The Story of Solent City
Owen Hatherley presents the story of the extraordinary Solent City plan, to join the rivalrous port cities of Southampton and Portsmouth in a vast Los Angeles style grid.
Author Owen Hatherley goes in search of the lost future of Solent City 鈥� the extraordinary plan, devised in the mid-1960s at the height of the post-war modernisation of Britain, to join the historic city-ports of Southampton and Portsmouth with a vast, Los-Angeles style grid.
The plan was finally rejected, but why? - and what were the consequences of its defeat, not only for the region but for the future of urban planning in Britain?
Travelling across south Hampshire from Fareham to Portsmouth, Chandler鈥檚 Ford to his native Southampton, Owen meets architects, planners and historians to tell the story of one of the boldest visions in the history of British urban design, discovering that some of its most important ideas might still be ahead of us - needed more than ever in 2025.
A Brook Lapping production for 大象传媒 Radio 4
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