Living Villages is an organisation in the United Kingdom established in 1993 as part of The Athena Foundation UK (now dissolved) and as The Living Village Trust in 1997 by Carole Salmon and Bob Tomlinson. The objectives are to encourage

sustainable development Sustainable development is an approach to growth and Human development (economics), human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.United Nations General ...

through appropriate design and ethical commercial practice. The first project of five environmentally friendly houses called Bells Court in

Bishops Castle Bishop's Castle is a market town in the south west of Shropshire, England. According to the 2011 Census it had a population of 1,893. Bishop's Castle is east of the Wales–England border, about north-west of Ludlow and about south-west of ...

, Shropshire, UK built in 1997, and the 40 house eco-neighbourhood called The Wintles, also in Bishops Castle, were designed to demonstrate that new housing can be eco-friendly, attractive and beneficial to a local community.

History

Living Villages was established in 1993 as a non-profit, prompted by positive responses to a proposal for an eco-village based on

Permaculture Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using Systems theory, whole-systems thinking. It applies t ...

principles and design inspired by

Christopher Alexander Christopher Wolfgang John Alexander (4 October 1936 – 17 March 2022) was an Austrian-born British-American architect and Design theory, design theorist. He was an Professors in the United States#Professor emeritus and emerita, emeritus profes ...

's ''

A Pattern Language ''A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction'' is a 1977 book on architecture, urban design, and community livability. It was authored by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein of the Center for Environmental Stru ...

''. They started the Wintles project in 1999 as a new pedestrian neighbourhood with a high degree of

self-sufficiency Self-sustainability and self-sufficiency are overlapping states of being in which a person, being, or system needs little or no help from, or interaction with others. Self-sufficiency entails the self being enough (to fulfill needs), and a sel ...

for the town of Bishops Castle on 17 acres which included houses, shared gardens, allotments for food production, woodland and amenity areas which include a

labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth () is an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the h ...

orchard designed by

Keith Critchlow Keith Barry Critchlow (16 March 1933 – 8 April 2020) was a British artist, lecturer, author, Sacred geometry, sacred geometer, professor of architecture, and a co-founder of the Temenos Academy in the UK. Biography Critchlow was educated at ...

. Architects Pat Borer and David Lee worked on the initial layout with contributions from

and

Leon Krier Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again fro ...

, but the final designs were produced by Bob Tomlinson and became the working model for the design principles. Ecostruct were the building partners. In 2007, Living Villages won the Housebuilder of the Year Award for The Wintles. The Wintles was cited by Planning Minister

Nick Boles Nicholas Edward Coleridge Boles (born 2 November 1965) is a British politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Grantham and Stamford from 2010 to 2019. He was a member of the Conservative Party until 2019. Before entering parliament ...

as one of the UK Government's favourite housing schemes.

References

{{Reflist

External links

The Living Village Trust
Environmental organisations based in the United Kingdom New Classical architecture