The garden city movement is a method of urban planning in which self-contained communities are surrounded by "greenbelts", containing proportionate areas of residences, industry, and agriculture. The idea was initiated in 1898 by Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom and aims to capture the primary benefits of a countryside environment and a city environment while avoiding the disadvantages presented by both. Howard was knighted in 1927. During his lifetime Letchworth, Brentham Garden Suburb and Welwyn Garden City were built in or near London according to Howard's concept and many other garden cities inspired by his model have since been built all over the world.
The English idea of the "garden city" originated due to the increase of the population in the urban centers, which had created a strong degradation to the cities with consequent hardships and brutalities during the mid-nineteenth century. At that time, the growing development of industries did not reconcile with the life of man. For this two utopians: the Welsh Robert Owen (1771-1858) (English self-taught), the French Charles Fourier (1772-1837), contrasted the real city with an ideal city with factories where there were moderate hours and higher wages and services in common among citizens. The idea was taken up and developed by Ebenezer Howard, who had, as his main objective, to save the city from congestion and the countryside from abandonment. The aim was to obtain two advantages at the same time: the comforts and conveniences of urban life and the wholesome and genuine aspects of country life. The design of this new type of city therefore had to take into account all aspects of human life, respecting the primary needs of the individual. It was therefore thought of residential nuclei formed by single-family residences, surrounded by greenery, connected to each other, with services, shops, theater, church, production areas and administrative areas, in such a way as to make these centers completely self-sufficient.
The garden cities were organized in concentric rings: in the center a well-kept garden, around the public buildings (schools, town hall ...), then a central park (taking inspiration from New York) (this was like a big green lung) and as the last bands there was the residential part, the large avenue and the industrial part.
Comments