Reinvent local
Building Market Towns
Instead of building hundreds of terraced housing on urban-fringe vacant paddocks, instead of densification, cramming more buildings on existing lots, both of which overburden an already creaking infrastructure, build whole new self-supporting towns in the countryside with their own infrastructure that does not add thousands of cars to overburdened roads. Build new towns that are not dependent on jobs in the regional economy, because they create their own local economy. Build new towns with a much higher quality of life – complete, not elite, communities, with affordable housing for all. Rather than invent something new and hope it works out, look to history first. Look at what works because its timeless design patterns are human scaled. Look to pre-industrial market towns. Then adapt it to the 21st century. Build 21st century market towns.
We all sense…
“We all sense that something has gone terribly wrong with our communities. Hamlets and cities, slums and suburbs all lack a sense of cohesion. Not only is there no centre – there is no there there. Cities, towns, villages and communities designed hundreds of years ago are obviously based upon some basic purpose of living that eludes the designers of our own time.” Victor Papanek
Timeless Patterns
For thousands of years we designed communities with self-supporting local economies to enable people to enjoy a good life, understood as the social pursuits of conviviality, citizenship and artistic, intellectual & spiritual growth. We stopped that when we started calling ourselves consumers rather than citizens. Now there is a pressing need to change how we live.
A MarketTown
is a community built upon a self-supporting local economy where all activity is local. No cars within, no outbound commuters. It is a complete (not elite) community for all ages, stage and walks of life. It is an answer to housing affordability for all, to climate change, traffic congestion, but more importantly than avoiding these negatives, it’s about a much higher quality of life for all.