The city has become too big [] without thought for the people who live in it

Garden City Utopias & Everyday Life: exploring the spatial accessibility of Welwyn Garden City Dr Paul Cureton (University of Hertfordshire) & Laurens Versluis (Space Syntax)

The city has become too big [] without thought for the people who live in it Film: Planned Town Welwyn Garden City, 1949. Production company: Gaumont British Instructional. Distributor: G.B. Equipments Ltd.; The J. Arthur Rank Organisation Ltd. Director: Sean Graham. Producer: Louis de Soissons (production supervisor). Camera: Frank North; Jack Morrison. Script: Sean Graham. Editor: Oliver Cheatle.

URBED, Uxcester, Garden Cities, Wolfson Economics Prize 2014.

Wei Yang, Regional Development Diagram, Wolfson Economics Prize 2014.

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Welwyn Garden City, Sample City Posters 120s -

Louis de Soissons, illustrated by Francis Nugent Cachemaille-Day, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire: town plan indicating zones, road and rail communications, buildings and open spaces, 1920. RIBA Library Drawings Collection..

Paul Cureton, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, Prototype, laser sintered 3D polyamide landscape print, Digital Hack Lab & SSAHRI. LiDAR Environment Agency. Technical Production from Peter Storey. Technical Print from Pete Brownhill, Mark Bloomfield, and Adam Ladlow. WGC - Model Full Size 1140mm width, 1460mm length, Map Scale 1:2857 (500m2 per tile 17.5cm2 Tile).

Space Syntax is able to interpret the configuration of a spatial network and in doing so it can measure levels of spatial connectivity that have been shown to influence movement, human encounter and economic opportunities.

Spatial accessibility at network wide level

Spatial accessibility at radius 1400 metres

Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council, LGP, Jan 2015.

Welwyn Garden City has developed over a course of time to a point where its vision and imagination are being questioned more than ever in terms of growth. Paradoxically the garden city is embraced in terms of concept - the question then is are landed utopias timeless?

WGC, Early Development 1920-1930.