Winter/Spring 2003
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architecture urbanism environmental issues • in the Cambridge city region
'DESIGN FOR THE FUTURE' Mixed messages from Cambourne The new settlement at Bar Hill and now Cambourne are precursors for a planned third such development in the Regional Plan. The brief for Cambourne is couched in t he visionary planning speak of South Cambridgeshire , en j oining dist i nctive character with regional location. Although the plan of Cambourne will take some ten to twelve years to fully realize it already looks , in part , some three hundred years old , doubtless due to the attachment to the village lifestyle and a strategy of ' consideration for different styles and arch itectural treatments '. In this context words like architecture, des ign,
authenticity and modern take on a commercially coded existence. The result is a kitsch concoction that Gerald Ratner would instinctively associate with the discriminating taste of the British public, as already reflected in the popular reception at Cambourne. There is no doubt that this avoids 'the isolated and faceless housing developments' that have given modern architecture such a downbeat reputation. But before the next instalment the questions have to be asked ; what regional quality has been achieved here? what design excellence? and which is the real authenticity - the business park or the cod historicising housing settlements?