Christian Brailey

The small village of Cuffley in South Hertfordshire is a privileged ‘island’ of development entirely surrounded by green belt land. With the local authority caught between swelling housing targets, private development and an influential and affluent population, the highly politicised and lucrative surrounding farmland has become the quintessential example of a threatened landscape under NIMBY protection.

The project confonts British society’s visceral reaction to the seemingly impossible task of development on England’s green and pleasant land. It proposes the creation of New Wood, a new town with a population of 18,090 residents, located just outside Cuffley. The new town acts as a ‘silver bullet’ that not only satisfies the entire housing target for the borough, thus securing zero development anywhere else, but is tactically discreet in its design, construction and visual impact. Historically used as a test bed for experiments in urbanism, can this slice of Hertfordshire be developed in a way that existing residents not only accept but welcome, thereby creating a model to unlock much-needed land for the inevitable growth of London?