Early Planning and Modernisation

The reading this week was: Modernism and Early Urban Planning by Richard LeGrates and Fredic Stout. It focused on the modernism of planning and how early urban planning has evolved over the past two centuries through works such as the Garden City Movement, City Beautiful and the Park's movement.

Many of these new planning movements were as a result of the worlds industrial revolution and the effects it had on cities and large urban areas. This was a period of time when people were moving from rural areas to city living in order to give themselves better life opportunities through working in factories which quickly became the scene of extremely horrific health standards.

Due to a massive increase in factory workers residential and urban areas soon became sites of disease and poverty stricken slums.  It was this that sparked early urban planners into action in attempts to drastically imrpove the image of cities and increase standards of living through the Garden and City Beautiful movements.

The key to the Garden City movement was to eliminate congestion and keep large areas of open country side accessible. In Ebenezer Howards original plan of the Garden City, it would consist of 6000 acres, with a township of 1000 acres surrounded by a greenbelt of 5000 acres, which would be able so support a total population of 32 000. Designing a city that would draw people away from the dirty slums seen in the early 1900's of London would also include several municipal services and infrastructure, this included amentities, parks, public gardens and asylums.  Although this seems like an exceptional idea to improve health and living standards in urban areas, the plan was never implemented to the scale that Howard would have hoped, but it was still an improvement nonetheless.

Theories and plans such as the Garden City movement have since been adopted into modernist planning, with Canberra being a good example of a Garden City. Although despite the evolution of cars I believe that Canberra still maintains its position as a Garden City. Through the suburbs of Belconnen, Bruce and Woden public parks, walkways and houses lined with trees still greet people as they go about there day to day life. Creating a peaceful atmosphere that allows people to enjoy the lifestyle of a largely populated urban area whilst still being placed in a rural setting.

So what will the next 100 years of planning bring to us? I hope it is something similar to what we experience in Canberra today with just minor ammendments because of the inevitable progression of technology.