Charles backs Bimbys’ fight for beauty in my back yard
CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT THE Prince of Wales has opened a new front against insensitive builders by offering to help communities fight developers over schemes viewed as ugly.
Three decades after his “carbuncle” row about modern architecture, the Prince is offering to help locals tackle inappropriate developments.
The Prince’s Foundation for Building Community, one of his educational charities, has launched a “Bimby” initiative – Beauty In My Back Yard – to advise how to engage with developers in the planning process and ensure that sympathetic homes are built.
An online toolkit is intended to take on the Nimby, or Not In My Back Yard, attitude which has seen some homeowners fight all nearby changes.
The Prince, foundation president, said: “The key, if I may say so, is how you enhance social, environmental and of course commercial value. So I hope this Bimby process will be of some value to different communities.”
The foundation is running workshops to help communities with the initiative. One encourages groups to photograph buildings, windows, door casings and gutters which they think would be appropriate in an area earmarked for development.
The pictures can be fed into the foundation’s Bimby toolkit to obtain “a design code or pattern book for the local authority and developers to use”.
Ben Bolgar, a director at the foundation, said: “Bimby is all about supporting people to create beautiful and resilient communities that improve the quality of life of everyone involved.
“Bimby will have a big impact on planning in this country because it helps empower people on the ground to get involved positively.” Prince Charles made headlines in 1984 when he described a planned extension to the National Gallery as “like a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much loved and elegant friend”.
His 1989 book set out his view of architecture in the UK and backed the Poundbury development on Duchy of Cornwall land in Dorset, which began in 1993.
The Prince’s Foundation, formerly the Institute of Architecture, aims to “practise and teach principles that can be applied across different building cultures, to help create a harmonious, timeless architectural legacy”.
David Birkbeck, chief executive of Design For Homes, which champions good design, claimed it is wrong to focus on “beauty”. He said: “It’s different to different people: it depends on their backgrounds. Developments should not be vetoed on the basis of style but in terms of the urban design.”