Potteries Thinkbelt Project, Staffordshire, England (Plan of Desire Lines-Physical and Mental Exchange)

Cedric Price

1964–1966

A conceptual site plan by Cedric Price that maps imagined “desire lines” of people and ideas across Staffordshire as part of his Potteries Thinkbelt proposal, drawn in ink and ink stamp on diazotype to visualize flows of physical and mental exchange.

You first notice a dense spiderweb of fine black lines converging on a few pointed nodes, laid over a warm, faded-brown diazotype with ghostly red road traces and a compact legend, so the map reads less like terrain than like active movement and connection.

Part urban proposal, part systems diagram, this work shows Price’s pioneering use of mapping and infrastructure thinking to rethink education, mobility, and programmatic networks—anticipating later networked and participatory approaches to architecture and planning.

Palette

Art Terms

Architectural drawing Plan drawing Architecture Maps, borders,and networks Diazotype Ink Radical Architecture

Exhibitions

Modern Architecture in England

1937

New Posters from England

1942

Transformations in Modern Architecture

1979

Visionary Architecture

1960