Presented by-Juhi SinghAlexjendarAbhiskek RastogiKunwar Aman PratapB.Arch 8th SemesterSection- ASession-2016-17

Letchworth Garden City

• “A Garden City is a town designed for industry and healthy living; of a size that makes possible a full measure of social life, but not larger; surrounded by a permanent belt of rural land; the whole of the land being in public ownership or held in trust for the community.”

-C.B. Purdom, 1919

What is Garden City?

• Letchworth is the world’s first Garden City, created as a solution to the slum and poverty of urban life in Britain in the late 19th Century. Based on the ideas of Ebenezer Howard as published in his book of 1898 “Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Reform”. Letchworth Garden City inspired town planning across the globe.

Introduction

•Howard’s company- First Garden City Ltd began construction in 1903.

•The company appointed architects Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin to design the masterplan for the new community.

•This Garden City is located in North Hertfordshire, 35 miles north of London which is spread over an area of approx. 5000 acres.

•Designed for a population of 35,000 people.

•Having reserved green belt of 1,300 acres.

•The book ‘Garden cities of to-morrow’ by Howard offered a vision of towns free of slums and enjoying the benefits of both town (such as opportunity, amusement and good wages) and country (such as beauty, fresh air and low rents).

•He illustrated the idea with his famous Three Magnets diagram which addressed the question 'Where will the people go?', the choices being 'Town', 'Country' or 'Town-Country'.

• It proposed the creation of new suburban towns of limited size, planned in advance, and surrounded by a permanent belt of agricultural land.

Concept of Garden City

• Howard believed that such Garden Cities were the perfect blend of city and nature. • The towns would be largely independent,

managed by the citizens who had an economic interest in them, and financed by ground rents on the Georgist model.• The land on which they were to be built

was to be owned by a group of trustees and leased to the citizens.

•The dwellings for all classes of people should be distributed about a large central court in which public buildings would be located.

•The Shopping Centre to be located on the edge of the town.•The employment facilities for all the people to be provided by starting a

variety of industries.•The industries to be located on the outskirts of the town.•The city should have max. population of 30 to 35 thousand people in an

are of 1000 acres.•The city should have the advantage of both rural life such as fresh air,

gardens, playfields, cottages etc. and amenities of urban life such as schools, theaters, hospitals, recreational centers etc.

Garden City principles

•To eliminate the private ownership, whole of the land is to brought under co-operative basis or held in trust for the community in order to have the control on finance and the profit gained thereby be utilized for uplifting the community.

•The city should be surrounded by a permanent belt of agricultural land of 3 to 5 thousand acres.

• London (and other cities) in the 19th century were in the throws of industrialization, and the cities were exerting massive forces on the labour markets of the time.• Massive immigration from the countryside to the cities was taking place

with London.• This situation was unsustainable and political commentators of all parties

sought “how best to provide the proper antidote against the greatest danger of modern existence” (St. Jame’s Gazette, 1892) • To Howard the cure was simple - to reintegrate people with the

countryside.

Reasons to plan Letchworth

• In trying to understand and represent the attraction of the city he compared each city to a magnet, with individuals represented as needles drawn to the city.

• He set about comparing the ‘town and country magnets’ but decided that neither were suitable attractors for his utopian vision.

• Instead he believed that “Human society and the beauty of nature are meant to be enjoyed together” – hence giving his solution “the two magnets must be made one.”

• "Town and country must be united, and out of this joyous union, will spring a new hope, a new life, a new civilization."

The three magnets

POSITIVE ASPECTS NEGATIVE ASPECTS

• Beauty of nature. • Lack of society• Land lying idle. • Hands out of work. • Wood, meadow,

forest.• Trespassers

beware. • Fresh air. • Low wages. • Low rents. • Lack of drainage. • Abundance of

water.• Lack of

amusement.• Bright sunshine. • No public spirit.

• Need for reform.• Crowded dwellings. • Deserted villages.

POSITIVE ASPECTS NEGATIVE ASPECTS

• Social opportunity. • Closing out of nature.

• Isolation of crowds.

• High rents & prices.

• Places of amusement.

• Foul air and Murky sky.

• Chances of employment.

• Slums & gin palaces.

• High money wages.

• Costly drainage.

• Well-lit streets.• Palatial edifices.

TOWN COUNTRY

TOWN-COUNTRY

COMBINATION OF BOTH ASPECTS

Beauty of nature- peace all-over the places.Social opportunity- cumulative growth.

Fields and parks of easy access- equal chances.Low rents- high wages.Low rates- plenty to do.Low prices- no sweating.

Field for enterprise- flow of capital.Pure air and water- good drainage.

Bright homes & gardens- no smoke, no slums.Freedom- Co-operation.

• Circular city growing in a radial manner or pattern.

• Divided into six equal wards, by six main Boulevards that radiated from the central park/garden.

• Civic institutions (Town Hall, Library, Hospital, Theatre, Museum etc. ) are placed around the central garden.

• The central park enclosed by a crystal palace acts as an arcade for indoor shops and winter gardens.

Conceptual Layout THE ORIGINAL GARDEN CITY CONCEPT BY EBENEZER HOWARD, 1902.

• Distance between each ring vary between 3-5km .

• A 420 feet wide , 3 mile long, Grand avenue which run in the center of concentric rings , houses the schools and churches and acts as a continuous public park.

• The streets for houses are formed by a series of concentric ringed tree lined avenues.

• All the industries, factories and warehouses were placed at the peripheral ring of the city.

• The municipal railway was placed in another ring closer to the industrial ring , so that the pressure of excess transport on the city streets are reduced and the city is connected to the rest of the nation.

THANK YOU