"All my life," the prince said, "I have tried to break conventional molds because I think they are mistaken. The only way I could do it was through the duchy, to show there was an alternative way of looking at things."

And so just over a decade ago, on 400 acres (162 hectares) owned by the Duchy of Cornwall since the 14th century, ground was broken for a new village. Situated on the western edge of Dorchester, a Roman-era market town in the lush county of Dorset, Poundbury is Prince Charles's dream made real, his answer to the "unadulterated ugliness and mediocrity" of typical housing estates and the "heartlessness of so much urban planning."

With more than 650 houses now completed and another 1,600 to be built over the next 15 years, Poundbury's architecture borrows from the quaint cottages found in Dorset and doffs its hat to grander 18th-century houses in Dorchester. All the buildings are faced with time-tested local materials, such as honey-colored hamstone, with the aim of helping the community take root in a familiar atmosphere.

"What I was trying to do," the prince said, "was remind people about the pointlessness of throwing away all the knowledge and experience and wisdom—wisdom—of what had gone before."

Clare Jenkins, a former chairperson of the Poundbury residents' association, lives with her husband, Mike, and their two young sons in an upmarket, four-bedroom, classically styled house looking toward the Iron Age hill fort of Maiden Castle. She and Mike started an IT-support company in a workshop within yards of the house. "I can walk to work," she said. "The kids can walk or cycle across the fields to school. However they have done the urban planning, it appears to have worked. There are no huge main roads. You walk to the local shop rather than drive to the big supermarket. There are no front gardens to hide behind and no big back gardens, so when the kids want to play, you go out to the fields and bump into more people. It makes a very different sense of community."

Unlike the conventional developments the prince so despises, Poundbury follows a design of almost unnerving boldness despite its cozy old-world atmosphere. Dotted with offices and several inconspicuous factories, it is densely packed, enabling many residents to walk to work, and its tight lanes and snaking avenues are meant to baffle motorists. "If you design with the pedestrian at the center, not the car," the prince said, "then you tend automatically to produce a more livable community."

Looking at the pretty facades of Poundbury's houses, you would never guess that as many as one in three is earmarked for people who can't afford open-market rents or purchase prices—reflecting Prince Charles's conviction that strong neighborhoods can best be fostered by mimicking the social and economic mix of a traditional village.