AR7103

CITY PLANNING
7TH SEMESTER
DEPT. OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING

LEC NO 04: Planning Concepts

BY: ASST. PROF. AMIT KUMAR BALA

Planning Concepts
• GARDEN CITY – Sir Ebenezer Howard
• GEDDISIAN TRIAD – Patrick Geddes
• NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING –C.A. Perry
• RADBURN LAYOUT
• SATELLITE TOWNS
• RIBBON DEVELOPMENT

• RADIANT CITY
• BROADACRE CITY
GARDEN CITY – Sir Ebenezer Howard…
• Garden City most potent planning model in
Western urban planning
• Created by Ebenezer Howard in 1898 to solve
urban and rural problems
• Source of many key planning ideas during
20th century

Ebenezer Howard an English city clerk (Later Urban Planner) propagated Garden city (29
Jan,1850 – 1 May 1928). He gave a utopian concept of a city in his book ‘Tomorrow: A
Peaceful Path to Real Reform, later republished as GARDEN CITIES OF TOMORROW.’

There were subtle attempts to deal with the growing crises of cities, but ultimately
Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City Concept became the most accepted of all.

The proposal was a concept, its diagram was treated as a prototype. “The phenomenon
years later came to be known as the Garden City or the Town Planning Movement.” Urban
planning at that time was highly influenced by architects who were pursuing a universal
agenda. Ebenezer Howard demonstrated his ideas of a Garden cities into three magnets:
❖ The town magnet
❖ The country magnet
❖ The town and country magnet

Attractions of a town + Attractions of countryside = GARDEN CITY (To bring together

economic advantages of town with clean lifestyle of countryside.) A garden city would be
a “clustered city” with multiple town centers, each with population under 5,000 people.
Each of these satellite towns would be economically inter-reliant but individuals would eat
food produced in their own center, and work in their own center. The food would be
produced in the agricultural land within the city. The city would be marked by boarding of
vegetation, only broken by radial highways or canals connecting the city to its neighboring
towns.
A total area will be 6000-acre estate out of which
1000 acres is kept purely for the central garden city
as a home for 30000 people.

Surrounding the central city 5000 Acres of land is

retained for agriculture and home for 2000 people,
with cow pastures, farmlands, and welfare services.

Central City will have an area of 12000 acres with

population of 58000 people.

Agglomeration Cities with area of 9000 acres and

population: 32000 people.

Distance between central main city and the

agglomeration: will be nearly 10km.
Some of the assumptions of Garden city are:

• The city was to have sufficient employment to reduce the journey-to-work and it was to
be limited to its optimum size of 32,000 people on a site of 6,000acres (2,400 ha); 97 lakh
sq .m.

• Planned on a concentric pattern with open spaces, public parks and six radial boulevards,
120 ft. (37 m) wide, extending from the center.

• The garden city would be self-sufficient and when it reached full population, another
garden city would be developed nearby. Howard envisaged a cluster of several garden
cities as satellites of a central city of 50,000 people, linked by road and rail.

The first Garden City evolved out of Howard’s principles is Letchworth Garden
City designed by Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker in 1903. The second one to
evolve was Welwyn Garden City designed by Louis de Soissons and Frederic
Osborn in 1920. Another example was Radburn City designed by Clarence Stein
and Henry Wright in 1928.
LETCHWORTH

Letchworth, officially Letchworth Garden City, is a town in Hertfordshire, England, with a

population of 33,600 and designed by Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker.

Letchworth is 35 miles from London with land area of 3822 acres, Reserved Green belt of
1300 acres and it was designed for a maximum of 35000 population.

In 30 years it was developed with 15000 population & 150 shops, industries.
WELWYN
Welwyn Garden City is a town within the Borough of Walwyn Hatfield in Hertfordshire,
England. It is located approximately 19 miles from Kings Cross and 24 miles from London.
On 29 April 1920 a company, Welwyn Garden City Limited, was formed to plan and build the
garden city, chaired by Sir Theodore Chambers. Louis de Soissons was appointed as
architect and town planner and Frederic Osborn as secretary.

It has a land area of 2378 acre and designed for a maximum of

40000 population. In 15 years it developed with 10000
population & 50 shops, industries. Streets are designed so as
to give the concept of a Neighborhood unit. Separation of the
pedestrian walkways from the main road gives a sense of
natural beauty and open and green spaces are given on a large
scale.
Personalization of Homes in Welwyn with varying roofline, texture and composition for
each house.

Residential areas were planned with 149 acres of interior parks,

walkways,
2 swimming pools,
4 tennis courts,
2 playgrounds,
Archery plaza and a school,
2 outdoor basketball courts and a community center,
which houses administrative offices,
library,
gymnasium,
clubroom and service and maintenance areas.
RADBURN (WILL STUDY IN DETAIL)

Radburn was planned by architects

Clarence Stein and Henry Wright in
1928.
It is America’s first garden
community, serving as a world wide
example of the harmonious blending
of private space and open area.

Radburn provided a prototype for the new towns to meet the requirements for contemporary
good living.
It was designed to occupy one square mile of land and house some 25,000 residents.
However, the Great Depression limited the development to only 149 acres.

Radburn created a unique alternative to the conventional suburban development through the
use of cul-de-sacs, interior parklands, and cluster housing.

Although it is smaller than planned, it still plays a very important role in the history of urban
planning. The Regional Planning Association of America (RPAA) used Radburn as a garden
city experiment.
 GEDDISIAN TRIAD – Sir Patrick Geddes

• Father of modern town planning

• First to link sociological concepts into town planning

• “Survey before plan” i.e. diagnosis before treatment

Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932) was a Scottish biologist, sociologist, Comtean positivist,
geographer, philanthropist and pioneering town planner. He is known for his innovative
thinking in the fields of urban planning and sociology.
Known for: Conurbation
He mentioned that people may not just need to have a good shelter, but they also do have a
need for food, work, and some social life. They also need some entertainment. He founded the
concept and mechanism of the city survey and regional survey. The planning of the town
exactly meant creating organic relations among the people place and the work that parallels to a
triad. This is very similar to the Geddesian triad of environment, function and the organism.
Patrick Geddes – Planning concepts

• Rural development, Urban Planning and City Design are not the same and adopting

a common planning process is disastrous

• “Conurbation” ‐waves of population inflow to large cities, followed by

overcrowding and slum formation, and then the wave of backflow – the whole
process resulting in amorphous sprawl, waste, and unnecessary obsolescence.
Patrick Geddes – Planning concepts

CONURBATION
Planning concepts

• The sequence of planning is to be:

Regional survey
Rural development
Town planning
City design

• These are to be kept constantly up to‐date

• He gave his expert advice for the improvement of about 18

major towns in India.
Patrick Geddes – Outlook Tower

• took over ‘Short’s

Observatory’ in 1892.
• spectacular views the
surrounding city region.
• Positioned at the top is
the Camera
Obscura, which
refracts an image onto a
white table within, for
study and survey.
a tool for regional analysis, indexmuseum
and the ‘world’s first
sociological laboratory’.
• It represents the essence of Geddes’s
thought ‐ his holism, visual thinking,
and commitment to understanding
the city in the region.
• He said of it: ‘Our greatest need today
is to conceive life as a whole, to see its
many sides in their proper relations,
but we must have a practical as well
as a philosophic interest in such an
integrated view of life’.
• Now the tower is home to the Patrick
Geddes Centre For Planning Studies,
where an archive and exhibition are
housed.
Neighbourhood Planning – C.A Perry
Clarence Arthur Perry (1872 – Sept 6, 1944) was an
American Urban planner, sociologist and author.

•He was born in Truxton, New York.

•He worked in the New York City planning where he
became a strong advocate of the Neighborhood unit.
•He was an early promoter of neighborhood and
recreation centers.
•As a staff member of the New York Regional Plan the
City Recreation Committee, Perry formulated

•Neighbourhood “the area within which residents may all share the common
services, social activities and facilities required in the vicinity of dwellings”

•The concept of the neighbourhood unit, crystallised from the prevailing social and
intellectual attitudes of the early 1900s by Clarence Perry, is an early diagrammatic
planning model for residential development in metropolitan areas.
 IDEA OF THIS NEED?
•Earlier idea of Perry was to provide a planning formula for the arrangement and
distribution of playgrounds in the New York region.
•The necessity thought was because of the rise of the auto-mobile in the early 20th
century.
•Road sense was not proper with the social conscious, thus street fatality rates were
increased.
•Idea was to generate islands locked amidst a wide sea of vehicular traffic, a
dangerous obstacle which prevented children (and adults) from safely walking to
nearby playgrounds and amenities.
•Ultimately, however, it evolved to serve a much broader purpose, of providing an
identity

The neighbourhood unit was conceived of as a comprehensive physical

planning tool, to be utilized for designing self- contained residential neighborhoods
which promoted a community centric lifestyle, away from the "noise of the trains, and
out of sight of the smoke and ugliness of industrial plants" emblematic of an
industrializing New York City in the early 1900s.
The core principles of Perry's
Neighbourhood Unit were around
these design ideals :

•"Centre the school in the neighbourhood.

• Place arterial streets along the perimeter so that they define and distinguish the
"place" of the neighbourhood.

• Design internal streets using a hierarchy that easily distinguishes local streets
from arterial streets.

• Restrict local shopping areas to the perimeter.

• Dedicate at least 10 percent of the neighbourhood land area to parks and open
space.
ASSUMPTION
• First, the unit was to be ideally a shape in which all sides were fairly equidistant
from the centre, and its size was to be fixed.

• Secondly, a central neighbourhood or community center was to contain various

institutional sites, including a school, grouped round a central green space.

• Thirdly, local shops or shops and apartments were to be located at the outer
corners of the neighbourhood.

• Fourthly, scattered small parks and open spaces, located in each quadrant of the
neighbourhood, were to form 10 per cent of the total area.

• Fifthly, arterial streets were to bound each side of the neighbourhood while ,

• sixthly, the layout of the internal street was to be a combination of curvilinear and
diagonal roads to discourage through traffic. Vehicular and pedestrian traffic was
to be segregated.
STATISTICS OF NEIGHBOURHOOD UNIT
• Perry described the neighbourhood unit as area which require an elementary
school with 1,000 and 1,200 pupils.
• This would mean a population of between 5,000 and 6,000 people.
• Developed with Population Density of 10 families per acre, it would occupy
about 160 acres.
• Any child have to walk a distance of around half mile to school.
• About 10 percent of the area would be allocated to recreation, and through
traffic arteries would be confined to the surrounding streets, internal streets
being limited to service access for residents of the neighbourhood.
• The unit would be served by shopping facilities, churches, library, and a
community centre.
PURPOSE OF NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING

❑ To make the people socialize with one and another.

❑ To enable the inhabitants to share the public amenities and

recreational facilities.

❑ To support a safe and healthy environment within the

neighbourhood.

❑ To provide safety and efficiency to road users and pedestrians.

❑ To maintain, enhance, and improve area for recreational activities.

❑ To determine community’s prospects for the future

PRINCIPLES OF NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING

1. Size
2. Boundaries
3. Protective Strips
4. Internal Streets
5. Layout of buildings
6. Shopping Centres
7. Community Centres
8. Facilities
1. Size
The town is divided into self-contained
units or sectors of population.
This is further divided into smaller units
called neighbourhood with 2,000 to 5,000
based on the requirement of one primary
The size of the unit is therefore limited to
about 1 to 1. 5 sq within walkable distance
of 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Boundaries
The unit should be bounded on all its
sides by main road, enough for traffic.
3. Protective Strips
These are necessary to protect the
neighbourhood from traffic and to
provide suitable facilities for
developing parks, playgrounds, and
road widening scheme in future.
These are called Minor Green Belts.
4. Internal Streets
The internal streets are designed to
ensure safety to the people school
going children in particular,
The internal streets should circulate
throughout the unit with easy shops
and community centres.
5. Layout of Buildings
To encourage neighbourhood relation
and secure social stability and
balance,
The houses to suit the different income
group should be provided single family
houses, double family houses,
cottages , flats, etc.
6. Shopping Centres
Each shop should be located on the
circumference of the unit, preferably at
traffic junctions and adjacent to the
neighbourhood units.
7. Community Centres
Each community will have its
centre with social, cultural and
recreational amenities.
8. Facilities
All public facilities required for the
family for their comfort and
convenience should be within easy
reach.
These include the primary school,
temple, club, retail shop, sport
These should be located within 1km
in the central place so as to nucleus
to develop social life of the unit.
CONCLUSION
Neighbourhood planning is quickly becoming a high priority for the city
planning departments, and even human service providers

Neighbourhood planning is effective and provide inspire those creative

strategies that can increase the capacity of residents in charting out their
shared future.

It’s a vision of a better future.

Radburn’s Concept
"the most significant notion in 20th Century
We did our best to follow urban development“ – Anthony Bailey
Aristotle's recommendation that a
city should be give its
built to inhabitants security and "Town for the Motor Age" is truly
happiness“‐ Clarence Stein a "Town for Tomorrow"

the first major advance in city planning since

Venice ‐ Lewis Mumford
"social planning of an advanced order. It is
manipulation of physical elements to induce
and encourage a social and human goal. It is
a kind of planning which recognizes that the
growing edge of civilization is in the human
and not the mechanical direction, though the
mechanical factors must be carefully aligned
and allocated to support and advance the
communal achievements and the social
inventions of a free people of autonomous
family life.“ – James Dahir
RADBURN’s Planning

conceived by
1929 Radburn Created CLARANCE
STEIN &
25000 people HENRY WRIGHT
149 acres
430 single houses Factors that influenced
• Rapid Industrialisation after World War I
90 row houses • Migration of Rural to Cities
• Dramatic growth of Cities
• Housing Shortage
54 semi attached houses • The need to provide housing and protect
from motorised traffic
93 apartment units
RADBURN’s Inspiration
Henry Wright's "Six Planks for a Housing Platform"
Plan simply, but comprehensively
Don't stop at the individual property line.
Adjust paving, sidewalks, sewers
and the like to the particular needs of
the property dealt with ‐ not to a conventional
pattern. Arrange buildings and grounds so as
to give sunlight, air and a tolerable outlook to
even the smallest and cheapest house.
Provide ample sites in the right
places for community use: i.e., playgrounds
gardens schools theatres, churches, public
buildings and stores.
Put factories and other industrial
buildings where they can be used without
wasteful transportation
of goods or people.
Cars must be parked and stored,
delivers made waste collected
(Vehicular Movement) ‐ plan
for such services with a minimum
of danger danger, and
confusion.
Relationship between buildings.
Develop collectively such services as
will add to the comfort of the
individual, at lower cost than is
possible under individual operation.
Arrange for the occupancy of
houses on a fair basis of cost and
service, including the cost of
what needs to be done in
organizing, building and
maintaining the community.
RADBURN’S CONCEPT

SEPARATION of pedestrian
and vehicular traffic

SUPER BLOCK large block

L-surrounded by main roads

houses grouped around small

CUL DE SACS accessed
from main road, Living,
Bedroom faced gardens &
parks, service areas to ACCESS
ROADS

remaining land ‐ PARK AREAS

WALKWAYS ‐ designed such that

pedestrians can reach social places
without crossing automobile street
RADBURN’S CONCEPT

FINANCIAL PLANNING

Parks without additional

cost from Residents

Savings from minimising

roads ‐ requires less road
area

25% less area gave 12‐

15% of total park area
RADBURN’S CONCEPT ‐ applications

US Chandigarh, India
Baldwin Hills
Los Angels Brazilia, Brazil
Kitimat B.C
Section of Osaka , Japan
Several towns of Russia

England ‐ post WWII – Wellington, New Zealand

Coventry,
Stevenage,

Sweden
Vallingby,
Baronbackavna Estate, Orebro &

US ‐ Reston, Virginia &

Columbia, Maryland
SATELLITE TOWNS
A satellite town or satellite city is The term “…Satellite town “first used by
a concept in urban planning that G.R. Taylor in 1915.
refers essentially to miniature
metropolitan areas on the fringe
of larger ones

The purpose of satellite cities is to

provide a perfect balance
between the population and
resources, with respect to
environment-friendly
development.

The aim is to create affordable

housing for a large section of the
society. There is an underlying
need to develop satellite cities into
sustainable / smart cities.
Characteristics of a satellite town
❖ Satellite towns/cities
Are small or medium‐sized
cities near a large
metropolis, that are
❖ Predate that metropolis'
suburban expansion;
❖ Are at least partially independent
from that metropolis economically
and socially;
❖ Are physically separated from
the metropolis by rural
territory; satellite cities should
have their own independent
urbanized area, or equivalent;
❖ Have their own bedroom communities;
❖ Have a traditional downtown
surrounded by traditional
"inner city" neighborhoods;
❖ May or may not be counted as a part
of the large metropolis’ Combined
Statistical Area
Need For Satellite Town
o Severe uncontrolled growth of o Challenges in management of
urban population essential infrastructure like :
o Problem in managing already
over strained cities o water supply
o increase in the demand for o Sewerage
infrastructure facilities and o Drainage
amenities o solid waste disposal
o land shortage, housing shortfall,
inadequate transportation

o Tremendous strain on the o Need for decentralization of

delivery of services in major activities so as to reduce the
cities due to the concentration of burden on these cities.
economic activities and
population
Features of a Satellite Town
o Satellite townships have their own local government and corporate life.

o They have all the necessary amenities and facilities present within their limits except for a
few purposes like employment and sometimes education, they have to depend on the main
city i.e. the parent city.

o Transportation means such as buses, trains etc all connect the various satellite townships to
the main city so that travelling to the main city for work is not an issue. It is free to decide its
economic, social and cultural activities.

o Satellite townships generally develop beyond the green belt of the city.

o Setting up of industries is prohibited in Satellite townships. It is mainly a residential area

having only local shops, schools for children, etc.

o Zoning regulations are not an issue in the development of satellite townships.

o These townships never become a rival to their parent city because their size and
development is restricted and controlled.

o Satellite townships are considered as a part of the market for some goods and services that
are produced in the parent city (some times)
RIBBON DEVELOPMENT
Ribbon development means building houses along the routes
of communications radiating from a human settlement.

• Such development generated great concern in the UK during

the 1920s and 30s, as well as in numerous other countries.
• Following the Industrial revolution, ribbon
development became prevalent along railway lines ‐
predominantly in the UK, Russia, and United States.
• A good example of this was the deliberate promotion of
Metroland along London's Metropolitan railway.
• Similar evidence can be found from Long Island (where
Frederick W Dunton bought much real estate to encourage
New Yorkers to settle along the Long Island Railroad lines),
Boston and across the American Midwest.
• Ribbon development can also be compared with a
linear village which is a village that grew along a
transportation route, not as part of a city's expansion.
RIBBON DEVELOPMENT

It has been observed that because of improvement of road surface

and growth of motor traffic, it is the natural tendency of everyone to
build as near as possible to the main road.

The building activity therefore expands in a natural way along the

side of main road and long fingers or ribbons of houses, factories,
shops, etc.
 RIBBON DEVELOPMENT - Disadvantages
o As the houses extend in a long strip, there is
increase in cost of various basic utility
services such as water supply, electricity,
postal deliveries, telephone, etc. It thus
results into wastage of available resources.
o The development of ribbons causes to loose
and to scatter the community so that there is
lack of social life.
o The future improvement becomes costly and
difficult, if not impossible.
o The houses face heavy traffic associated with
noise, dust and undesirable smells.
o The interior portion is left undeveloped which
results in the wastage of valuable land.
The problem of ribbon development is
very complex involving socio- economic,
political, technical and legal measures for its
solution. it requires a co-operative efforts by
legislators, town planners, traffic
department, judiciary, adjacent land owners
and last but not the least, the road users
themselves
o There are chances of traffic accidents and
traffic delays because of the presence of
pedestrians on the main road.
o The ribbon development is purely an
urban formation which is aesthetical faulty.
o The ribbon development spoils the
countryside and if it is carried to the
extreme, it would make it non-visible as
least to the road user.
o The through traffic of main road is
considerably affected by the local traffic.
o The traffic capacity and efficiency of main
road are reduced.
In the UK it has been accepted for more than 50
years (when the 1936 Restriction of Ribbon
Development Act was introduced) that if trunk
roads are to perform satisfactorily as channels
for longer distance traffic, the number of
connections for vehicular access must be
limited.
The impact of ribbon development on through
traffic can be minimized by restricted or
controlled planning of residential and
commercial property along the route.
RIBBON DEVELOPMENT - Images
Radiant City- Le Corbusier
Ideas & Contribution in Planning:
1. Contemporary planning
2. The Radiant City
3. The Great Waste
4. Regional Planning
The Four Routes
Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris aka Le
The Industrial Linear City Corbusier was born in the small city of La
Chaux-de-Fonds (October 6, 1887- August
27, 1965)

Le Corbusier was an influential architect and city planner whose designs

combined functionalism with bold sculptural expressionism.

He belonged to the first generation of the so-called International school of

architecture, which promoted such characteristics as clean geometric forms and
open efficient spaces.
 “THE FIVE PIONTS OF NEW ARCHITECTURE”

During his career, Le Corbusier developed a set of architectural principles that

dictated his technique, called “THE FIVE PIONTS OF NEW ARCHITECTURE”
which were most evident in his Villa Savoye .

These were

• PILOTIS- The replacement of supporting walls by a grid of reinforced concrete

columns that bears the load of structure is the basis of the new aesthetic.

• ROOF GARDEN- The flat roof can be utilized for a domestic purpose while also
providing essential protection to the concrete roof.

• THE FREE DESIGN OF THE GROUND PLAN- the absence of supporting walls
means that the house is unrestrained in its internal usage.

• THE FREE DESIGN OF FAÇADE- By separating the exterior of the building from
its structural function the façade become free
The Radiant City Concept by Le Corbusier (1924)
• Le Corbusier was trying to find a fix for the same problem of urban pollution and
overcrowding but unlike Howard he envisioned building not out

• His plan , also know as “Towers in the Park” proposed exactly that numerous high
rise building each surrounded by green space.

Each building was set on “superblocks”

• The Radiant City (Ville Radieuse) is an un realized urban masterplan, presented in
1924 and published in a book of same name1933

• Designed to contain effective means of transportation, as well as an abundance of

green space and sunlight.

• Le Corbusier’s city of the future would not only provide residents with a better
lifestyle, but would contribute to create a better society

• Though radical, strict in order, symmetry and standardization, Le Corbusier’s

proposed principles had an extensive influence on modern urban planning and led
to the development of new high density housing typologies.

• The Radiant City was to be built on nothing less than the grounds of demolished
vernacular European cities.

• The new city would contain prefabricated and identical

CONCEPT OF RADIANT CITY CONCEPTUAL SKETCHES

• The radiant city was a linear city based upon the abstract shape of the
human body with head, spine, arms and legs.

• The design maintained the idea of high- rise housing blocks, free circulation
and abundant green space proposed in his earlier work.

• The blocks of housing were laid out in long lines stepping in and out and
were raised up on pilotis.

They had roof terraces and running

PLANNING
• At the core of Le Corbusier’s plan stood
the notion of zoning; a strict division of the
city into segregated commercial, business,
entertainment an residential area

• The business district was located in the

centre and contained monolithic mega
skyscrapers each reaching a height of 200
mts

• At the centre of the planned city was a

transportation hub which housed depots for
buses and train as well as highway
intersections and at the top an airport

• Location in the centre of the civic district

was the main transportation deck from
which a vast underground system of trains
would transport citizens to and from the
surrounding housing districts
PLANNING
• The centre piece of this plan was a group of sixty story cruciform
skyscrapers built on steel frames and encased in curtain wall of glass.

• The skyscrapers housed both offices and the flats of the most wealthy
inhabitants. These skyscrapers were set within large rectangular park like
green space.

• Le Corbusier segregated the pedestrian circulation paths from the

roadways, and glorified the use of the automobile as a means of transport.
As one moved out from the central skyscrapers, smaller multi story zig zag
blocks set in green space and set far back the street housed the proletarian
workers
HOUSING TOWERS
• The housing districts would contain pre-fabricated apartment building known
as “unites”

• Reaching a height of fifty meters a single Unite could accommodate 2,700

inhabitants and function as a vertical village: catering and laundry facilities
would be on the ground floor a kinder garden and a pool on the roof.

• Parks would exist between the Unites allowing residents with a maximum of
natural
Transportation

• Inside Les Unites were the vertical streets i.e. the elevators and the
pedestrian interior streets that connected one building to another

• Automobile traffic was to circulate on piotis supported roadways five

meters above the earth.

• Other transportation modes like subways and truck had their own
roadways separate from automobile

• Corbusier bitterly reproaches advocated of the horizontal garden city

for the time wasted commuting to the city.
 Discussion on Radiant City
Le Corbusier’s plan for the Ville Radieuse (Radiant City) never actually came to
fruition—though many of its principles went on to influence modern planning
and urban housing complexes across the globe.

The city was to operate as a “living machine”: Different areas would be

designated for commercial, business, leisure, and residential purposes; a
transportation deck in the city center would connect city dwellers, via
underground trains, to housing districts consisting of towering premade
buildings called “Unités.”

Though it was envisioned as a utopian city, modern-day manifestations of

Corbusier’s ideas have drawn criticism for their lack of public spaces and a
general disregard for livability.

Unité-like apartment complexes on urban fringes are now subject to high levels
of poverty and crime.
BROADACRE CITY - Frank Lloyd Wright
• Vision of multi-centered, low density (supposedly 5 people per
acre), auto-oriented suburbia

• Each family would be given one acre (4,000 m2) from the federal
land reserves

• Land would be taken into public ownership; then granted to

families for as long as they used it productively. Frank Lloyd Wright
(1867- 1959)

• 12 x 12 ft. model that illustrated the Broadacre City concept as it might be applied to a
representative 4 miles2 plot of land.

• ‘Usonia’ was based not on cooperation but fierce individualism.

• “Romantic isolation and reunion with the soil" (Lewis Mumford)

Wright’s ideas of decentralized planning were presented in his book “Disappearing City”
written in 1932. In 1945 the University of Chicago Press published the book “When
Democracy Builds” which was a revision of the first book but illustrated by Broadacre City
models. In 1958 Wright extensively revised and expanded the two books into a new book
entitled “The Living City.”
ORIGIN

• Because of technological advancements, Wright came to believe that the large,

centralized city would soon become obsolete and people would return to their
rural roots.
• Wright despised the city, both physically and metaphorically

ASPECTS OF BROADACRE CITY THAT BECAME REALITIES

• Prevalence of urban sprawl

• Modern suburbia may have many differences with Broadacre, but there are also
many similarities.
• single-family homes on larger parcels of land with smaller roads connecting to
larger roads connecting to freeways.
• Being able to own land, build a home, and do what you please with it were
important in Broadacre City .
• Wright believed that modern man had the right to own a car and to burn as much
gasoline in driving it as he desired.
• The City Plan
• Agrarian Urbanism
Design
Broadacre City was designed to be a continuous urban area with a low
population density and services grouped depending on the type.

The city had a futuristic highway and airfields in an effort to help curb traffic. The
highways connecting different cities were gigantic, with detailed design and
landscaping.
There were public service stations and comfortable vehicles with the city divided
into various units.
There were farm units, factory units, roadside markets, leisure areas, schools,
and living spaces.
Each living unit was given an acre to decorate and nurture. All the units were
organized such that individuals would get any service or commodity they needed
within a radius of one hundred and fifty miles accessible by road or air to make it
decentralized and sustainable. Similar services were found in distinct zones of
the city.

For example, Banks were located along the same street, same to leisure joints.
The design was motor vehicle-friendly, reflecting Wright’s love for cars and the
living units were called minimum houses. The design concept focused on the
social right of every citizen, especially the family unit, to their place on land and
air, where they were free to socialize.
WORKING ON THE MODEL
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
• Broadacre City each family is give one acre (4.000 m2) of land on which to
build a house and grow food. The city was considered to be (almost) fully self-
sufficient.

• “more light, more freedom of movement and a more general spatial freedom
in the ideal establishment of what we call civilization.”

LESSONS FROM THE BROADACRE CITY

• Urban sprawl has become a reality

• Decentralization, both physically and economically; being more independent.

• American Dream: land and home ownership

Failures and Disadvantages

• Too real to be Utopian and too dreamlike to be of practical importance.

• Demands motor transportation for even the most casual or ephemeral

meetings

• Didn’t see the large population increase from 2B in 1930 -7B present
time, increase in fuel prices, environmental repercussions

More about Broadacre city: https://franklloydwright.org/revisiting-frank-

lloyd-wrights-vision-broadacre-city/