Britain’s Prince Charles’ plea to architects

Britain’s Prince Charles has made a plea to architects to reclaim streets “from the car”.
The 66-year-old royal – who is first in line to the throne – has urged town planners to put pedestrians “at the centre” when designing Britain’s street in the future.
The Prince made the plea in a 2,000 word essay in which he expressed his concern about the future of the planet and the “terrifying prospect” of the growing population.
He wrote in The Architectural Review: “I have lost count of the times that I have been accused of wanting to turn the clock back to some Golden Age. Nothing could be further from the truth.
“My concern is the future. We face the terrifying prospect by 2050 of another three billion people on this planet needing to be housed, and architects and urban designers have an enormous role to play in responding to this challenge.
“We have to work out how we will create resilient, truly sustainable and human-scale urban environments that are land efficient, use low carbon materials and do not depend so completely on the car.”
Charles’ “masterplan” also called for a number of principles for urban design to be put into action.
These include the removal or replacement of certain road signs and the introduction of bends or squares that “naturally” encourage motorists to reduce their speed.