Garden City

Garden Cities were intended to be "planned, self contained, communities surrounded by "greenbelts" (parks), containing proportionate areas of residences, industry, and agriculture." The Garden City movement is a method of urban planning initiated by Sir Ebenezer Howard in 1898. (http://en.wikipedia.org/).

Ebenezer Howard introduced his blueprint of garden city in 1898 with a book titled To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, which was later reissued as Garden Cities of Tomorrow in 1902. With a fixed limit of 32,000 people and 1,000 acres of land, garden city was planned to be a place that integrated the best of town (economic and social opportunities) and country (fresh air and nature) (Hall, 2002, Cities of Tomorrow). As Howard himself proposed, garden cities should be surrounded by large area of green belt, contain farmes and all kinds of urban institutions, and connect to each other by an "Inter-Municipal Railway". Beside the physical forms of garden city, there is also social, political, and economical importance rooted in Howard's design of Garden City plan. As interpreted by Hall (2002), "freedom and cooperation" are the heart of the plan.

In United Kingdom, Letchworth and Welwyn are two true garden cities built in the first 40 years(1900-1940) of Garden City Movement.

This picture illustrated Ebenezer Howard's 3 magnets diagram which addressed the question "Where will the people go?" the choices being Town, Country or Town-Country. (http://en.wikipedia.org/).

by Shu Yang