Garden Cities - Past, Present & Future - By Azarya Ashadi Putra Halim

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GARDEN CITIES - PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE

In the middle of the 18th century, the „Industrial Revolution‟ changed the

procedure of manufacturing in Europe. Not only the hand production was

changed into machine, but the „Industrial Revolution‟ also changed the behavior

of human, which affected the structure of European cities. People from the

countryside moved to the cities to find jobs and looking for more money than

from just being farmers (Howard, 1902). As a result, the population in the cities

were increased but the space to provide people to live was not growing. This

made the quality of living in cities deteriorate. In 1898, the Garden Cities

movement emerged, pioneered by Ebenezer Howard. This movement, for more

than a century, has captured city planner‟s attention to designing a city, and

became the theory of Urban Design and Urban Planning.

This assignment will Illustrate the emerging process of the Garden City

theory, explanation of the definition, description of its application in different

countries, and will explore the connection between this theory in the past,

present and future development of the city.

According to Carol (1988) in 800BC, ancient Greece had entered the

Archaic civilization. This was the first civillized urban design that influenced by

religion (Priatmodjo, 2010). Since this happened, people at that time had been

craved for greater strength above them, therefore every building, and even a

city are built to honored God‟s work. Consequently, all of the development of

cities from ancient Greece during 800BC until Medieval Europe in 15th century

had been affected by religion (Priatmodjo, 2010).

Afterwards, the war was dominating the world and most of the countries

wanted to conquer other countries. Therefore, all of these countries had to

defend their cities. In that case, the fort city concept was born to protect their

cities (Priatmodjo, 2010).

Finally, the „Industrial Revolution‟ began in the 18th century, and this

revolution affected the structure of cities. In the past, the majority of work was in

the agricultural fields in countryside, but after the „Industrial Revolution‟,

villagers were moved to towns to get better jobs and salary (Howard, 1902).

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However, they did not realize that the quality of their living were getting worst.

Howard (1898) states that people in towns were increasing and made their

house contaminated by pollution, filth with dirt and poor drainage.

According to Rhodes (1891) cited in Howard (1898), the population of

old people in Lancashire and other manufacturing districts above sixty years old

were about 35 per cent. However, in the agricultural districts in countrysides had

60 per cent of old people. This circumstance gave an answer to that the qualitiy

of old people‟s life in the towns were low.

At the crossroads of choosing which side is the best between town and

countryside, Howard (1902) illustrates that towns and countrysides were

attractions, and each city was likened to a magnet. The strength of the magnets

depended upon the positive affection in each city. Diagrams of „The Three

Magnets‟ (Appendix 1) that illustrated town and countryside‟s advantages and

disadvantages might be the answer to them to make a perfect combination.

The Town Magnet (Appendix 1), had the advantages of high salary and

better work opportunities, but these advantages were equal to the price of

goods and rents. Furthermore, there were a lot of social opportunities,

amusements, as well as the distances from home to the work place was not

very far, states Howard (1902). However, because there are a lot of fine public

buildings, the sunlight began to shut out and the air quality was poor (Howard,

1902).

The Countryside Magnet (Appendix 1) claims to be the origin of the

adorableness and prosperity itself, this is because of the freshness of the air,

the scent of the trees and grass, the beautiful landscape and rippling water.

However, the Countryside Magnet appeared as a large place, therefore, it will

be threatened by trespassers, lack of society and lack of capital. As a result,

rents and the price of goods were low (Howard, 1902).

Referring to the previous paragraph, it was very difficult to choose one

of those two magnets. Either none of Town Magnet or Countryside Magnet

could make better cities for people. While the Town Magnet was a figure of

social networks and opportunities, the Countryside Magnet had the images of a

beauty and grace from God. Therefore, “Town and country must be married,

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and out of this joyous union will spring a new hope, a new life, a new

civilization.” (Howard, 1898:10). This statement was the starting point to Town-

Country Magnet, which made the Garden Cities possible.

The Garden City was a utopian city, which was surrounded by

residential, industrial and agricultural area in the same proportion or called The

Green Belt (Howard, 1902) (Appendix 2). The Garden City usually called an

independent city because of the comprehensiveness of every function. In

Howard‟s (1902) explanation, this city was divided into six boulevards with six

equal wards (Appendix 3). Each ward had a different center which comprised a

town hall, concert hall, theatre, library, hospital and museum gallery. All wards

were also divided into five avenues. The first avenue was filled with an industrial

area in the inner ring, and an agricultural area in the outer ring. The third

avenue was the grand avenue that lies between the second and fourth

avenues. which was the residential area. Finally, the fifth avenue was for the

crystal palace. “Crystal Palace is a public park, contains 145 acres, which

includes ample recreation ground within very easy access of the people”

(Howard, 1898). This buildings were standing in the outer side of the central

park, beside the center of the Garden City.

The first complete Garden City in the world was Letchworth in England

(Howard, 1965). Before the Garden City was built in Lecthworth city, this city

only had a small population, but after the year of 1900, the population spiked

from under 100 people to 5000 people in just 10 years (University of

Portsmouth, 2009). This phenomenon proved that the theory of the Garden City

was a success. The application of the Garden City Theory in England not only

stopped at Lecthworth city, because Welwyn city in England also imitated the

Letchworth city‟s planning (Eserin, 1995).

After successful application of the Garden City in England, this theory

had developed cities in other countries in Europe. As in 1904, George Benoit-

Levy published a translated version of Howard‟s book called, La Cite Jardin, in

France. This book had affected many people in France, and has been used by

Architects in France such as, Raoul Dautry and Marcel Auburtin to propose a

new design in north east of Paris. The idea was to make a satellite city around

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the sub-urban area of Paris, so the population of Paris will decrease. This

theory was the answer to Paris‟s population problems (eds Ward 1992).

“In Japan, the English expression garden city is translated as den-en

toshi ... However, if we look at the expression carefully, it can be seen to be a

mistranslation. The word toshi is a proper translation for city, ... Den-en arouses

a great nostalgia for the countryside in most Japanese.” (eds Ward 1992:69).

The same problem happened with another translated book, that had the same

content as den-en toshi. The writer of that book, seemed to have troubled to

translate Garden Cities into Japanese, because the title of his book, den-en teki

toshi meaning country-like city (Sennett, 1907). As a result, there was a different

approach of the design between the original Garden Cities, and the Japanese

version of a Garden Cities. Besides the misunderstanding about the language

of the translation in the Garden City‟s book, this theory has made a positive

influence in several cities in Japan. For example, the city of Osaka has the

same problem as other big cities, because this city was very noisy, too crowded

and filled with smoke. To address this issue, the Government of Japan decided

to make a satellite city in Osaka. Hence, the new population that grew in Osaka

could stay in the satellite city (eds Ward 1992).

It is the same as Nazi sub-urban growth. Due to the „Industrial

Revolution‟, suburbanization of cities in Germany had increased significantly

and was threatened “the traditional homely character of native German town,

which was in danger of being overwhelmed by mass suburbanization” (eds

Ward 1992:89). To deal with this problem, Germany‟s urban planners made two

strategies. The first strategy involved decentralization, which was the main idea

of the Garden City‟s concept (eds Ward 1992). This strategy was used to make

other capital suburban area, so the people who moved to town can be reduced.

The second and more extreme strategy was inner colonization (Brenning,

1901). This action was discouraging people to move to the town by using

several different approaches. One approach was to improve the agricultural

living standard in the countryside. The next approach was to distracted of the

migration flow to suburban area which had a reasonable distance to town. The

third approach was to make the foundation of new form of Garden Cities outside

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the main town, to support agricultural area (eds Ward 1992). The Garden City

theory might not have a huge impact in Germany, but this theory has made a

major influence to Germany‟s urban designers.

On the other hand, not every city of the countries around the world are

suitable with the Garden City theory. For example, in Australia, the Garden City

theory did not have an enormous impact to the structure of urban design and

urban planning. Instead of building the city with this theory, they only used the

foundation of ideal urban environment, housing principles, and for shaping the

development of metropolitan and regional growth (eds Ward 1992).

As for today, the Garden City theory has changed the face of urban

design and urban planning in the present day. In the past, the decentralization

concept had been used to control the population in the city, but nowadays, this

concept has been applied to save the energy indirectly (Putra, 2013). Urban

designer and urban planner will start to reform the city into sustainable city

which use secondary energy collector like solar panels and wind farms. Instead

of using more space to build another city, they minimized urban form into a

compact city (Putra, 2013). The Garden City concept had not been used to

design the city but to make the district in the city more sustainable.

In the future development of urban design, urban shape will be more

vertical, because “elevator system had incredible success in the creation of

compact and greener cities” (eds Haas 2012:240). The Garden City theory was

changed into the Compact Garden District in the present day, and in the future it

will become the Garden Building, because people will concentrate to design

sustainable buildings to fulfill their needs in one compact building (Appendix 4)

(Putra, 2013).

In conclusion, the Garden City theory has made a significant

contribution to society, the environment and the Urban Design and Urban

Planning fields. Firstly, this theory opens urban designers minds to design a city,

because before this theory had been developed in 1898, urban planners look

upon rural and urban area as two different components, but now they will

cogitate both components as a whole. Secondly, it is an enormous stepping

stone for urban design field, stemming from the ideas of this theory which made

Garden Cities - Past, Present & Future - By Azarya Ashadi Putra Halim

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the city achieve environmental and financial advantages from it. Furthermore,

the Garden City theory could narrow the advantages and disadvantages

between rural and urban area. However, this theory cannot be acknowledge by

every city, especially in cities of developing countries which have insufficient

resources. Anyway there is no denying that the Garden City theory had made

contribution beyond the limitations.

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REFERENCE LIST

Brenning, A 1909, innere kolonisation, Taeubner, Leipzig.

Carol, G. Thomas (eds) 1988, Path from Ancient Greece, Brill, Leiden.

Eserin, Angela 1995, Welwyn Garden City, The History-Press Ltd, Stroud.

Haas, T (eds) 2012, Sustainable Urbanism and Beyond, Rizzoli, New York.

Howard, E 1898, To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, Swann Sonnenschein, London.

Howard, E 1902, Garden Cities of To-Morrow, Swann Sonnenschein & Co. Ltd.,

London.

Howard, E 1965, Garden Cities of To-Morrow, F.J. Osborn (eds), Alden & Mowbray Ltd,, Great Britain.

Howard, E 2003, To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, P. Hall, D. Hardy & C. Ward (eds), Routledge, London.

Parsons, KC & Schuyler, D 2002, Form Garden City to Green City, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Maryland.

Priatmodjo, D 2010, Ideologi Urban Desain, lecture presentation distributed in Architecture Faculty in Tarumanagara University, Indonesia, on 5 November 2010.

Putra, AA 2013, Self Sustain District to fulfill Daily Needs in Banjir Kanal Timur, Academia.edu, accessed 9 January 2015, <https://www.academia.edu/9383263/Self_Sustain_District_to_Fulfill_Daily_Needs_in_Banjir_Kanal_Timur>.

Sennett, AR 1905, Garden Cities in Theory and Practice, Bemrose and Sons Ltd., London.

Sennett, AR 1907, Den-en teki toshi (Country-like City), Shimin, Japan.

Troy, P 1995, Technological Change and the City, Federation Press, Sydney.

University of Portsmouth, 2009, A Vision of Britain Through Time, accessed 12 December 2014, <

http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10191932/cube/POP_CHANGE>

Ward, S (eds) 1992, The Garden City: Past, Present and Future, E & FN Spon, London.

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APPENDIX LIST

Appendix 1 – The Three Magnets Diagram

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Appendix 2 – Garden City and Rural Belt

Appendix 3 – Ward and Centre of Garden City

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Appendix 4 – Compact Building (Putra, 2013)