The Built Environment
His Royal Highness’s desire to protect and sustain the natural environment is matched by his interest in the built environment and how it affects the quality of people’s lives.
The Prince believes more can be done to create urban areas that encourage a sense of community and pride of place, and which foster the well-being of those who live there and alleviate social problems.
The Prince’s Foundation for Building Community
The Prince's Foundation transforms lives through engaging, educating and empowering people. It teaches and demonstrates sustainable development placing community engagement at the heart of its work; believing that listening to the wisdom of local people is crucial to successful sustainable development.
The charity believes that sustainably planned, built and maintained communities improve the quality of life of everyone who's part of them. Helping people to live better at a local level. The Prince's
Foundation's goal is a future where everyone takes part in making our communities more sustainable. It is working with everyone from local residents' groups to governments to make it happen.
Visit www.princes-foundation.org.
Watch a film to learn more about The Foundation's work
Or follow them on Twitter @Princesfound / Facebook The-Princes-Foundation
The Prince’s Regeneration Trust
The Prince's Regeneration Trust delivers heritage-led regeneration across the United Kingdom, through the conservation and re-use of redundant historical buildings, primarily in areas of social and economic deprivation.
Founded by The Prince of Wales, the Trust works in partnership with the public, private, community and charitable sectors as a facilitator, consultant, partner or principal.
The Prince's Regeneration Trust, at any one time, is involved with about 20 projects across the United Kingdom. Visit www.princes-regeneration.org.
The Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust
Dumfries House is one of Britain’s most beautiful stately homes. Built between 1754 and 1760 by the Adam brothers for the 5th Earl of Dumfries, with a unique collection of Chippendale furniture, the House has been described as an 18th Century time-capsule since the building and its contents have remained virtually unchanged for 250 years.
In June 2007, The Prince of Wales headed a consortium of charities and heritage bodies to purchase this unique house, its contents and adjoining land, in order to keep this historical jewel intact and accessible to the public.
A charitable trust was formed and named after one of His Royal Highness’s titles: The Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust to take forward the important work of preserving this cultural treasure for future generations. The House and the grounds are open to the public for visits, events and weddings. Visit www.dumfries-house.org.
Poundbury
Although not one of The Prince's Charities, Poundbury, the urban extension to Dorchester in Dorset is a development inspired by The Prince of Wales. Today it is home to over 1,200 people and 40 businesses.
Poundbury was intended to challenge some of the planning assumptions of the latter part of the 20th Century with its ghettoised and run-down social housing estates and out-of-town shopping centres, forcing ever greater reliance on the car.
Poundbury is instead based on some of the timeless principles, set out by The Prince in his 1987 book A Vision of Britain, that have enabled many places around Britain to endure and thrive over the centuries.
It is a high-density urban quarter of Dorchester which gives priority to people, rather than cars, and where commercial buildings are mixed with residential areas, shops and leisure facilities to create a walkable community where high-quality social and private housing sit side by side.
The result is an attractive and pleasing place, in keeping with the character of Dorchester, in which people can live, work, shop and play.
Over the past decade, as Poundbury has developed, it has demonstrated that there is a genuine alternative to the way in which we can build new communities.
Poundbury has proved increasingly influential, attracting international interest and generating hundreds of organised tours every year from architects, town planners and others.
The success of Poundbury has now been recognised far beyond Dorset and many of the principles have been incorporated into the Government’s Planning Guidance Note (PPG3). To find out more about Poundbury click here to visit the Duchy of Cornwall website, download the Poundbury Media Pack, or watch a video titled "Poundbury: Building Communities".