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INTRODUCTION
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.
HOW HE
CO
NCEIVED
I T
natural
On
TOWN
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
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
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:
City layout
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.
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
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
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
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.
Unitarian church
Recreation Center-The
Oval
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.