We Can Build A City

It bears repeating; we're planning a city not a town. The substantial difference is that a city is where people both work and live. It is not simply a place to commute from. This makes a huge difference in not only how it is planned, but how it is funded, how the transport is arranged, and the possibilities for changing the socio-economic settlement. But first, let's go on a quick tour.

For Forest City, the housing we envisage will be gently dense, terraced housing in the main. Think Islington and Edinburgh rather than Milton Keynes or many of the detached, ugly, and sprawling developments being erected on the edge of villages and towns today. It needs to be gently dense to give as much space to nature, optimise land use, and create the requisite agglomeration effects.

Our extensive transport section lays out an entire thesis, Symbiotic Mobility, for how this would operate. It is a vision with mass transit, pedestrianisation and cycling at its heart.

The project will take all the lessons of the last 50 years of smart placemaking, urban design, and technological innovation, and start to implement them at scale. Whether it's a two pipe system for waste water so sewers no longer have to overflow effluence into rivers every time it buckets down, or district heating systems that ensure energy from data centres is a valuable product, not ‘waste’.

We also need enough space, not only for the prospect of abundant energy but for Nature. As the creator of the Garden City concept, Ebenezer Howard, wrote in his book, Tomorrow, “Human society and the beauty of nature are meant to be enjoyed together.” With all that we've learnt about ecology since Letchworth was built 100 years ago, his vision is due an update.

What we propose is, in effect, a huge rewilding project; not a dense managed forest of 12,000 acres, but a return to a medieval conception of woodland: oak, birch and willow, situated amongst ponds, marshes and meadow.

Like a budding plant, Forest City's massive nature reserve wends its way organically through the City, ensuring every part of it is touched by its vitality. And when the children of Forest City ramble, they will spot beavers, storks, bison, otters and voles; animals brought back to inhabit an environment that was once theirs. It's the same for the trees. Not only will we retain all current ancient and veteran trees, we demand we restore the historical baseline of the area going back as far as the old maps can enlighten us. It's a deeply rich, ecologically resilient habitat, which will, yes, need some very hard thinking in terms of how it is planted and fostered. But it will be a great legacy for this urban institution to nurture and protect for the benefit of the entire country.

As we move to the geographical centre of the City, we find a 1,600 acre lake, to swim and boat in and around its edges, another home for nature. This is also the City's reservoir, providing over 50% of its needs.

Then finally off to the lake's eastern shore, there is a Central Business District. 1,300 acres for offices, with tall, elegant structures and room for monumental architecture, engineered from cutting edge materials, not simply imposing glass and steel. It's enough office space — and across all 8,000 acres, lab space, and light industrial space — to compete with any Chinese or US city. All connected with frequent rail and metro links to some of the most dedicated and intelligent researchers on the planet. As Stanford University is to Silicon Valley, so Cambridge University shall be to Forest City.