Prince Charles's Model Village Turns 10

[Gerrard Winstanley]

1. Prince Charles's Model Village Turns 10
2. Charles to import kiln for his eco-friendly village


Prince Charles's Model Village Turns 10
http://architecture.about.com/b/a/010626.htm

Poundbury, a model English village created by the Prince of Wales, is
nearly ten years old, and critics are calling the community an
anti-modern "cultural cul-de-sac"... Leon Krier, the architect who
designed the Poundbury master plan in 1988, told reporters, "Why
should architecture be aggressive and deadly?" So, the prince's
village is built to resemble pictures in a children's book with
fanciful recreations of Gothic, Georgian, and Arts and Crafts styles.
Architecture critic Stephen Bayley reviews the village this week in
The Independent. Also, here's a great Poundbury photo gallery. For
site plans and details about the Poundbury project, be sure to visit
the Prince's Foundation.
Tuesday July 22, 2003




http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=387961&in_page_id=1770

Charles to import kiln for his eco-friendly village
by REBECCA ENGLISH, Daily Mail 06:00am 27th May 2006

Comments Reader comments (11)
kiln

Fascinated: Prince Charles wants to import this kiln to make bricks
and tiles for his eco-friendly village
Headlines

He's long been a champion of traditional - if slightly eccentric -
ideas when it comes to building and architecture.

But Prince Charles, it seems, has outdone himself this time.

For the heir to the throne is planning to import a medieval-style kiln
- complete with a horse to power it - from deepest Transylvania to
make bricks and tiles for Poundbury, his eco-friendly Dorset village.

Charles came up with idea during a secret fact-finding trip he made to
Romania earlier this month without his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall.

He spent fours days looking around projects run by the Mihai Eminescu
Foundation, of which he is patron, which was set up to preserve the
country's historic Saxon villages from destruction - an issue Charles
is passionate about.

The prince, it seems, was so taken with what he saw that he insisted
on sleeping in a simple village house refurbished by the Trust -
complete with a wooden truckle bed and outside toilet - and drinking
locally-pressed organic apple juice.

But it was the traditional hand-fired kiln in the picturesque village
of Viscri that particularly took Charles fancy - so much so that as
soon as he laid eyes on it, the prince declared; "We must have one of
these at Poundbury".

The contraption, known as a 'Scotch', can fire up to 5,000 bricks and
12,000 tiles at any one time in a huge open chamber which is heated by
three separate fires using sustainable supplies of local wood.

The process allows operators to bake the bricks very gently, shifting
them from one side of the chamber to another, which gives them a
unique traditional look.

Prince 'fascinated by horse and kiln'

Even the clay for the bricks is made using authentic methods that date
back to the medieval age, namely a mixer powered by a single, plodding
horse harnessed to a recycled timber axle.

"The prince was fascinated by the horse and kiln and was absolutely
serious when he said he wanted to use the process at Poundbury. He
spent almost an hour discussing its merits with the staff there and
how he could get one built in England," a source close to the visit said.

Poundbury is the realisation of Charles's long held dream to build the
'perfect' environmentally-friendly English village.

The award-winning estate - which is situated on a 400-acre Duchy of
Cornwall estate near Dorchester - was built using local materials and
craftsmen and has its own pub, cafe, school and grocery store.

But it has also attracted its fair share of controversy, with critics
ridiculing the project as an 'utopian idyll' and locals accusing
Poundbury residents of being 'middle class snobs' who refuse to blend
in with genuine country life.

A spokesman for the Prince confirmed last night that he had visited
Romania, saying: "He is fascinated by the country and goes there quite
frequently on his own. But it was a private trip and we would not
comment about what he did there."

The Mihai Eminescu Trust confirmed that the prince had been to
Transylvania. "His Royal Highness is a very enthusiastic supporter of
the work we do. He saw the work of several voluntary organisations
which are active in different fields in the area, including a project
to build a traditional brick and tile kiln which will be operated by a
local family and provide hand-made materials to Transylvanian
architects and builders," a spokesman said.

The Trust stressed that the horse-powered operation was
animal-friendly, adding: "As it is a small project, the horses only
work for an hour or so a day and there is no stress to them whatsoever."