Urban Design: Brief History

UD THEORIES AND MOVEMENTS

HAUSMANNS BOULEVARDS

CONSERVATIONISTS AND THE PARK MOVEMENT

GARDEN CITY MOVEMENT

CITY PLANNING ACCORDING TO ARTISTIC PRINCIPLES

CITY BEAUTIFUL MOVEMENT

CITE INDUSTRIELLE

LINEAR CITY

RADIANT CITY

BROADACRE CITY
 Urban Design: Brief History
EBENEZER HOWARD – GARDEN CITY CONCEPT
1. Published in 1898 under the title: "Tomorrow--a Peaceful Path to Reform."

2. In 1902, republished as "Garden Cities of Tomorrow."

3. "Ideal Town."
a. A socialist community, modified with ideas of private enterprise on publicly-
owned land--"best of both systems."
b. The "3 Magnets"
c. Conceived the idea of planned dispersal (actually employed by ancient
Greeks to maintain stable population in principal cities like Athens).
d. Basic layout consisted of single family houses distributed around a central
nuclear--civic and commercial center.
(1) Industry on outskirts.
(2) Strictly zoned.
(3) Walking distance to center and work.
 Urban Design: Brief History
EBENEZER HOWARD – GARDEN CITY CONCEPT
3 Basic Principles
(1) Controlled Growth
City surrounded by agricultural land or forest to
prevent sprawl--"green belt."
30,000 population in city; 2,000 population in
"green belt."
5,000 acres total; 1,000 acres for city.

(2) Economically Self-Sufficient

Has its own industry as well as
housing/commercial.
Also, a characteristic of ancient Greek
colonization.

(3) Community Ownership

Ownership and governance of town by community.
Properties leased to individual residents on 99-
year basis.
Limited dividends; profits used to maintain city.
 Urban Design: Brief History
THE RADBURN IDEA

Radburn, NJ 1928

• Organisation of the town into cohesive

neighborhoods
• Creation of superblocks , each around
and open green space
• Green spaces had pathways led to
schools and shopping and other
centers
• The green ways were pedestrain ways
• Crossing the street by a bridged over it
or by a under pass
• Auto access to the houses was by
means of a short dead end road.
• houses are arranged as cul-de-sac
clusters
 Urban Design: Brief History
The NEIGHBORHOOD UNIT
Radburn, NJ 1928
"New Town of the Motor Age" followed concepts of Clarence Stein and Henry
Wright.

(1) "Superblocks" 30-50 acres; no through traffic.

(2) Traffic surrounded, but did not intrude into neighborhoods.
(3) Cul-de-sac access streets to housing.
(4) Underpasses separated pedestrians from traffic.
 Urban Design: Brief History

LINEAR CITY
The linear city design was first developed by Arturo
Soria y Mata in Spain

He proposed that the logic of linear utility lines

should be the basis of all city layout
 Urban Design: Brief History
LINEAR CITY
The linear city was an urban plan for an elongated
urban formation

The sectors of a linear city would be:

zone for railway lines, zone of production and
communal enterprises, with related scientific,
technical and educational institutions, buffer
zone with major highway, a residential zone, a
park zone, and an agricultural zone with
gardens
 Urban Design: Brief History
INDUSTRIAL CITY
The Idealization of the industrial city was expressed by a french architect, Tony
Garnier, in designs he made between 1901-1904

Hypothetical industrial town – une cite industrielle

Imaginary site consisting of high plateau and level valley, all alongside a river

Plateau used as the residential portion of the city; the valley for the factories

Total population of the city including an imaginary old town incorporated in the
plan was 32,000

A dam would furnish hydroelectric power; plan included detailed locations for
sewage plant, abattoir, bakery, and civic center
 Urban Design: Brief History
INDUSTRIAL CITY

Grid plan for residential area with 100 by 500 foot blocks; short cross streets
would accommodate major circulation
 Urban Design: Brief History

"MODERN CITY" THEORY OF LE CORBUSIER

Context
Overpopulation--shortage of housing and office/business buildings.
Traffic congestion due to outmoded transportation system.
Air pollution
Tuberculoses and slums
Social miseries

Corbu's Ideal City Plans

1922 "Ville Contemporaine“ -
Separated buildings from the ground on "pilotis"
2 goals:

(1) Increase density and reestablish business center.

(2) Bring "greenness" into urban life.

 Urban Design: Brief History
"MODERN CITY" THEORY OF LE CORBUSIER
1925 Plan Voisin

Towers: To achieve maximum penetration of light and density (premise for

cultural progress) his plan showed 60 storey towers, 800' apart in cruciform
plans.

Nature and Space: Because of his belief in parks as the "lungs of the city," he
created 95% park space in business areas and 85% in residential.

Axes and Speed:

He believed that the city that has "speed has success."
He called the street a "machine for circulation."
He also believed in the straight line, broad expanse, monumental boulevards
and axial geometry of the Baroque planners.
Plan included a super highway linked by two monumental arches.
 Urban Design: Brief History
"MODERN CITY" THEORY OF LE CORBUSIER
Multi-Layered Transportation:separated vehicles and pedestrians and created various
layers/levels of transportation according to function, range and speed:
The Airport ,Arterials for Automobiles, Pedestrian Walks
Subways, Suburban Roadways, Interstate Roadways

1933 "Ville Radieuse"--RADIANT CITY

Incorporated ideas of earlier schemes.
Best known for urban form of continuous rows of tall buildings woven zig-zag across
landscaped space.
Plans created for Algiers, Antwerp and Stockholm
 Urban Design: Brief History
BROADACRE CITY - FLW

Broadacre City was an urban or suburban development concept proposed by Frank

Lloyd Wright

Every family live on an acre (4,000 m²) plot of land from the federal lands reserves

There is a train station and a few office and apartment buildings in Broadacre City, but
the apartment dwellers are expected to be a small minority.

All important transport is done by automobile and the pedestrian can exist safely only
within the confines of the one acre
 Urban Design: Brief History
MILE HIGH ILLINOIS, ILLINOIS - FLW
SKY CITY

Difficulties of land supply and logistics in applying the broadacres

The Illinois was a proposed mile-high (1,609 metres/5,280 feet)

skyscraper, envisioned by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1956.

The design, intended to be built in Chicago, would have included 528

stories, with a gross area of 18.46 million square feet (1.71 million
square meters; 171 ha).

Designed for a population of 1,30,000

It would have been the tallest building in the world.