SUSTAINING THELessons learned GARDEN from city planning rootedCITY in social change and the appreciation of nature Figure 2 Artist Spencer Gore depicts the experience of ARTHIST 369R The Architect + the City walking through the greenbelt of a Garden City. Word Count: 3127 [source: The Art of Building a Garden City] he twenty-first century can be In 1898, Ebenezer Howard published transformational impact of art and nature characterized by a growing To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, on human well-being, placing emphasis on awareness of the problems that in which he described the Garden City socialist and anarchist ideas about the fair both plague humanity and are as the “town-country,” incorporating the distribution of land and practical solutions Tcreated as a result of our very existence. best features of urbanism and ruralism in to transportation and sanitation needs [1] In particular, interdisciplinary research into such a way that the people would choose (Figure 2). chronic illnesses, age-related diseases, and it over the traditional “town” or “country” In 1902, Howard’s book was reissued as cancer has attributed the root causes— (Figure 1). The Garden City plan consists of Garden Cities of Tomorrow, foreshadowing inflammation and oxidative stress—to the a constellation of radial, interconnected, the renowned influence that both Howard symbiotic relationship between public self-sustaining communities surrounded and his Garden City would have on twentieth health and the environment. In an effort by greenbelts and containing designated century urban planning, especially in to both encourage healthy lifestyles and areas for housing, industry, recreation, and justifying housing developments that are combat climate change, city-planning has agriculture. Designed as an antithesis to at best loosely built on the core ideals and come upon a recent trend to revisit and urban sprawl and overcrowding in cities, properties outlined in the original theory. reimagine the Garden City. Howard created a method to suggest the For instance, Römerstadt—the primary 1 The social context of the Garden we can extrapolate four key principles City movement of building new communities: (1) take a In order to best understand the core long-term, holistic approach, (2) spatial values of the Garden City, it is necessary patterns of growth matter—towns must to first explore the social atmosphere have a “stop”, (3) ensure that the profits that prompted its inception. The history from development benefit everyone, and of utopian tradition dates back to the (4) nurture social sustainability through sixteenth century when Thomas More meaningful public participation and long- wrote Utopia, detailing how communities term stewardship [10]. would eventually develop into egalitarian The first practical application of these societies that opposed the British ruling principles can be found at Letchworth, class. This triggered a movement to located thirty-eight miles north of London. A create spaces that promoted land reform, true Garden City, two-thirds of Letchworth’s social equality, and democracy [4]. In the acreage is dedicated to an agricultural belt eighteenth century, industrialization and the for the production of local food and only enclosure of commons by private landlords one tree from the original landscape was characterized cities as places of universal removed to build the residential areas which poverty inhabited by the working class [5]. currently house approximately 33,000 As a counter to the overcrowded, unsanitary inhabitants—meeting Howard’s goal of conditions of urban life, the Arts and a highly-populated yet accommodating Crafts movement arose in the nineteenth development [11]. The settlement was century out of the belief that well-designed planned by architects Raymond Unwin developments complemented nature and Barry Parker, who successfully Figure 1 Howard described the Garden as opposed to destroying it [6]. Howard adapted the Garden City ideals to the City as a “Town-Country” which blends appears to have been heavily influenced unique topography of Letchworth. Like the best aspects of both the “Town” and by these ideas because he writes in To- Howard, Unwin and Parker believed that the “Country” such that it will naturally morrow that the Garden City is “designed the city grows out of community and that for humanity at large” and that its primary creativity is derived from an imaginative attract the people to it. objective is to facilitate improvements to understanding of the past [12]. Unwin, who [source: Garden Cities of Tomorrow] the lifestyles of the working class [7]. In was a labor organizer and member of the developing his plan, Howard considered Fabian society, prioritized in his architecture achievement of the post-World War I “Das energy, local food, access to green spaces, many of the utopian values upon which Neue Frankfurt” urban expansion and and healthcare; he also proposed that part the Garden City was conceptualized. In housing program—is often referred to as of the substantial increase in values that his writings, he criticized the haphazard the modern Garden City (Figure 3). Though arise from the development of land should growth of British industrial cities. Unwin the initiative re-housed over ten percent of always be reinvested into the community pushed for the consideration of people Frankfurt’s population and was instrumental for the benefit of all [8]. Furthermore, in urban planning as opposed to profit in addressing the housing shortage and Howard emphasizes the “absence of and above all else hoped to create more overall lack of attention to city planning in plan” to illustrate the autonomy that the open spaces that increased the circulation Frankfurt between 1913 and 1924, these residents of the Garden City should have in of light and air. In doing so, he hoped to new settlements do no meet Howard’s determining how their community should bring artistry (and therefore beauty) back criteria for a Garden City [2]. evolve over time [9]. From these ideals, to city building, which at the time had run Among other reasons, Römerstadt was both conceptualized and realized Figure 3 Romerstadt was the primary as a satellite city whose residents are still reliant on the main city for jobs and all achievement of the “Das Neue Frankfurt” but immediate shopping needs and the urban expansion and housing program. bare necessities of daily life [3]. That said, [source: Journal of Urban History] there appears to be a correlation worth studying between the development of Frankfurt am Main, which was heavily inspired by the Garden City, and the fact that modern-day Frankfurt is one of the most environmentally-conscious cities in the world, according to the Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index. By comparing the Garden City—both through Howard’s vision for city planning and Letchworth as an example of the first true Garden City— to Römerstadt and other settlements that have been erroneously characterized as garden cities, the aspects of Howard’s plan that best predict success with regard to social reformation can be pinpointed and applied to the development of sustainable cities in the twenty-first century. 2 rampant with the production of row after back to the home in order to promote the museum, town hall, concert hall, and row of stock-planned houses. Ultimately, nuclear family and a feeling of communal theatre. The next outermost ring consists what Unwin instilled in his interpretation of ownership of the land in which everybody of a Central Park, around which the Crystal the Garden City was the desire to create a would become entrepreneurs to support Palace—essentially a shopping complex— “new local patriotism” among the residents the economy, as Howard had planned [19]. facilitates the sale of manufactured goods. of Letchworth that had previously been This however did not happen because Residential spaces broken up by gardens perceived to be lost once people moved unlike Unwin, May embodied the German can be found further out, with factories out of the main city [13]. paradox of social development that was at the periphery and pastures and farms Römerstadt too, was built as the result rooted in the belief that planning was to located at the outskirts (Figure 5). As of a call for progressive social reforms in reflect the perceived needs of the citizenry per this definition, garden suburbs like post-war Germany. The development of rather than considering their specific tastes the settlement orchestrated by Unwin in Das Neue Frankfurt correlates to the era of and desires [20]. As will be mentioned later, Hampstead are not examples of Garden the Weimar Republic in Germany. Despite this is but only one of the many ways in Cities because they lack industry, targeting the fact that this period was plagued which the theory upon which Römerstadt instead middle class commuters to the with hyperinflation caused by economic was built arguably deviates from the true main city [21]. recession and political extremism [14], a Garden City model. In order to facilitate community-building working class movement was on the rise; among residents, some groups of houses in addition to other labor restrictions, the Situating differences between were designed with common gardens and work week was capped at forty-eight hours, cooperative kitchens. The need for cars is health insurance coverage was increased, theory and reality minimized due to both the radial nature and the income tax was raised drastically. In When comparing the Garden City model of the plan and the fact that no inhabitant particular, there was a push for large-scale to settlements built using Garden City of the city is more than 660 yards from the social housing developments due to the principles, it is important to understand railway, which is used for both passengers lack of city-building for a decade after the that theory does not always translate in and goods [22].