ABSTRACT
The principles of urban design that became central to the nature of the New Towns were the result of a lively debate that had united the goals of the Garden Cities Movement with those of the Modern Movement. Whilst the former were primarily concerned with town planning and the latter with architecture, the ideas of these two groups were synthesised by Professor Abercrombie in his influential role bridging academia, policymaking and professional practice. These ideas, that defined post-war urban development in Britain, became the ubiquitous standard through the creation of the Dudley Report, or to use its formal title, Design of Dwellings: The Central Housing Advisory Committee Report of 1944. This was produced by the Ministry of Health to review the direction of council house building in the 1930s, but included an appendix from the fledgling Ministry of Town and County Planning. This proposed that as towns had grown, community had become weaker and hence new housing should be laid out in a planned way to provide for a better quality of life (Ravetz, 2001: 102).
