Ways of Knowing the Landscape of the New Town: A Lefebvrian Analysis

This chapter explores how knowledge of landscape has been produced by different groups of interests in the Mark 3 partnership new town of Warrington, UK, referring specifically to a neighbourhood called Birchwood. I introduce my on- going research project Days of the New Town and present findings as a point of encounter between knowledge of landscape as professional expertise and as socially lived experience. I place this encounter within the theoretical context of Lefebvre’s writings on social space. Specifically, I use his spatial triad, three overlapping concepts on how space is produced as lived, conceived and perceived, (see The Production of Space 1973 translated into English in 1991). Having grown up in Birchwood, I carry with me a knowledge of this space in terms of lived experience. Whilst I do not call upon personal experience in this paper, the aim of bringing about a greater awareness of the new town as a space of lived experience has been a motivational factor in researching and writing about the ways we formulate our knowledge of new towns: k. Knowledge which can co- exist with the official archives of New Town Development Corporations. Key words: Landscape; Planning; sense of place; Lefebvre