COULD A GREEN COMMUNITY SERVE AS A BLUEPRINT FOR NEW TOWNS? What lessons can the next wave of new towns learn from a proposed 7,750-home garden city-style development in Essex led by a roster of top architects.

The article focuses on the Tendring-Colchester Borders project, a garden-city-style development in rural Essex proposing 7,750 homes, led by Latimer, the development arm of Clarion, the UK's largest housing association. Although smaller than the government’s new town threshold of 10,000 homes, the project emphasizes long-term stewardship, high-density yet green design, and extensive community engagement, including significant input from young people. The design team highlights lessons for future large-scale developments, such as the importance of housing associations as master developers, meaningful local consultation, and integrating landscape-led planning to create sustainable, walkable communities. The project also addresses local concerns about infrastructure and aims to balance design quality with flexibility over a 25-year development cycle. [Extracted from the article]