While developers in the U.K. have fallen prey to the recession, Tesco supermarkets have been extremely successful. Now the company is planning several new developments of their own with homes and shops centered around the grocery store.
Tesco has at least nine proposals in the works for these "supermarket-led mixed-use developments." One reason Tesco is moving into the home building business is that the combination of housing, schools and sports facilities makes it easier to convince officials to build superstores they may have previously refused.
Hans van der Heijden, a Dutch architect who also works in Britain, was interviewed by The Guardian about the Tesco Towns: "It is slightly absurd to make private enterprises responsible for things that are, in the end, public. The interesting comparison is with other private enterprises that created places such as the garden cities, but in those instances there was an element of charity at work related to some form of emancipation and public interest. That seems to be absent here. It's a money machine."
FULL STORY: 'This town has been sold to Tesco'
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How Smaller Supermarkets Could Transform American Communities
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What ‘The Brutalist’ Teaches Us About Modern Cities
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The VW Bus is Back — Now as an Electric Minivan
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Empower LA: The LA2050 Grants Challenge
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Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Edmonds
City of Albany
Harvard GSD Executive Education
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research