The garden city movement is a 20th-century urban planning movement that promoted satellite communities surrounding a central city, separated by green belts. These garden cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, industry, and agriculture. Ebenezer Howard first posited the idea in 1898 as a way to capture the primary benefits of the countryside and the city while avoiding the disadvantages presented by both. In the early 20th century, Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City were built near London according to Howard's concept, and many other garden cities inspired by his model have since been built all over the world.
History Conception According to urban theorist Lewis Mumford, Howard's ideas had an antecedent in Leonardo da Vinci's proposal to separate Milan into ten smaller cities to relieve congestion and pestilence.
Inspired by the utopian novel Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy, and Henry George's work Progress and Poverty, Howard published the book : a Peaceful Path to Real Reform in 1898 (reissued in 1902 as Garden Cities of To-morrow). His idealised garden city would house 32,000 people on a site of . Howard's diagrams present such a city in a concentric pattern with open spaces, public parks, and six radial boulevards, wide, extending from the centre. He makes it clear that the actual site planning should be left to experts. The garden city would be self-sufficient, and when it reached full population, another would be developed nearby. Howard envisages a cluster of several garden cities as satellites of a central city of 58,000 people, linked by road and rail.. Howard's diagrams are quite similar to the urban planner and social reformer Adelheid von Poninska's suggestion of a "green ring" around cities a few decades earlier.
The success of Howard's book provided him with the support necessary to pursue the opportunity to bring his vision to life. Howard believed that all people agreed that the overcrowding and deterioration of cities were one of the troubling issues of their time. He quotes several respected thinkers and their disdain for cities. Howard's garden city concept combines the town and country to provide the working class an alternative to working on farms or in "crowded, unhealthy cities"..
Howard envisions the garden city as a "third magnet" which will draw residents and small businesses from both the too-crowded city and the too-isolated countryside. He theorizes that it would thus shield people from the social ills of rapid industrialization through population and density limits, strict land use controls, and shared ownership with collective management.
First developments To build a garden city, Howard needed money to buy land. He decided to get funding from "gentlemen of responsible position and undoubted probity and honour". He founded the Garden City Association (later known as the Town and Country Planning Association or TCPA), which created First Garden City, Ltd. in 1899 to create the garden city of Letchworth. However, these donors would collect interest on their investment if the garden city generated profits through rents or, as Fishman calls the process, "philanthropic land speculation". Howard tried to include working class cooperative organisations, which included over two million members, but could not win their financial support. Because he had to rely only on the wealthy investors of First Garden City, Howard had to make concessions to his plan, such as eliminating the cooperative ownership scheme with no landlords, short-term rent increases, and hiring architects who did not agree with his rigid design plans.
In 1904, Raymond Unwin, a noted architect and town planner, and his partner Barry Parker won the competition run by First Garden City Ltd. to plan Letchworth, an area 34 miles outside London. Unwin and Parker planned the town in the centre of the Letchworth estate with a large agricultural green belt surrounding the town. They shared Howard's view that the working class deserved better, more affordable housing. However, the architects ignored Howard's symmetric design, instead replacing it with a more 'organic' design.
Letchworth slowly attracted more residents because it brought in manufacturers through low taxes, low rents, and more space. Despite Howard's best efforts, the home prices in this garden city could not remain affordable for blue-collar workers to live in. The population comprised mostly skilled middle class workers. After a decade, the First Garden City became profitable and started paying dividends to its investors. Although many viewed Letchworth as a success, it did not immediately inspire government investment into the next line of garden cities.
In reference to the lack of government support for garden cities, Frederic James Osborn, a colleague of Howard and his eventual successor at the Garden City Association, recalled Howard saying, "The only way to get anything done is to do it yourself." Likely in frustration, Howard bought land at Welwyn to house the second garden city in 1919. The purchase was at auction, with money Howard desperately and successfully borrowed from friends. The Welwyn Garden City Corporation was formed to oversee the construction. But Welwyn did not become self-sustaining because it was only 20 miles from London.
Even into the 1930s, Letchworth and Welwyn remained the only garden cities in the United Kingdom. However, the movement did succeed in emphasizing the need for urban planning policies that eventually led to the new towns movement.
Garden cities: the spread of an idea Garden city principles greatly influenced the design of colonial and post-colonial capitals in the early 20th century. This is the case for New Delhi (designed as the capital of British India after World War I), of Canberra (capital of Australia established in 1913), and of Quezon City (established in 1939, capital of the Philippines from 1948 to 1976). Outside the British Empire, the ideas quickly spread as well.
Early examples
Africa Morocco: Ifrane, established 1929. South Africa. The suburbs of Pinelands, Meadowridge, and Edgemead in Cape Town as well as Durbanville near Cape Town.
Asia Mandatory Palestine. The movement influenced Scottish urbanist Patrick Geddes in the planning of Tel Aviv, Israel, in the 1920s, during the British Mandate for Palestine. Geddes started his Tel Aviv plan in 1925 and submitted the final version in 1927, so all growth during the 1930s was merely "based" on the Geddes plan. Changes were inevitable.. Similarly, in the 1920s, German-born Jewish architect Richard Kauffman designed several neighborhoods under garden city influence, including Beth HaKerem, Rehavia, Bayit ve-Gan and Kiryat Moshe in Jerusalem, as well as Hadar HaCarmel, Bat Galim, Newe Shaanan, and Central and Western Carmel in Haifa as well as the historical center of Afula. He referred to these neighborhoods as "garden suburbs." Japan. Den-en-chofu, Yamato Village (around Rikugi-en Gardens), and Omiya Bonsai Village. As with many garden cities, despite goals of creating classless societies, each of these examples became increasingly exclusive and populated primarily by wealthy statesmen and celebrities.
Vietnam. Da Lat, established 1907.
Europe
Belgium. The garden city movement started early but took roots in the 1910s, directly connected to industrial development, especially that of the coal mines. Early examples are Tuinwijk Beringen-Mijn (1908), Tuinwijk van Zwartberg (1910), and Eisden-Tuinwijk (1911). After the First World War, there was a huge need for new housing, and the principles were widely applied. Social housing associations were created, often linked to political movements. In Brussels, Antwerp, and Ghent, extensions of the cities were built. Czech Republic and Slovakia. All industrial cities founded or reconstructed by the Bata Shoes company (Zlín, Svit, Partizánske) were influenced by the garden city concept. Finland. Kauniainen is an early example, founded in 1906 by the corporation AB Grankulla. However, the most famous would be Tapiola. France. The concept of garden city (cité jardin) was closely related to the concept of the 'workers city' (cité ouvrière). All over the country settlements were established accordingly. Germany. Along with the UK, Germany was at the forefront of the Garden Cities movement, which began in the late 19th century and was part of a broader discourse on social renewal. Specific projects were typically the results of private initiatives. Hungary. Wekerletelep, established 1908. Poland. Komorów, Podkowa Leśna, Brwinów, and Milanówek are based on the garden-city concept. Netherlands. The concept was widely applied in different parts of the country, mainly as garden villages, such as Tuindorp Vreewijk, Hengelo, Tuindorp Oostzaan, and Tuindorp Watergraafsmeer. In most cases, private industrial companies took the initiative. The development continued on a bigger scale after the Second World War, now initiated and controlled by municipalities, with examples such as the Westelijke Tuinsteden. United Kingdom. Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City. Ukraine. Nova Kakhovka.
North America Canada. Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland and Labradour, initiated in 1905, is one of the first garden cities outside of England. The historic townsite of Powell River, British Columbia, and the Hydrostone district of Halifax, Nova Scotia, are recognized as National Historic Sites of Canada. The Ontario towns of Don Mills (now incorporated into Toronto) and Walkerville (now incorporated into Windsor), as well as The Kingsway, Toronto and the Montreal suburb of Mount Royal. In Montreal, la Cité-jardin du Tricentenaire (Tricentennial Garden-City) is a classic form of garden city located in front of Maisonneuve Park and near the Olympic Stadium. All streets are cul-de-sacs and are linked via pedestrian paths to the community park. United States. Examples include Residence Park in New Rochelle, New York; Woodbourne in Boston; Newport News, Virginia's Hilton Village; Pittsburgh's Chatham Village; Garden City, New York (the name "Garden City", as it applied to the Stewart-designed city on Long Island, incorporated in 1869, pre-dates the garden city movement); Sunnyside; Jackson Heights; Forest Hills Gardens, in Queens, New York; Radburn, New Jersey; Greenbelt, Maryland; Buckingham in Arlington County, Virginia; the Lake Vista neighborhood in New Orleans; Norris, Tennessee; Baldwin Hills Village in Los Angeles; Rotunda West near Punta Gorda, Florida, and the Cleveland suburbs of Parma and Shaker Heights. Greendale, Wisconsin is one of three "greenbelt" towns planned beginning in 1935 under the direction of Rexford Guy Tugwell, head of the United States Resettlement Administration, under authority of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act. The two other greenbelt towns are Greenbelt, Maryland (near Washington, D.C.), and Greenhills, Ohio (near Cincinnati).
Oceania Australia. Canberra is the largest example in Australia. The Dacey Garden Suburb (now Daceyville) was established in 1912. Colonel Light Gardens in Adelaide, South Australia. Sunshine and Lalor, in Melbourne... Pre-dating these was the garden suburb of Haberfield, established in 1901 by Richard Stanton. New Zealand. The Durie Hill suburb in Whanganui, designed in 1920 by Samuel Hurst Seager. Garden city ideals were also employed in the early town planning of Christchurch. Before the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, the city infrastructure and homes were well integrated into green spaces. The rebuild blueprint rethought the garden city concept and how it would best suit the city. Greenbelts and urban green spaces have been redesigned to incorporate more living spaces.
South America Argentina. Ciudad Jardín Lomas del Palomar, the first garden city in South America.