Garden City

Sir Ebenezer Howard

(1850 1928)
Garden City
The idea conceived by Ebenezer Howard
First published in 1898 in a little book titled
`Tomorrow
A new edition titled `Garden Cities of Tomorrow
was published in 1902
Howard referred to `garden cities also as
`social cities
 Garden City
A city that would avoid depressing ugliness, haphazard
growth and unhealthy conditions of existing cities
A city that would ensure orderly urban growth and be
built in harmony with nature
A city that would provide convenient access of people to
opens space and their work places
Uphold the virtues of neighborhood community living
 Garden City

Concept led to new towns movement in Britain.

New towns were built as satellites of existing large cities to:
- control their indiscriminate spread
- keep commuting distances within reasonable limits (less
than 45 minutes of travel time), and
- improve quality of life of inhabitants
Illustrated by the famous diagram of 3-magnets, one representing the
town, second representing the countryside and the third that Howard
termed as Town-Country
He conceptualized that some people are attracted to towns, and
some to the countryside.
Both towns and countryside (villages) have sets of advantages and
disadvantages
The Three Magnets
 Town vs. Countryside

TOWN COUNTRYSIDE
Advantages Disadvantages Advantages Disadvantages

Opportunities Distances Beauty of Lack of Society

Nature
Amusement Isolation Fresh Air Deserted villages
High Wages High Rents/ Low rents Lack of
Prices Amusement
Employment Fog/ Foul Air Bright Sunshine Lack of
Employment
Social Murky Sky
interaction
Slums
 Town-Country
Howard proposed town-country as garden city that would uniquely
combine al the advantages of a town and countryside but have none of
their disadvantages
To occupy an area of 6,000 acres and designed for an ultimate
population of 30,000
A central park with ample recreational grounds, town hall, concert and
lecture, theater, library, museum and hospital
A large green belt around the city
Out of the total area of 6,000 acres, 5,000 acres for the green belt
Beauty of nature, social opportunity, fields and parks with easy access,
low rents, high wags, land for enterprises, pure air, fresh water, good
drainage, bright homes and gardens, no smoke and no slums
Social City
Central city will have an ultimate population of 58,000 persons on
12,000 acres
Planned decentralization of workers and their places of employment to
new towns
Each new town (garden city) located outside the normal commuting
rang of the old city
Residential density at 15 DU/ Acre
When a town reaches it stipulated size, excess population
accommodated in a new town nearby total of 6 new towns
Cellular additions to lead to a multi-centered agglomeration of towns
polycentric settlement, that Howard termed as `social city
Total population 250,000 and total area 66,000 acres
Social City
Implementation
Each new town to be built by private enterprise
Money borrowed initially but paid back as the town develops
As land values rise, profit accrued from sale of land to be used for
further development
Two new towns were started, namely, Letchworth (1903) and
Welwyn (1920) very much on the line advocated by Howard
These towns were located around London in U. K.
Both the towns faced difficulties during implementation
But are now well established
LETCHWORTH
WELWYN