Masterplan for Cambridge to Oxford Connection
A masterplan for Cambridge to Oxford Connection published in the National Infrastructure Commission exhibition July 2018 at Transport Catapult, Milton Keynes, UK. The masterplan considers opportunities for growth in employment and housing within a framework of autonomous settlements of various sizes located at rail transport intersections between Cambridge, Milton Keynes and Oxford. The Mosaic narrative derives from the remains of a Roman villa mosaic embedded within the commercial centre of the MIlton Keynes 20th century new town, providing a timeline of continuous change in an area of ancient routes, historic landscape and settlement patterns. The mosaic links together railway routes both existing radial and potential for cross connecting. Landscape mosaics integrate the existing patterns of rivers, flood plain, hills,woods, towns, villages and farms, creating a environmental framework for establishing urban extensions and new autonomous garden towns and villages. A mosaic is a loose framework which can intensify and kaleidoscope at transport hubs where opportunities are best suited to housing, employment and social infrastructure. A looser mosaic of landscape still provides strong connectivity for biodiversity gain, healthy lifestyles and food production. The masterplan links with the Market Garden City planning concept created by Gary Young and Hannah Smart, advocating sufficient land surrounding settlements to provide for local food production with dispersed local food share hubs, connecting social and natural infrastructure at the rural and urban scale.
