Duany Takes On Scotland

"After a hectic 10 days in the Highlands planning a new town near Inverness, Andres Duany headed for London last weekend to meet the Prince of Wales. His Royal Majesty wanted help with another pet project, this time affordable housing in Jamaica. Florida-based Duany, international architect, planner and co-founder of a .U.S movement known as New Urbanism, was just the man.

On first reading, his views on architecture chime neatly with those of the prince, who has embraced New Urbanism. But Duany detests the ongoing battle between traditionalists and modernists -- with the Prince of Wales a fierce defender of all things traditional -- which has bitterly divided architecture. 'What I find all over Europe, not just in Britain, is that you have architectural wars like religious wars, the theological wars of the 16th and 17th centuries. Traditionalists think modern architecture is unethical, that if you walk into a modernist building it will somehow harm you, and modernists think the reverse. Americans are more pragmatic and less ideological. We tend to combine [the two styles] and say, "In some places a traditional building works best, in some a modernist building works best.'"