News
The Prince of Wales meets alumni of The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment
24th November 2011
The Prince of Wales has praised former students of his architectural institution and described his joy at seeing them working on one of his most important building projects.
Alumni from The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment are helping to design the latest phase of Poundbury - the urban extension of Dorchester built on Duchy of Cornwall land.
His Royal Highness's own architectural principles have been applied in the sustainable development such as favouring the pedestrian over the car, using local materials and creating buildings on a human scale.
Surrounded by past graduates at the Foundation's offices in Shoreditch East London, The Prince gave a speech to mark their efforts and defended the project describing the economic benefits it had brought to the area.
He said that businesses were starting up and a survey commissioned last year had stated Poundbury had contributed more than £800 million to the local economy.
The heir to the throne said: "How rewarding it is for me to see the entire phase two being designed by a majority of my alumni... that gives me more pleasure than anything else."
The Prince also said: "Whether it is a slum in Jamaica, Kingston, where we (the Foundation) have been working for the past 11 years, trying to break the mould in terms of how you regenerate slums and involve local people, or in Sierra Leone, a country I visited 4 years ago… But these are just some of the situations for which my Foundation and the skills that it has, are best able to help.
"And the problem of course is raising the money, awareness, interest and support to make sure we can actually demonstrate there is actually a better option for the future.
"This has been said already the greatest challenge now is mass urbanisation on a vast scale, without any proper thought for what the future may hold - a too short-term approach with real problems for the future. Without thinking of the wider ecology - and the supply of water, the supply of food."
His Royal Highness was joined for part of his visit by King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck of Bhutan - the Himalayan Kingdom - and his wife Queen Jetsun, the daughter of an airline pilot, who had tea with The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall at Clarence House yesterday.
The Prince is due to visit Poundbury tomorrow to see for himself the latest developments at the site.