Garden Cities in Theory and Practice

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.R. Sennett

Garden cities sought to combine the best of town and country living to provide healthy vibrant communities on a human scale: affordable housing for all classes in tree-lined streets with well-tended gardens, jobs within easy commuting distances, integrated transport, all surrounded by a green belt to prevent urban sprawl. The first examples were built in England in the early years of the twentieth century but the idea soon caught on internationally, with garden cities being planned and built in the USA, Australia, Germany and Japan amongst countries. Alfred Sennett's little known classic work offers one of the most comprehensive accounts of garden cities. Its two volumes cover not only the history and idea of the garden city but are unique in their encycopaedic coverage of the practicalities of the garden city. Among the topics covered are transport, building materials, agriculture, self-cleansing streets, rolling roofs, as well as the sociological aspects. He draws comparisons with cities of the ancient world but also with cities in other countries.

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 181-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Vernet ◽  
Anne Coste

The garden city is often presented as a low-density, unsustainable and space-consuming archetype of suburbanization (Duany, Roberts, & Tallen, 2014; Hall, 2014; Safdie & Kohn, 1997). It has been deliberately also misused by property developers for gated communities (Le Goix, 2003; Webster, 2001). But these projects have little in common with the original concept of garden cities. We argue that the original garden city, as a theory (Howard, 1898) and as experiments (Letchworth and Welwyn Garden Cities), is a precedent that can be used in a sustainable approach that addresses a range of issues and concerns, such as housing, governance, the economy, mobility, the community, agriculture, energy and health. The recent Wolfson Economics Prize (2014) and the many new garden cities and suburbs projects currently planned in the UK have demonstrated the resurgence of this model in the planning world, both in terms of theory and practice. In this paper, we explore its potential in the light of environmental challenges. We therefore suggest that as a model, it can in particular underpin the evolution of suburbs in an era of energy transition, since these areas require an ecosystemic rather than sectoral approach to design.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 320-344
Author(s):  
Matthew Wilson

Sybella Gurney (1870–1926) made important and largely unrecognized contributions to British community design theory and practice. This essay begins with an exploration of her youthful social reform activities and academic influences including Leonard Hobhouse, John Ruskin, Auguste Comte, Frederic Le Play, John Stuart Mill, and Ebenezer Howard. These foundational pursuits inspired her to become an ardent cooperator affiliated with the Garden Cities movement and to serve as a sociologist seeking to kindle a “new civic spirit” for post -World War I reconstruction. Gurney, as part of an idealistic circle of thinkers which included Patrick Geddes, considered sociology as a means to realize complete Garden City-states based upon scientific, ethical, and participatory principles.


2021 ◽  
pp. 36-41
Author(s):  
Tim Nagtegaal

There is a hidden gem in the Amsterdam garden cities. Jaap Bakema was the founder of an experiment in the 1950s. A piece of “Rotterdam in Amsterdam.” Based on the philosophy of an open society and the human scale. Forty years after completion, there is a call for renewal. The architect’s heritage ends up on the demolition list. Due to the economic crisis, demolition has been postponed and there was time for reflection. The neighborhood seems to survive the test of time. The careful renewal proves to be a great success. This is a story about the resurrection of a Bakema experiment.


Author(s):  
Christopher Cullen

We look first at the situation in the early years of the restored Han dynasty. Liu Xin’s system continued in use for more than half a century. Then, in 85 CE, Liu Xin’s system was replaced. We have records of the practical and theoretical grounds on which the old system was rejected, and of the creation and implementation of a new system. Next we follow the story of how c. 92 CE Jia Kui advocated a fundamental innovation in both theory and practice: he insisted on the ecliptic as being central to astronomical observation and calculation. The richness of records from this period makes it easy to tell a detailed story of technical innovation in its fullest context, leading up to the work of Zhang Heng (78–139 CE), for whom astronomical calculation was just one of several fields in which he gained a reputation for exceptional originality.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1772
Author(s):  
Bimpe Alabi ◽  
Julius Fapohunda

Adequate provision of affordable human settlements is a huge challenge in South Africa since its independence. This paper investigates the effects of the cost increase of building materials on affordable housing delivery in South Africa. With potential solutions for cost minimisation of building materials, with the aim of achieving affordable housing delivery in South Africa are provided. This study uses a sequential mixed methods approach, wherein surveys were conducted among the construction professionals (project managers, site managers architects, site engineers, quantity surveyors, contractors, building materials suppliers, and government workers) in the construction industry within Cape Town, South Africa, who were considered as the research participants. The qualitative data obtained from the survey exercise were analysed using content analysis, while the quantitative data were analysed using a descriptive statistical technique on SPSS. The findings attained show fluctuation in construction cost and a rise in maintenance cost (caused by poor workmanship) as significant effects in the cost increase of building materials for affordable housing delivery. Adequate application of the recommendations given in this study will minimise the effects of high cost of building materials and enhance affordable housing delivery. Appropriate handling of the findings given in this study will reduce the effects of the high cost of building materials and augment timely delivery of affordable housing and stakeholders’ satisfaction.


Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802199889
Author(s):  
Alexander Lord ◽  
Chi-Wan Cheang ◽  
Richard Dunning

Governments the world over routinely undertake Land Value Capture (LVC) to recover some (or all) of the uplift in land values arising from the right to develop in order to fund infrastructure and public goods. Instruments to exact LVC are diverse but are usually implemented independently. However, since 2011 England has been experimenting with a dual approach to LVC, applying both a tariff-style levy to fund local infrastructure (the Community Infrastructure Levy) and negotiated obligations, used primarily to fund affordable housing (Section 106 agreements). In this article we employ a difference-in-differences (DID) method to identify the interaction of these two instruments available to local planning authorities. We explore the question of whether the Community Infrastructure Levy ‘crowds out’ affordable housing secured through Section 106 planning agreements. In so doing we show that the interaction of these two approaches is heterogeneous across local authorities of different types. This raises questions for understanding the economic geography of development activity and the theory and practice of Land Value Capture.


2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 276-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renato Leão Rego

This article discusses some adaptations of the garden-city concept in Brazil and reveals how a foreign physical model was conveniently matched to specific civic purposes. The layout of three planned new towns—Águas de São Pedro, Maringá, and Goiânia—and two garden suburbs (Jardim América and Jardim Shangri-lá) are analyzed along with their planners’ discourses and their representations in the contemporary local press. The analysis reveals that the garden-city concept was used as a path to modernity, a civilizing instrument, and a tool for real-estate venture by involving processes of representation and institutionalization which were different to those at their point of origin.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-218
Author(s):  
Stanislav Gennadyevich Malkin

The following paper deals with methodological features of studying of empires legacy role in policy of the leading powers in the countries of the third world through a prism of asymmetric conflicts historical modeling. The author pays special attention to the role of Great Britain and the USA foreign policy course defining after World War II during Cold War in the second half of the 20th century and Global War on Terror at the beginning of the 21st century. The author pays attention to methodological traps (such as the probability of the research problem on the given variable and terminological confusion) as well as to research opportunities which are opened by such approach in the field of the historical and political analysis (for example, evolution of the international relations theory and practice in the conditions of the world order transformation after World War II). Special attention is given to the value of such methodological reception as asymmetric conflicts historical modeling in expert estimates of the leading powers foreign policy. The paper also deals with the role of expert community and academic expertize as an important component of that analytical operation which is carried out within historical simulation of the asymmetrical conflicts.


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