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EBENEZER HOWARD

INTRODUCTION

Sir Ebenezer HowardOBE(29 January 1850 1 May 1928) is known


for his publicationGarden Cities of To-morrow(1898), the description of
autopiancity in which people live harmoniously together with nature.
The publication resulted in the founding of thegarden city movement,
that realized several Garden Cities in Great Britain at the beginning of
the 20th century.
This movement influenced the development of several model suburbs
such asForest Hills Gardensdesigned byF. L. Olmsted Jr.in
1909,Radburn NJ(1923) and the Suburban Resettlement Program
towns of the 1930s (Greenbelt, Maryland,Green hills,
Ohio,Greenbrooke, New JerseyandGreendale, Wisconsin).
Howard aimed to reduce the alienation of humans and society from
nature, and hence advocated garden citiesand Georgism.
Howard is believed by many to be one of the great guides to the town
planning movement, with many of his garden city principles being used
in modern town planning.

EARLY LIFE

Howard was born inFore Street, City of London, the son of Ebenezer
Howard (18181900), a confectioner,and Ann (ne Tow, born 1818).
He was sent to schools in Suffolk and Hertfordshire. Howard left
school at 15 and began working as a clerk in London.
Howard subsequently had severalclerical jobs, including one with
Dr Parker of the City Temple. In 1871, at the age of 21, influenced
partly by a farming uncle, Howard emigrated with two friends to
America.
He went toNebraska, and after his farming effortsfailed,
discovered he did not wish to be a farmer.
He then relocated to Chicago and worked as a reporter for the
courts and newspapers.
In the US he became acquainted with, and admired, poetsWalt
WhitmanandRalph Waldo Emerson. Howard began to ponder ways
to improve the quality of life.

GARDEN CITIES (a British


innovation)

Ebenezer Howard: Garden Cities of


Tomorrow(1902)
three magnets
Town (high wages, opportunity, and amusement)
Country(natural beauty, low rents, fresh air)
Town country(combination of both)
Separated from central city by green belt.
Two actually built in England.
Letchworth
Welwyn

THE GARDEN CITY


MOVEMENT

New cities supported by core urban.


Green spaces
Pedestrian spaces
Central shopping area
Linked by public transportation
Several cities in UK and USA based on
these concepts(Radburn, New Jersey,
USA Reston, Virginia USA, Letchworth
UK and Welwyn UK.

HOW HE

CO

NCEIVED

I T

Ebenezer howard wanted to solve the increasing problems of towns and


hence he proposed a solution in the form of the garden city. He
attempted to explain his idea through the diagram of the three magnets.
The three magnets
He mentioned the advantages and the disadvantages of both town life and country
life on the respective two magnets- namely town magnet and country magnet
Advantages of town magnet being
Opportunities of work, high wages , social opportunities and
amusements , proper streets and sanitation
Disadvantages of a town
distance from work, isolation of crowds , dirty air and the slums
Whereas advantages of country are

natural

beauty, fresh air

On

the third magnet he listed down attractive features of both town


country life and posed the problem of where would people go
Hence the conception of garden city which aimed to combine the advantages
of both country and town life
Examples letchworth

"Town and country must be married, and out of


this joyous union will spring a new hope, a new
life, a new civilization." Ebenezer Howard

According to Sir Ebenezer Howard, garden cities were


intended to be planned, self-contained, communities
surrounded by greenbelts, containing carefully balanced
areas of residences, industry and agriculture.
Howards proposal emphasized the integration of the
town and the country.
He found out that both have advantages and function
as magnets do. Therefore, his solution was to develop a
city structure which contains the advantages of a city
and those of the countryside.
He expressed this in his image of The Three Magnets

TOWN

Closing out of nature


Isolation of crowds
Distant work places
High rents and prices
Slums and crowded dwellings
Social opportunity
Places of amusement
High money wages
Chances of employment

COUNTRY

Lack of society
Hands out of work
Low wages and rents
Lack of drainage
Lack of amusement
No public spirit
Beauty of nature
Fresh air
Abundance of water
Bright sunshine
Need of re-form
Land lying idle

TOWN-COUNTRY

Freedom
Beauty of nature
Low rents
Low pricing
Field for enterprise
Pure air and water
Bright homes and gardens
Socia opportunity
High wages
Plenty to do
Flow of capital
Good drainage
No smoke, no slums
Co-operation

GARDEN CITIES CONCEPT

Limited size
Planned in advance
Independent towns
Surrounded by a permanent belt of agricultural
land
Perfect blend of city with nature
A balance of work and leisure
A balance of control and freedom
A harmonious relation between the machine and
garden

Plan of an Ideal Garden City


Plan of an Ideal Garden City Engraving: from 'Garden Cities of
Tomorrow' by Sir Ebenezer Howard (1902)

PLANNING PRINCIPLES
1. SETTELMENT STRUCTURE
He started with discussions of the optimum size for towns in which a
central city of 58,000 people was surrounded by smaller garden
cities of 30,000 people each.
Green spaces or a greenbelt and agricultural land would be a major
component in the garden city whereby the permanent green space
would separate the city and towns and serving as a horizontal fence
of farmland.
The requirement of the greenbelt or agricultural land for the Garden
City in Howards view was 5,000 acres of the total 6,000 acres

2. CI T Y ST R U C T U R E:

The Garden City consists for


different zones, street types
and green spaces.
The core in the centre is
about 4 km and contains a
central park, surrounded by
commercial, cultural and
administrative zones.
Six magnificent boulevards
connect the centre with the
circumference, dividing the
city into six parts.
A wide (Grand Avenue) and
some smaller (First to Fifth
Avenue) ring roads are
arranged circular around the
centre, and together with the
radial roads, they form the
wards -living area.

City layout

Six magnificent boulevards-each 120 feet wide-traverse


the city from centre to circumference, dividing it into six
equal parts or wards.
In the central circular space covering area5acres lies
a beautiful and well-watered garden.
Surrounding this garden, are the larger public buildingstown hall, principal concert, lecture hall ,theatre ,
library,museum,picture-gallery,and hospital.

Diagram showing one section or ward of the town

AGRICULTURE LAND ON
THE PERIPHERY

AGRICULTURE
LAND

INDUSTRIES

City layout

Running all round the Central Park is a wide glass arcade called
the 'Crystal Palace', containing 145 acres.
The space enclosed by the Crystal Palace is, larger than is
required for these purposes, and a considerable part of it is used
as a Winter Gardenthe whole forming a permanent exhibition of
a most attractive character.
Out of the Crystal Palace-to the outer ring of the town lies the
Fifth Avenuelined with trees.
The houses are built either in concentric rings, facing the
boulevards and roads which all converge to the centre of the
town.
Walking toward the outskirts of the town, lies the Grand Avenue.
It is 420 feet wide ,and, divides that part of the town which lies
outside Central Park into two belts.
In this splendid avenue six sites,each of four acres,are occupied
by public schools and their surrounding playgrounds and garden.

On the outer ring of the town are factories,


warehouses,dairies,markets,coalyards,timberyar
ds,etc.
There fuse of the town is utilized on the
agricultural portions of the estate, divided in
large farms, small holdings ,allotments ,cow
pastures,
etc.
The ring and radial pattern of his imaginary
garden city was a plan that many other writers
of the time also favored, because of its
perceived superiority from both engineering and
architectural view points.

3. CI T Y EX P A N S I O N:
To avoid problems which
occur in expanding cities,
the concept limits the city .
maximum population up to
32,000 people.
Further growing of the
Garden City is not
possible; therefore a new
city has to be founded in a
reasonable distance of
about 7 km to the others
to protect the country side.
The cities are well
connected through a
railway system to
exchange goods.

LETCHWORTH GARDEN
CITY , UK

ntroduction

letchworth

Letchworth Garden City started in 1903 in Hertfordshire, UK


was one of the first new towns and is an early example of
urban planning considered alongside strategies of
community management and economic sustainability. The
brainchild of Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928) it was based on
ideas first disseminated in his book,To-morrow: a Peaceful
Path to Real Reform(1898) reissued asGarden Cities of Tomorrow(1902), which outlined a model for self-sustaining
towns combining the convenience of urban life with the

An experiment in
social reform as
much as town
planning, it was put
into practice when
First Garden City Ltd
was formed in 1903
and purchased
around 1600
hectares (almost
4000 acres) of
agricultural land in
the three adjacent
villages of
Letchworth, Willian
and Norton. The
site met the need
for good
communication: it is
close to the old
Great North Road

A competition
to determine
the layout and
character of the
new town was
won by the
architects Barry
Parker and
Raymond
Unwin, whose
plan was
adopted in
1904. The town
was based
either side of
the railway,
which
separates it
into a northern
and southern
half.
Residential and

United kingdoms first round about

Despite a slow start, the town quickly developed a


character of its own: houses influenced by the Arts and
Crafts movement characterize the early residential
areas, while the presence of trees and grass verges
everywhere gives an ubiquitous impression of greenery.
The original town square, now Broadway Gardens, is
dominated by the Town Hall of 1935, with the Museum

The commercial centre was laid out with broad pavements,


while a 1975 pedestrian precinct and recent traffic calming
measures make shopping a pleasant affair than in many
places, in harmony with Howard's ideals. The centre also
boasts the district's only cinema - the Art Deco Broadway
Cinema, which currently has three screens, and is soon to
gain another. East of the town centre, Howard Park and
Howard Garden have been a public open space since 1906,
while the 25 hectare (63 acres) Norton Common was

WELWYN GARDEN CITY

WELWYN GARDEN CITY


Welwyn was an area of woodlands and open fields before
the garden city was constructed.Welwyn was Howard's
second Garden City after Letchworth. Howard purchased
the land with 5000 borrowed from friends. Welwyn is only
20 miles from London, and captured the charm of the
countryside and managed to stay unspoiled by
urbanisation. The architecture in Welwyn has been
described as pleasant, and the residential cottages with
their wide roads and open spaces make Welwyn a
refreshing picture when compared to London of the time.
After 10 years of existence Welwyn had a population of
10,000, with well-established residential, industrial and
commercial zones. In 1930 the health of Welwyn
inhabitants was considered greater than those living in
London, as Welwyn recorded lower death rates and infant
mortality rates. The increased health in Welwyn was
understood to be due to the principles of the Garden City.
It could be argued that Welwyn fell short of Howard's
ideals, Howard wanted investors to invest for the sake of
philanthropy, but investors wanted returns and local
democracy failed with an exclusive government group
formed. Finally, Welwyn was marketed as a middle class
commuter suburb, entirely disrespecting the garden city
ideals of a self-reliant city.

The town is laid out along tree-lined boulevards with aneo-Georgiantown centre.It has its own
environmental protection legislation, the Scheme of Management for Welwyn Garden City. Every
road has a wide grass verge. The spine of the town is Parkway, a central mall or scenic parkway,
almost a mile long. The view along Parkway to the south was once described as one of the world's
finest urban vistas.Older houses are on the west side of Parkway and newer houses on the east

Most people move to Welwyn Garden City because they


like it but very few realize why they like it. The reason is
very much down to the vision of one man, Ebenezer
Howard, and its interpretation and realization by a young
French Canadian architect, Louis de Soissons.
The ideas for the garden city grew up during the late
19thcentury and were based around the idea that densely
built-up towns and the countryside both had advantages
and disadvantages. Howards idea (he was founder of the
garden city movement) was to combine the advantages of
both in a pleasant, co-operative egalitarian environment.

One of the key themes of the garden city ideal was selfcontainment: providing jobs, services, leisure facilities
and housing all within one town in a high quality, green
and open setting. This has some parallels with modern
ideas about sustainable development in the sense that
providing a mixture of land uses in close proximity
reduces the need to travel.
Louis de Soissons chose a red brick Neo-Georgian style for his building design and was keen to conserve as many hedgerows and
trees as possible, exploiting the landscape to its fullest extent. But he truly excelled as a street designer and there is no doubt
that his finished plan is a masterpiece of town planning. It is still regarded so some ninety years later. In planning terms its
significance is global. It is featured in most probably all -university architectural and urban design courses around the world.
Welwyn Garden City was designated as a New Town shortly after the end of World War II and the fact that its original designer,
Louis de Soissons, was in charge of its development from its inception until his death in 1962, was able to maintain its unique
status.
Architecturally, although much of Welwyn Garden City is Neo-Georgian, it is a very simple, pared down Neo-Georgian version,
free of too many features and, therefore, eminently suitable for the twentieth century. Although Neo-Georgian revival
architecture was not uncommon elsewhere during the 1920s and 30s, the planned, singularly controlled concentration here is
unique. On the whole, individual buildings of all styles, public and private, form a collection of the finest domestic architecture
of the early twentieth century that is of the highest significance, defining the character of the garden city and vital to its
integrity.
Ebenezer Howards vision of a Garden City was one that would combine the benefits of living in a town with those of living in the
country. It would be a place in which people would both live and work in beautiful surroundings; in a city that would be not only
a city in a garden, but also a city of gardens: an example of good civic design and architectural harmony.

The town is now very much bigger, and many residents


commute to London and elsewhere. These and other social
changes,particularly the car becoming the main means of
transport and the growth of supermarkets, chain stores and
multi-national industrial combines, mean that Ebenezer
Howards original vision has had to adaptto the demands of
modern living.
The use of space is generous by modern day standards,
there are large verges between roadway and pavements.
Trees are planted in abundance; there are both grand vistas
in the formal part of the town that give way, seemingly
effortlessly, to intimate domestic architecture. The latter
representing one of the finest collections of English
domestic architecture of the early 20thcentury.

COLONEL LIGHT GARDENS,


ADELAIDE,AUSTRALIA

Colonel Light Gardensis a model garden


suburb, featuring wide, tree-lined streets, wellmaintained homes, rounded street corners, and
lots of manicured, well maintained open space,
located within theCity of Mitchamin the greater
City ofAdelaide, capital ofSouth Australia.
The area is 1.58km.
It containsColonel Light Gardens Primary
School, theColonel Light Gardens RSL, a
number of sporting clubs using the name Reade
Park, and a multitude of historical parks and
gardens. It also contains many paved and
unpaved laneways, alleyways and bike tracks,
most of which do not appear on maps.

CLG town was a State Government sponsored


garden city development when most
developments were usually private ventures. The
suburb came into being for a specific reason, to
lay out a model suburb on the latest and most
approved methods of subdivision.
Charles Reade, an enthusiastic supporter of the
garden city idea was employed by the South
Australian Government to design the States first
model garden suburb.

In 1917 Reade began preparing schematic


designs for what was becoming known as the
Mitcham Garden Suburb. The suburb was
planned to have a radically different appearance
to a typical suburb of the time with buildings set
in a planned environment; planned locations for
public buildings; and an abundance of parks,
gardens and wide verges set beside curved
roads, rather than the usual grid.

In keeping with garden city principles, Reade


designed the Mitcham Garden Suburb as a lowdensity, self-contained residential environment
that catered for many residents needs within its
boundaries. Using the topography and extant
natural features of the 300 acre site, a 10 acre
recreation park created a focus and also served as
the site for an ornamental lake and formal gardens
utilizing the natural drainage of the site. Existing
roads determined the entry points to the suburb

Within the suburb, distinct areas were set aside for


commercial, administrative, education,
religious, recreational and residential land
uses. No industrial area was created. Two
shopping precincts (one with town hall, theatre
and fire station nearby) were allowed for, as well
as sites for schools, accommodation for the aged,
a convalescent home, a returned soldiers facility
comprising a medical institute and a technical
institute, and churches.
Reade allowed for a mix of recreation places
including several large parks, a park which
included tennis, lawn bowls and croquet, a
childrens playground adjacent to the oval and
school, internal reserves placed behind groups of
houses on smaller allotments and small parks
dotted throughout the suburb.

Unitarian church

Recreation Center-The
Oval

Reade applied the garden city principle of


road classification to his design rather
than the usual road width, which was a
standard 66 feet, or one surveyors chain.
The suburbs roads varied in width, their
width determined by the amount of traffic
they would carry and their importance in
the design scheme. Road widths varied in
the suburb from 42 feet to 66 feet in
residential areas, from between 66 and 80
feet for roads with shopping zones and
other public facilities. The thoroughfare to
the major aesthetic feature, the central
square, was 99 feet wide.

VICTORIA
SQUARE,ADELAI
DE

The line of the roads was varied with curves and crescents
where practical and long straight stretches avoided. Buildings
were set back from the streets to ensure that adequate
garden plots could be developed in front of houses. At
corners, buildings were placed to avoid blank walls and ensure
visibility for drivers. Rear lanes, in which the services were
located, were provided behind the residential allotments.
Reade allowed for housing all social groups, and in line with
garden city principles, aimed to design a site-specific
Australian garden suburb, reflecting the desire for single storey
houses on one allotment for one family. The building density
was planned to be low (eventually three houses per acre) with
each house available for freehold purchase. Larger allotments
were planned, dotted throughout the suburb for the more
affluent and a complex for elderly residents, facilities for
returned servicemen and a hostel for single men were also
proposed.

WHY EBENZER FAILED?

He failed to gain the attention of


political and sociological experts
because of his limited knowledge in the
field in which he was to make such a
distingished contribution.

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