ABSTRACT
The critics of the New Towns point to their break with the historic pattern of British towns. The urban design considerations created a new type of place, rationally planned and designed to provide a better quality of life in an increasingly motorised, high-tech age. These new urban ideas affected places across Britain and spread around the world. Besides the physical designs, the more strategic economic planning of towns – their location and transport connectivity, their employment mix and, crucially, their approach to shopping and leisure – had a central influence.
