Dukeries Thinkbelt

• view from a railbus, Annesley/Newstead Faculty Area, Dukeries Thinkbelt.

• "... a (Cedric) Price design is never to be seen as a fixed and final facility..."
• (Reyner Banham, Cycles of the Price-mechanism, AA Files, no 8, Spring 1985)

[edit] INTRODUCTION

The original Thinkbelt was entitled:—

• "Potteries Thinkbelt: A plan for an advanced educational industry in North Staffordshire"
• (Cedric Price, Potteries Thinkbelt, AD 10/66)

However, Cedric Price made a suggestion, namely:—

• "Possible Thinkbelt development in old industrial net between Nottingham and Sheffield"
• (Cedric Price, Non-plan, AD 5/69)

Thus this article assumes:—

• ... that Cedric Price did not intend Thinkbelt to be a one-shot, permanent design.

Reyner Banham, for example, has written:—

• "The one-shot, permanent design can really only change entropically, by slowly falling apart over time. Anything else must involve the intervention of designs that are not part of the original conception. A changeable facility, however, can be altered without busting up the original concept, but also seems to imply a kind of resting condition to which the facility itself and its parts must return from time to time."
• (Reyner Banham, Cycles of the Price-mechanism, AA Files, no 8, Spring 1985)

Thus Potteries Thinkbelt is followed by something else of the same kind, namely:—

• "Dukeries Thinkbelt: A plan for an advanced educational industry in West Nottinghamshire"
• (Norman Fellows)

[edit] INFORMATION HELD IN THE NORMAN FELLOWS FONDS

File documents the unexecuted project, Dukeries Thinkbelt, conceived for West Nottinghamshire, England, United Kingdom. [1]

[edit] • SET 06: Diagrammatic plans and sections of housing types Diagram of all housing types, showing application to various site conditions: total number of housing units provided 32,372 (excluding expansion area) - right. The four housing types are shown below, from left to right:— Crate housing Sprawl housing Capsule housing Battery housing Learn More

[edit] • SET 19: Exterior isometric views, diagrammatic plans and sections of transfer areas Learn More

[edit] • SET 25: Table of life span and use cycle Learn More

[edit] CONCLUSION

This article recognises:—

• ... that the information provided above is incomplete.

Nevertheless, the conclusion is Dukeries Thinkbelt gives due acknowledgement to the original conception, namely:—

• Potteries Thinkbelt.

[edit] Notes

[1]

File documents the unexecuted project, Dukeries Thinkbelt, conceived for West Nottingshire, England, United Kingdom. The proposal called for a network of educational facilities for 20,000 students to be located over a 200 square mile area north of London. Moveable components, including fold-out lecture/demonstration units, rail-based teaching units, self-teach carrel units, faculty units, and housing units, were to be dispersed along the rail system. Existing conditions materials include regional aerial photographs with overlays of the rail system, and photographs, photo collages and panoramas of the region. Schematic sketches and drawings show the development of Cedric Price's original design. Regional plans examine links between new and existing rail systems and national transportation networks and their projected use. Diagrammatic plans illustrate the relationships between recommended functions/activities attributed to specific areas. Detailed plans, sections, elevations, and axonometric drawings show housing types (sprawl, capsule, and crate), faculty and transfer areas in Teversal, Clipstone Colliery, and Hucknall. Other materials include regional land-use plans, photomontages with drawn perspectives, thumbnail sketches, life-span charts, conceptual sketches, aerial photographs and reprographic copies, some rendered and annotated. Many of the drawings were published in Fellows, N. (2016) 'DTb: Dukeries Thinkbelt: A plan for an advanced educational industry in West Nottinghamshire', Anticipatory Design, October 2016; and in Fellows, N. (2016) 'DTb: Dukeries Thinkbelt', New Society, June 2026. Material in this file was created between 1984 and 2016 but predominantly between 2013 and 2015.

File contains conceptual drawings, design development drawings, presentation drawings, publication drawings, reference drawings, photographic material, and textual records.

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[edit] References

Banham, R. (1985) 'Cycles of the Price-mechanism', AA Files, no 8, Spring 1985, Dokumen.

Fellows, N. (2016) 'Dukeries Thinkbelt', Facsimile of New Society, Wordpress.

Fellows, N. (2016) 'Dukeries Thinkbelt', Facsimile of Anticipatory Design, Wordpress.

Fellows, N. (2020) 'Norman Fellows fonds', Flickr.

Fellows, N. (2020) 'Thinkbelt Now', Wordpress.

Fellows, N. (2023) 'Dukeries Thinkbelt', Vimeo.

Price, C. (1966) ‘Potteries Thinkbelt‘, New Society, 2 June, WordPress.

Price, C. (1966) ‘Potteries Thinkbelt‘, October, Architectural Design, WordPress.

Price, C. (1969) ‘Non-Plan’, May, Architectural Design, Wordpress.

[edit] Further reading

East Midlands Economic Planning Council (1966) ‘The East Midlands Study’, HMSO.

Fellows, N. (2015) 'Possible Development', Potteries Thinkbelt, Designing Buildings.

Fellows, N. (2020) 'Dukeries Thinkbelt', Norman Fellows fonds, Flickr.

Fellows, N. (2020) 'Scrapbook S2.D064', Pinterest.

Fellows, N. (2017) 'Thinkbelt Study', Edukit, 3D Warehouse.

Fellows, N. (2020) 'File 064: Dukeries Thinkbelt', Archiblog, 3D Warehouse.

Hardingham, S. and Rattenbury, K (2007) ‘Cedric Price: Potteries Thinkbelt – Supercrit #1‘, Routledge.

Landau, R. (1985) ‘Philosophy of enabling: The work of Cedric Price‘, AA Files, No. 8, January, pp. 3-7 – also in Price, C. (1984) ‘Cedric Price Works II’, Architectural Association, pp. 9-15.

Price, C. (c.1995) 'Potteries Thinkbelt', Cedric Price fonds, Canadian Centre for Architecture.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

Anticipatory Design

Cedric Price

DOMESTIKIT: World-Wide Dwelling Service

EDUKIT: World Educational System

Housing Research by Cedric Price

Potteries Thinkbelt

The Commons

--Archiblog 09:24, 20 Nov 2023 (BST)