But it became the least sustainable. Post WW2, as Canberra rapidly expanded, the politicians, egged on by bureaucrats, supplanted the compact layout with the ‘Y-plan’ by Lord Holford, of the UK ‘New Towns’ movement. Its inanity promoted low density suburbia full of curved roads and roundabouts, creating the nation’s highest demand for cars to reach individual, poor climate-designed houses.
Not content with proselytising and demonising architects, he wanted to put his backward-looking ideas into practice, and build an exemplar village. Fortunately for him, among his royal inheritances was a large amount of land around Dorchester, in one of his many Duchies. When the town of 25,000 wanted to expand they agreed to the Prince undertaking a development on his land, rather than the usual practice of the land being sold. The Prince becomes an active property developer.