Duany Not a Fan of Modern British Architecture

Duany's outburst will reignite a battle between architects who believe in modernism and his own 'church' of new urbanism, which argues that towns should be built to strict codes, often based on traditional design.

Duany used new urbanism to design Seaside, the Florida community which provided the backdrop to the film The Truman Show, and Charles has embraced the principles of new urbanism on projects to design new settlements from Newquay, Cornwall to Llandarcy, near Neath.

His intervention was timed to coincide with the unveiling of a masterplan for Hertfordshire, his most ambitious UK scheme yet. In it he advocates a new town and a series of garden villages built on open land in which residents would be obliged to grow fruit and vegetables for market.

'It is inexplicable why architects and planners continue to pursue radical innovation as if it were 1945 every morning,' he said."