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Abstract
The history of Milton Keynes’ future, including both the realized and unrealized schemes of this new town in the United Kingdom, provides crucial information that can be used to inform future scenarios. Milton Keynes, which was established in 1970, was envisioned as a Forest City and implemented a landscape framework of beads, strings and setting for urban grid forms. The agency of future landscape visions are investigated using futures methods, including backcasting and representational studies, alongside interviews, GIS, drones and fieldwork. The landscape visions contribute to the city’s existing and future identity, which has not been fully accounted for in Milton Keynes studies.
Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge the short correspondence with Andrew Mahaddie (AA School) before he passed away 1939–2014 and the late Derek Walker 1929–2015.Footnote63 I would also like to thank Catherine McIntyre, Archivist at Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre, and Prof Steven V. Ward’s AHRC New Towns Heritage Research Network (2017). I would finally like to thank Lee Shostak OBE for his comments on the early draft.
Notes
1 Lord Campbell of Eskan, ‘Foreword’, in: Milton Keynes Development Corporation, The Plan for Milton Keynes, Volume One (Milton Keynes: City Print, 1970), xi.
2 Urban Morphology according to Karl Kropf is ‘the study of human settlements, their structure and the process of their formation and transformation’, Karl Kropf, The Handbook of Urban Morphology (London: John Wiley & Sons, 2017), 9. See also, for a detailed account of the development of urban morphology: Victor Oliveira, ‘An Historico-Geographical Theory of Urban Form’, Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability 12/4 (2019), 412–432.
3 PWC, ‘Cities Index’, pwc.co.uk/goodgrowth#modeller, accessed 10 February 2021.
4 Place Alliance, ‘The Design Deficit: Design Skills and Design Governance Approaches in English Local Authorities’, placealliance.org.uk/research/design-deficit/#About%20the%20Research, accessed 20 June 2023.
5 MK Futures 2050 Commission, ‘Strategy for 2050’ (2016), mkfutures2050.com/read-our-report, accessed 14 May 2017.
6 East-West Rail, eastwestrail.co.uk/, accessed 24 July 2019.
7 Of note is Gordon Cullen’s drawings of a monorail city, written with Richard Mathews, A Town Called ACLAN, 1-4 (ALCAN Ltd, 1964–1968).
8 Guy Ortolano, ‘Planning the Urban Future in 1960s Britain’, The Historical Journal 54/2 (2011), 477–507.
9 Michael Edwards, ‘City Design: What Went Wrong at Milton Keynes?’, Journal of Urban Design 6/1 (February 2001), 89.
10 Milton Keynes Development Corporation, The Plan For Milton Keynes, op. cit. (note 1), 42.
11 Monica Degen, Caitlin DeSilvey and Gillian Rose, ‘Experiencing Visualities in Designed Urban Environments: Learning from Milton Keynes’, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 40/8 (August 2008), 1901–1920.
12 Edwards, ‘City Design’, op. cit. (note 9), 91.
13 Janina Gosseye, ‘Milton Keynes’ Centre: the Apotheosis of the British Post-War Consensus or the Apostle of Neo-Liberalism?’, History of Retailing and Consumption 1/3 (2015), 209–229.
14 Christopher Williamson, ‘Urban Design in Central Milton Keynes: 25 Years on from the Masterplan’, Urban Design International 1/4 (1996), 335.
15 Jamie Kesten et al., ‘Multiculture and Community in New City Spaces’, Journal of Intercultural Studies 32/2 (2011), 133–150.
16 Sam Jacob, ‘Derek Walker Obituary’, 22 May 2015, theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/22/derek-walker, accessed 10 July 2015.
17 Terence Bendixson, and John Platt, Milton Keynes: Image and Reality (Cambridge: Granta Editions, 1992); Mark Clapson, Mervyn Dobbin and Peter Waterman (eds.), The Best Laid Plans: Milton Keynes since 1967 (Luton: University of Luton Press, 1998); Mark Clapson, A Social History of Milton Keynes: Middle England/Edge City (London: Frank Cass, 2004); Guy Ortolano, Thatcher’s Progress: From Social Democracy to Market Liberalism through an English New Town (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), 69–107; Lauren Piko, Milton Keynes in British Culture: Imagining England (London: Routledge, 2020); Derek Walker, The Architecture and Planning of Milton Keynes (London: Architectural Press, 1982); Katy Lock and Hugh Ellis, New Towns: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth (London: RIBA, 2020).
18 Graham Livesey, Ecologies of the Early Garden City: Essays on Structure, Agency, and Greenspace (Champaign, IL: Common Ground Research Networks, 2019).
19 Parks Trust, ‘Campbell Park’, theparkstrust.com/parks/campbell-park/, accessed 20 June 2023.
20 Drone Mapping was conducted via PfCO in 2018. Flown at 50-m heights, photogrammetric model at 2-cm GSD resolution.
21 Sarah Pink, ‘Principles for Sensory Ethnography’, in: Doing Sensory Ethnography (SAGE Publications Ltd, 2021), 25–30.
22 James Corner, ‘The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention’, in: Martin Dodge, Rob Kitchin and Chris Perkins (eds.), The Map Reader (London: John Wiley and Sons, 2011).
23 Simon Elias Bibri, ‘Backcasting in Futures Studies: a Synthesized Scholarly and Planning Approach to Strategic Smart Sustainable City Development’, European Journal of Futures Research 6/13 (2018), 11.
24 Nick Dunn and Paul Cureton, Future Cities: A Visual Guide (New York: Bloomsbury, 2020).
25 Richard A Slaughter, ‘Futures Studies as an Intellectual and Applied Discipline’, American Behavioral Scientist 42/3 (1998), 372–385; Warren Ziegler, ‘Envisioning the Future’, Futures 23/5 (1991), 516–527.
26 Re-drawings were articulated in drafting pen on Bristol smooth paper. Mahaddie utilized transparencies and pen, but also coloured drawings using a muted tonal range. Mahaddie often separated line, colour block and site descriptions. John Csaky utilized pen and drafted in a looser iconographic style. The collection is held at Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre.
27 Walker, Architecture and Planning of Milton Keynes, op. cit. (note 17).
28 Clapson et al., Best Laid Plans, op. cit. (note 17).
29 Horst W.J. Rittel and Melvin M. Webber, ‘Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning’, Policy Sci 4 (1973), 155–169. See also: Ortolano, ‘Planning the Urban Future’, op. cit. (note 8).
30 MKC, ‘Mobility Strategy for Milton Keynes 2018–2036’, Draft, LTP4 (November 2017), 23. See also: Jeff Bishop, ‘Passing in the Night: Public and Professional Views of Milton Keynes’, Places 1/4 (Spring 1984), 9–16.
31 LivingArchive, ‘Interview with Neil Higson’, PMK/006/005, livingarchive.org.uk/content/catalogue_item/the-peopleshistory-of-milton-keynes/oral-history-audio-recordingsof-residents-who-moved-to-milton-keynes-1968-1978-andlater-became-employees-of-milton-keynes-developmentcorporation/interview-with-neil-higson-b-1936, accessed 3 December 2022.
32 Milton Keynes Development Corporation, The Milton Keynes Planning Manual (Grillford Limited, 1992).
33 Milton Keynes Development Corporation, The Plan for Milton Keynes, op. cit. (note 1), 25.
34 Walker, Architecture and Planning of Milton Keynes, op. cit. (note 17).
35 Edwards, ‘City Design’, op. cit. (note 9), 92–93.
36 Neil Higson and Andrew Mahaddie, ‘The Landscape: Life in a Tree-House’, Urban Design Autumn 104 (2007), 23.
37 Milton Keynes Development Corporation, The Milton Keynes Planning Manual, op. cit. (note 32), 15.
38 Dennis Hardy, From New Towns to Green Politics: Campaigning for Town and Country Planning, 1946-1990 (London: Taylor & Francis, 2003), 173–176.
39 David Locke Associates, ‘Stewardship of Public Green Space: Using Land Values for Endowments’, Town & Country Planning April/May (2020), 76.
40 Malaury Forget, ‘Milton Keynes, the “Forest City”’: From the Landscape Planning to the Advent of the Car, Lessons for the Future Green Infrastructures?, AESOP Annual Congress Planning for Transition, Universita IUAV di Venezia, July 2019, Venice, Italy.
41 Milton Keynes Development Corporation, The Plan For Milton Keynes, Volume Two (Milton Keynes: City Print, 1970), xvi, 301–303.
42 Clapson, Social History of Milton Keynes, op. cit. (note 17).
43 Kevin Lynch, Donald Appleyard and John R. Myer, The View from the Road (MIT Press, 1965), 72.
44 John de Monchaux, ‘Milton Keynes: A Joint Approach To Planning’, The British Medical Journal 1/628–632 (1969), 25.
45 Andrew Mahaddie, ‘The Grid and How It Made a Plan’, Urban Design 104 (2007), 17.
46 Francis Tibbalds, ‘Milton Keynes: Who Forgot the Urban Design?’, Places 1/4 (1984), 27.
47 John G. Kelcey, ‘Opportunities for Wildlife Habitats on Road Verges’, New City Urban Ecology 1/2–3 (1975), 271–284.
48 Edwards, ‘City Design’, op. cit. (note 9), 95–96.
49 Milton Keynes Council, ‘Eastern Expansion Area Development Framework SPD’, milton-keynes.gov.uk/planning-andbuilding/planning-policy/eastern-expansion-area-development-framework-spd, accessed 4 June 2023.
50 Patrick Barkham, ‘Story of Cities #34: the Struggle for the Soul of Milton Keynes’, theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/03/struggle-for-the-soul-of-milton-keynes, accessed 5 May 2023.
51 Louise Thomas and Sebastian Loew, ‘Milton Keynes at 40’, Urban Design 104 (2007), 22.
52 Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust, ‘Newlands Tree Cathedral: Understanding Historic Parks and Gardens in Buckinghamshire’ (November 2018), 13.
53 Lock and Ellis, New Towns, op. cit. (note 17).
54 Derek Walker Associates, Derek Walker Associates: The View from Great Linford (London: Academy Editions, No. 43, 1995), 61.
55 Donnison, Best Laid Plans, op. cit. (note 17), 51.
56 Melvin Webber, ‘The Post-City Age’, Daedalus 97/4 (1968), 108.
57 Clapson, Social History of Milton Keynes, op. cit. (note 17).
58 Milton Keynes Borough Council, Newton Longville Brickworks Planning Brief, 1995.
59 HTA Architects, ‘Lakes Estate Regeneration’, hta.co.uk/news-description/unanimous-approval-lakes-estateregeneration, accessed 14 November 2020.
60 East-West Rail, eastwestrail.co.uk/the-project/bletchleyto-bedford, accessed 7 June 2021.
61 Lock and Ellis, New Towns, op. cit. (note 17).
62 Living Archive, Interview with Lee Shostak, PMK/007/019, livingarchive.org.uk/content/catalogue_item/the-peopleshistory-of-milton-keynes/oral-history-audio-recordingsof-residents-who-moved-into-milton-keynes-to-work-formilton-keynes-development-corporation/interview-withlee-shostak-b-1946, accessed 1 August 2023.
63 Andrew Mahaddie (1939–2014) Obituary, aaschool.ac.uk/obituaries/andrew-mahaddie-1939-2014, accessed 4 December 2014.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Paul Cureton
Paul Cureton FRSA is director of Post-Graduate Research, Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, and director of the School of Design at Imagination Lancaster, UK, an open exploratory design research lab. His work transcends subjects in spatial planning, 3D GIS modelling and design futures. It is at the forefront of exploring the critical interface of new and emerging socio-technological relationships such as Design for Digital Twins, Drone Futures and novel process-based methodologies for Future Environments such as Geodesign and XR interactions. His forthcoming publications include Geodesign, Digital Twins and Urban Futures (Routledge, 2024). Recent publications include the monographs, Strategies for Landscape Representation: Digital and Analogue Techniques (Routledge, 2016) and Drone Futures: UAS for Landscape & Urban Design (Routledge, 2020). He is a co-author with Nick Dunn of Future Cities: A Visual Guide (Bloomsbury, 2020).