For
a split second at least, some audience members at an event at St.
James's Palace today may have thought a royal revolution was underway.
Thankfully for traditionalists, though, the sign on the podium actually read 'New Buildings In
Old Places' rather than 'New Buildings In Old Palaces' as Prince Charles promoted the need for further regeneration of Britain's inner cities.
The prince who fought a highly vocal and public battle against elements of modern
architecture – from the extension on the British Museum to the Tate Modern – was
at his former London home for an event hosted by his own Prince's
Foundation for the Built Environment and the Prince's Regeneration Trust.
During the event, the prince gave a keynote speech to an
audience incorporating architects, developers and Government
representatives in which he put forth his ideas as to how to move forward to re-energise
communities and derelict land across Britain. The Prince was once again unafraid to voice his opposition to what
he and many more deem to have been major mistakes of the past, telling
his audience: "In the haste to build after the Second World War,
many untested new design theories were put into practice, with the best
of intentions but disastrous results."
"I am thinking particularly of the brave new world of
housing estates - the system-built, deck access variety, and the tower
block - which quickly became sink estates all across the country,
unloved and relentlessly, depressingly ugly, with endless wasted acros
of "public open space" and a dearth of private space."
Referring to his very public battles with
architects throughout the 1980s, when several inner city regions across
Britain became hot-spots of social breakdown which at times resulted in
violent riots on the streets of London and Toxteth in Liverpool, Prince
Charles warned that the mistakes of the past should not be repeated,
saying: "I know because I spent a lot of time in the 1980s trying to see what I could do to improve the inner cities."
Highlighting the ultimate failure of these multi-million dollar building plans, the prince continued: "Many of these have been torn down after only 20 to 30 years of use.
The builders of that era also ripped apart many town and city centres
for enclosed shopping malls and parking structures, many of which have
also been taken down."
