Aerial photo of Milton Keynes, UK
In City Journal, National Civic Art Society Research Fellow Theodore Dalrymple returns to Milton Keynes, the British city born of 1960s modernist planning ideals. Conceived as a rational response to urban crowding, it was built on the belief that the right grid, traffic pattern, and housing formula could engineer a better society. What Dalrymple finds instead is a city defined by absence: no real streets, little civic life, and a landscape that feels more measured than lived in.
Dalrymple traces the logic that shaped Milton Keynes—wide roads, subdued buildings, and a deliberate avoidance of tradition—and considers the psychological effects of life in a place built without memory. The city's form, he argues, reflects a worldview that replaces culture with calculation and treats citizens as units to be managed.
Yet amid the monotony, he encounters something unexpected. A local gallery hosts an exhibition of South Asian miniatures, offering a rare moment of depth and delight. Dalrymple's piece is both an exploration of a place and a reminder: even the most sterile environments cannot fully suppress the human need for beauty and meaning.
Read the full piece at City Journal.
Serpentine Court in Milton Keynes, UK