Sir Ebenezer Howard was the founder of garden cities.

“His garden city embodies all the ideas championed by the current generation. It combines work and residence, provides housing for a wide range of incomes, and includes a town center with a well-defined civic space, all at a walking scale with easy access to parkland.” Bob Fisher APA panel

• Strong community• Ordered development• Environmental quality• These were to be achieved by: – Unified ownership of land to prevent individual land speculation and maximize community benefit – Careful planning to provide generous living and working space while maintaining natural qualities – Social mix and good community facilities – Limits to growth of each garden city – Local participation in decisions about development

“Garden cities allowed a genuine celebration and renewal of nature, even within an essentially

urban industrial economy.”Garden cities have been the richest source of

planning over the last century. Within the principles of garden cities many key principles of planning

practice in the 20th century can be found.

* Land use segregation

* Master planning * Residential site

planning * Neighborhood units

* Road hierarchies

Shopping malls Industrial parks Regional planning Planned decentralization Greenbelts

6000 acres 5000 for agriculture and 2000 people 1000 in the city for 30,000 people

Low rent on land - Agricultural Dividends on the land would be paid

out Create a place that combines city life

and rural life Eliminate slums

There are three garden cities designs that have influenced other cities.

Letchworth, UK

Greenbelt, MD

Radburn, NJ

B. Parker and R. Unwin, the Architects of Letchworth, disliked the original geometric symmetry of Howard’s design and applied their own “organic unity” to the design. The industrial sector was not as Howard proposed and was separated by a park from the community. Although Letchworth was not the ideal garden city as Howard had imagined, it did demonstrate most of the ideals and principles of a garden city.

Low population 1905 – population was 1400 1907 – population was 2800 1908 – population was 5600

Slow growth until munitions factory was built there in 1914

Means the housing increases in value

The city of Greenbelt was the first community in the U.S. built as a federal venture for housing. It was designed as a complete city, with businesses, schools, roads, and facilities for recreation and town government.

Greenbelt was a planned community, noted for its interior walkways, underpasses, inner courtyards, and Art Deco Architecture.

Greenbelt is the only of the three garden cities to flourish only because of the demonstration of the citizens residing in the community.

As a result of the Great Depression, Radburn became influenced by the post World War II suburban development. Only a portion of the development was completed because the developer went bankrupt during the Great Depression. Radburn was designed to occupy one square mile of land and house some 25,000 residents. However, the Great Depression limited the development to only 149 acres. Radburn created a unique alternative to the conventional suburban development through the use of cul-de-sacs, interior parklands, and cluster housing. Although Radburn is smaller than planned, it still plays a very important role in the history of urban planning.

The Regional Planning Association of America (RPAA) used Radburn as a garden city experiment. Members of the RPAA were often referred to as the ‘think tank.’

The main design intent for Radburn was to separate vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

The Radburn planners achieved this separation through the use of the superblocks, cul-de-sacs, and pedestrian-only pathways.

Through the use of the superblock, houses in Radburn were uniquely designed to have two fronts. The ‘back side’ of the house, what we would normally consider the front side, faced the culs-de-sac and parking. The kitchen was normally placed in the back to provide visitors a place to enter the house. The ‘front side’ of the house faced towards the green spaces or parks encouraging pedestrian traffic. Since automobiles were given limited access to the ‘backs’ of the houses, the ‘fronts’ of the house were relatively quiet, therefore, the bedrooms were always placed on this side of the house.

Construction of interior parks were heavily dependant on the development of Radburn’s road infrastructure . In a typical city plan, roads occupy about 35% of the total land area, however, in Radburn they occupy about 21% of the land area. These parks played a large role as a spatial component by tying together structures and circulation.

Radburn contains a very noticeable landmark that is constantly used as a form of reference and identity. The Plaza Building is Radburn’s only neighborhood shopping center, and its tall clock tower has been a neighborhood landmark since 1927.

The 2900 residents of Radburn share 23 acres of interior parks, which yield 345 square feet / person.

These parks provide small districts for the city.

Radburn has very distinct edges. Bordered by a river to the south and east and a traditional gridiron system to the north-east which indirectly affected the later developments of Radburn.

Radburn works as a garden city and a wonderful example of a well designed community because every piece is integrated perfectly into one body.

– Were bigger and met bigger housing needs– Relied much more on state intervention– Were built at higher densities (but important exceptions eg most UK new towns)– Also included more apartments instead of individual houses, and increasingly high rise– Often poorer community facilities (in Europe especially)– Have proved less sustainable in long term (in Europe at least) than garden cities

To be developed within a 12 mile radius of London

Helped with decentralization

Socially and economically self contained towns

Influenced by Howard’s theories

Low density housing Cheaper due to lower road costs and

sewer system costs

Block planning instead of street planning

Combining urban and rural housing

Reported by: Del Rosario, David Mendoza, Christian David B. Putungan, Francis M.