Engaging Communities in Suburban Densification

Ben Bolgar, Executive Director of the Projects Team at the King's Foundation and Design Director of the development company Stockbridge Land, shares his experience with initiatives of the King’s Foundation and also a particular 60 acre site at the edge of London where a community has been engaged in planning a new neighbourhood. A former student of Christopher Alexander, he then contrasts these projects with Alexander’s approach to building communities.

In 2004 Ben and Michael Mehaffy participated in a workshop run by Alexander for the design of a neighborhood in Strood, UK. In this workshop Alexander showed the power of using generative sequences to design a neighborhood. After Ben's presentation of the King's Foundation's design workshop method, Michael will present the Strood project, and highlight the shared and different aspects of the two methodologies.

This lecture is from the Nature of Order Webinar series, Webinar 19, February 22, 2024.

 Alexander's draft report of the generative sequences used for Strood is here.