certain traditional materials and the scale of individual
buildings.
Roads are generally irregular and winding, controlling the speed of vehicles in a
natural way and forming public spaces of a highly individual character. See pattern
Overall some 2o% of the housing will be be homes built by housing associations for rent
or part ownership/part rent by local people. This housing is not separated from but
interspersed with and indistinguishable from private housing.
