MICHAEL GOLD ARCHITECTS
Coffee Hall,1972
A historical image of an integral settlement at traditional scale, set in countryside, designed and constructed as a unified architectural conception in the manner of, say, Montpazier, is combined with a modern image of graceful traffic movement expressed in long straight avenues without cross-streets and the drastic reduction of intersections.
A rectangle of a half by a quarter of a mile is centred on the old farmhouse and on National Grid oriented with the five long streets aligned north-south. The streets are lined with continuous banks of parking under double rows of chestnut streets, eventually to form dense avenue. Within are the houses, the centre, the club, the sheltered home, first school, playgroups, and the greenhouse studios.
Outside the rectangle, distributed in the surrounding landscape, are the schools, sports club, warehousing and light industries, church, lookout, allotments, apartments with laundry workshops and club, and the hostel and café.
Client: Milton Keynes' Development Corporation
Architects: Michael Gold assisted by Peter and Sue Barker, Lois Pryce, Robert Griffin