Changes

=='Twelve to the Acre'==

=='Twelve to the Acre'==

These principles were enshrined in an influential pamphlet by Unwin entitled 'Nothing to be Gained from Overcrowding', and he was shortly to be in a position to make them official policy. In 1914 he joined the civil service and in 1915 became chief planner to the Ministry of Munitions, where he was able to influence the design of several housing developments builtto house armaments workers and himself designed the townships of [[Gretna]] and Eastriggs in [[Dumfriesshire]], south-western [[Scotland]].

These principles were enshrined in an influential pamphlet by Unwin entitled 'Nothing to be Gained from Overcrowding', and he was shortly to be in a position to make them official policy. In 1914 he joined the civil service and in 1915 became chief planner to the Ministry of Munitions, where he was able to influence the design of several housing developments builtto house armaments workers and himself designed the townships of [[Gretna]] and Eastriggs in [[Dumfriesshire]], south-western [[Scotland]]. In 1917-18 he was a member of the Tudor Walters Committee which made recommendations on future housing policy, and in 1918 became Chief Architect at the new Ministry of Health, which had responsibility for housing issues. The Design Guide which he wrote for the MoH laid down rules for municipal housing based on his 'twelve to the acre' rule of thumb, and private developers (who weren't bound by these rules) felt that their estates, designed for the growing middle classes, could not appear to be more cramped than the municipal estates built for rehousing the working classes and slum-dwellers. Thus Unwin's beliefs led to a huge expansion of low-density suburbia in the period between the First and Second World Wars.