Book Review

Robert Fishman. 1977. Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century:

Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier. New
York: Basic Books
Submitted by: Maria Sajid Zaheer

Robert Fishman is recognized internationally as an expert in the areas of urban history, and urban
policy and planning; and is also known for his works in history of sustainability. He is the author
of well-known books such as; Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia (Basic Books:
1987) and Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, and
Le Corbusier (Basic Books, 1977).
In his book ‘Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright,
and Le Corbusier’ Robert Fishman talks about three great visionaries of urban planning i.e.
Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier. According to him, they hated the way
the cities of their times were growing and presented their ideal cities in contrast to the metropolis
of their times. The book is rather presented as a story which is based on the dreams of these three
urban planning visionaries who proposed their own urban visions for the preservation of
civilization. Each of these visions of ideal cities were an attempt to resemble the real cities.
Ebenezer Howard, for example introduced the concept of ‘garden city’ where cottages and retail
shops were proposed to form the center of the development with the farmland surrounding them.
In contrast to this, Frank Lloyd Wright proposed his ideal vision as the ‘Broadacre City’ which
was to be based on the automobiles as he gave the vision of development in the sub-urbs
connected to the center by road networks. Le- Corbusier on the other hand, envisioned ‘Villa
Radieuse’ a mixed use skyscraper kind of a development set in open expanse of parklands.
Fishman makes an attempt to present these philosophical concepts with ultimate intelligence and
justly while maintains a rather strong and clear style of explanation of three philosophical
notions.
Looking into this book, it becomes apparent that the three visionaries of urban planning through
their philosophies, made an attempt to subside the negative critique of the metropolis of the
nineteenth century. They envisioned how the metropolis can become a better place to live by
way of planning their ideal cities i.e. the ‘Garden City’, the ‘Broadacre City’ and the ‘Radiant
City- Villa Radieuse.’ The ideal cities are the remnants of nineteenth century expectations
combined with the introduction of twentieth century technology. The proposals were not merely
designs but also presented a comprehensive scheme for the revolutionary changes in the
distribution of power and wealth and necessary revolutions in planning and design as the needs
of people evolved.
Of all the visions, Le Corbusier's Radiant City presented a mix of collection of order
accompanied with administration thereby proposing an inclusion of individualistic realm of
family life and its participation, which is in fact a retention of the principle of the contemporary
city. Villa Radieuse, the high-rise development was envisioned for the new civilization of the
machine age and its design can only be understood well after the society has revolutionized to
that extent.