PRIMARY MATERIALS IN URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING

About two years ago Professor Peter Hall gave a series of lectures at an Oxford college on the subject of regional planning, and devoted an entire lecture to a definition of planning. I have no wish to emulate such a performance, but perhaps I can spend some preliminary minutes in establishing what it is I am going to talk about. The more one reads and listens the more apparent it becomes that the word ‘planning’ means all things to all men—from planning next year's summer holiday to planning the American space programme. In all cases, though, there are common features. There is a goal to be achieved. The achievement of that goal is generally subject to a certain number of constraints, or limiting factors, such as the amount of time available or a limit on the financial budget. In most cases, also, there are several ways of achieving the goal and these have to be evaluated in terms of respective advantages and disadvantages, taking into account the known constraints, and one of them selected as the optimum solution. If this is then adopted as the plan, it has to be put into action, and of course the more complex the plan the longer the period of its implementation and, during that period, fresh constraints may arise, conditions may change and continuous modifications have to be made to the original statement of intent to adapt it to changing circumstances.