David Rudlin was announced as the winner of the 2014 Wolfson Economics Prize at a special gala dinner in London on Wednesday 3 September 2014. Five finalists competed for the top £250,000 prize. The shortlisted entries, though all very different from each other, provide valuable ideas about how best to deliver a new garden city which is visionary, economically viable and popular.
Details of the finalists and their initial submissions were published on 4 June 2014. The finalists were challenged to refine their submissions in the second round of the competition and were given until 11 August to develop and resubmit their entries, from which the Judges will choose an overall winner. The finalists’ revised submissions are available below and a compendium of the finalist’s Non-Technical Summaries is available here.
David Rudlin of URBED, with Nicholas Falk (also URBED) and input from Jon Rowland (John Rowland Urban Design), Joe Ravetz (Manchester University) and Peter Redman (Managing Director, Policy and Research at TradeRisks Ltd).
David Rudlin argues for the near-doubling of existing large towns in line with garden city principles, to provide 86,000 new homes for 150,000 people built over 30-35 years. The entry imagines a fictional town called Uxcester to develop the concept, and applies that concept to Oxford (2011 population: 150,000) as a case study, showing how Oxford could rival the strategy adopted by Cambridge for growth and expansion. David argues that there may be as many as 40 cities in England that could be doubled in size in this way, such as York, Norwich, Stafford and Cheltenham. 20% of new homes would be affordable housing.
Shelter, the leading housing and homelessness charity (in collaboration with architects PRP, with advice from KPMG LLP, Laing O’Rourke plc and Legal & General), led by their Head of Policy Toby Lloyd.
Shelter, the leading housing and homelessness charity proposes a new garden city on the Hoo Peninsula in Medway, Kent. Commencing with a settlement of 15,000 homes (36,000 people – about the size of Letchworth Garden City) built over 15 years, Stoke Harbour would eventually grow into a garden city of 60,000 homes (144,000 people – slightly smaller than Oxford). The entry proposes a new model designed to attract massive private investment into the provision of high quality homes, jobs, services and infrastructure. New polling for Shelter in the submission shows that 55% of people in Medway support a new garden city on the Hoo Peninsula compared to just 33% who oppose. 37.5% of new homes would be affordable housing.