EBENEZER HOWARD

GARDEN CITY

THE CONCEPT
Garden City Planning has its origins in nineteenth century England when isolated residential developments introduced the idea of the private garden as opposed to the Georgian square of terrace houses around a communal garden. Originating as a middle class idea it was Ebenezer Howard who first explored the notion of garden cities as an alternative to the congested urban areas associated with the Englands Industrial Revolution. Developments exploiting the garden city idea gained ground during the early twentieth century, spreading to the Continent, America and to remote points throughout the British Empire.

CHARACTERISTICS Residential development was to be low density, affording opportunities for spacious living predominantly on the basis of the single family detached house located on its own garden allotment. The provision of a healthy sunlight environment in a garden setting was to contribute to the maintenance of high standards of morality and social stability. The arrangement of dwellings into self contained communities, each with their own identity, was fundamental. Efficient means of transport were required to facilitate the dispersement of people at low densities over large areas. Different forms of land use were allocated discrete land areas to produce an ordered and efficiently planned environment. A sense of community identity was achieved by a combination of techniques. Typically, the arrangement of open space reserves and their relationships with the surrounding dwellings imparted individual character to residential precincts.

The efficient and artistic layout of the road system held the key to the successful garden city plan. The grid iron street plan was replaced with geometrically laid out avenues, both radial and circumferential, and contour controlled roads in undulating landscapes. A hierarchical road system was devised wherein the width of pavement was adjusted to suit the amount of traffic generated. The widest roads incorporated plantations and generally defined neighborhoods whilst quite narrow roads were used to give access to small housing groups. Crossings were shared to minimise disruption to the verges and street corners were rounded to provide an open aspect at intersections. New allotment of plots of varying shapes were made, the width of frontages being wider and the depths being shallower than past practices. Furthermore, triangular and wedge shaped lots facilitated the planned arrangement of houses at corners, avoiding the need for high side fences screening back yards from public view. The amount of land given over to parkland was increased to about one tenth of the overall available land area. Public gardens and recreational reserves were supplemented by minor reserves. Private front gardens joined with landscaped roadway verges to establish a complete garden suburb environment. Overhead power lines were removed from public thoroughfares to facilitate the unfettered growth of trees and a range of pre-cast concrete street name posts and street lamps was introduced to complement the garden setting. Importantly, public reservations were planned to be of sufficient size to allow ample opportunity for the planting and growth of exotic trees.

GARDEN CITY EBENEZER HOWARD

Agricultural lands on the periphery

Industries

Agricultural lands

Agricultural lands
One portion of garden city

HOW HE CONCEIVED IT
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 and 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.

EXAMPLES
Garden City, which is to be built near the centre of the 6,000 acres, covers an area of 1,000 acres, or a sixth part of the 6,000 acres, and might be of circular form, 1,240 yards (or nearly three-quarters of a mile) from centre to circumference
Six magnificent boulevards--each 120 feet wide--traverse the city from centre to circumference, dividing it into six equal parts or wards. In the centre is a circular space containing about five and a half acres, laid out as a beautiful and well- watered garden; Surrounding this garden, each standing in its own ample grounds, are the larger public buildings--town hall, principal concert and lecture hall, theatre, library, museum, picture-gallery, and hospital. The rest of the large space encircled by the 'Crystal Palace' is a public park, containing 145 acres, which includes ample recreation grounds within very easy access of all the people.

Toward the outskirts of the town, we come upon 'Grand Avenue'. This avenue is fully entitled to the name it bears, for it is 420 feet wide, and, forming a belt of green upwards of three miles long, 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 gardens, while other sites are reserved for churches, of such denominations as the religious beliefs of the people may determine, to be erected and maintained out of the funds of the worshippers and their friends. On the outer ring of the town are factories, warehouses, dairies, markets, coal yards, timber yards, etc., all fronting on the circle railway, which encompasses the whole town, and which has sidings connecting it with a main line of railway which passes through the estate

Letchworth: Straight curbed roads with uniform planting

Hamstead : curved roads and max.use of site