Planning Theories

LOCATION THEORY

Early in the 19th century Count von Thünen developed a

theoretical model that describes how market processes determine

local land-use patterns. Johann Heinrich von Thünen (1783-1850)

was a skilled farmer who was knowledgeable in economics. His

model was created before the first large-scale industrialization and

is simplest explained in terms of agricultural land use around a

central market city. His findings are however not restricted to

agriculture alone, as will be discussed later. Central in his model

are the following assumptions:

The central city is located centrally within an "Isolated State"

which is self-sufficient and has no external influences.

The Isolated State is surrounded by an unoccupied wilderness.

The land of the State is completely flat and has no rivers or mountains to interrupt the

terrain.

The soil quality and climate are consistent throughout the State.

Farmers in the Isolated State transport their own goods to market via oxcart, across land,

directly to the central city. Transport costs thus rise linearly with distance.

The selling price for the agricultural products is determined at the market by supply and

demand.

Farmers act to maximize profits.

In an Isolated State with the foregoing statements being true, Von Thünen hypothesized that

the following pattern would develop:

There are four rings of agricultural activity surrounding the city. Dairying and intensive

farming occur in the ring closest to the city. The related products (vegetables, fruit, milk and other

dairy products) have the highest profits, but also the highest transportation costs because they are

vulnerable and perishable. Timber and firewood will be produced for fuel and building materials

in the second zone. Before industrialization (and coal power), wood was a very important fuel for

heating and cooking. Wood is very heavy and therefore difficult and costly to transport. The third

zone consists of extensive field crops such as grain for bread. Since grain lasts longer than dairy

products and is much lighter than wood transport costs are considered to be lower, allowing a

location further from the city. Ranching is located in the final ring surrounding the central city.

Animals can be raised far from the city because they are self-transporting and thus have low

transport costs. Beyond the fourth ring lies the unoccupied wilderness, which is too great a distance

from the central city for any type of agricultural product.

However, the original

simplifying assumption of a

homogeneous “featureless”

plane in which the central city is

located received a lot of

criticism. Many deemed the

resulting concentric land-use

patterns as being much too

simple. The model can however

easily be adopted to include

roads and rivers that might

decrease transportation costs to

some locations.

One of the unique aspects of

Finger Plan 2007 compared to

former plans is that it hasn't drawn

a concrete development plan but

gave discretion to municipalities

instead. At the same time, the plan

is distinctive of promoting

concentrated location of large

office buildings and commercial

facilities within 600m radius from

train stations and this is based on

the understanding that more effort

is necessary to reduce traffic

congestion. It is also mentioned in

the plan that in broader area

integration in Oresund Region

may progress further.

GARDEN CITIES MOVEMENT

The Garden City movement had its origins in 19th Century

England where movement of people from the country to the cities

placed pressure on the urban environment particularly in the industrial

areas where living conditions were bleak and unhealthy. At the time

Ebenezer Howard, English town planner and figurehead of the

Garden City movement, started to formulate his Garden City ideal.

The Garden City ideal sought to raise the standard of health and

comfort for factory workers, through providing a living environment

that combined the best elements of town and country life. In ‘The Three

Magnets’ diagram Howard identified the beneficial elements of both

country and town lifestyles and sought to replicate them in his Garden

City ideal.

The chief objects are these: To find for

our industrial population work at wages of

higher purchasing power, and to secure

healthier surroundings and more regular

employment. To enterprising manufacturers,

co-operative societies, architects, engineers,

builders, and technicians of all kinds, as well

as to many engaged in various professions, it

is intended to offer a means of securing new

and better employment for their capital and

talents, while to the agriculturists present on

the estate as well as to those who may migrate

thither, it is designed to open a new market for

their produce close to their doors.

The key values underpinning the Garden

City ideal can be summarized as follows:

Country lifestyle

Appreciation of the beauty of nature and a high level of residential amenity.

Commerce and trade

Access to services, facilities and commerce.

Town lifestyle

Access to safe, pleasant housing as well as the opportunity for social interaction and the

opportunity to participate in the community

.

Garden City, which is to be built near the center of the 6,000 acres, covers an area of 1,000

acres, or a sixth part of the 6,000 acres, and might be of circular form, 1,240 yards (or nearly three-

quarters of a mile) from center to circumference.

Diagram 1 shows a ground plan of the whole municipal area, showing the town in

the center, while Diagram 2 represents one section or ward of the town, will be useful in

following the description of the town itself.

Diagram 1

Diagram 2

Six magnificent boulevards--each 120 feet wide--traverse the city from center to

circumference, dividing it into six equal parts or wards. In the center is beautiful and well- watered

garden. Surrounding this garden are the larger public buildings. The rest of the large space

encircled by the 'Crystal Palace' is a public park.

Passing out of the Crystal Palace, we find a ring of very excellently built houses, each

standing in its own ample grounds. Noticing the very varied architecture and design which the

houses and groups of houses display--some having common gardens.

Towards the outskirts of the town, is the 'Grand Avenue'. In the avenue six sites, each of

four acres, are occupied by public schools and their surrounding playgrounds and gardens, while

other sites are reserved for churches.

On the outer ring of the town are factories, warehouses, dairies, markets, coal yards, timber

yards, etc., all fronting on the circle railway, which encompasses the whole town, and which has

sidings connecting it with a main line of railway which passes through the estate. The smoke fiend

is kept well within bounds in Garden City; for all machinery is driven by electric energy, with the

result that the cost of electricity for lighting and other purposes is greatly reduced.

Dotted about the estate are seen various charitable and philanthropic institutions. These are

not under the control of the municipality.

The values that underpinned Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City model are still as relevant to

our community as they were over 100 years ago. Access to light and fresh air, to land for growing

plants, keeping animals and for recreation are still significant. Similarly, it is still important in our

contemporary society, that individuals can enjoy a level of prosperity, have access to healthy, safe

housing, to services and employment and have a variety of opportunities for socializing and

participating in the community.

Letchworth was developed and owned

by a company called First Garden City, Ltd

which was formed in 1903, based on the ideas

of Howard. After Howard's book was published

he worked to gain financial support to bring his

ideas into reality, Howard ran lectures on

Garden Cities and began the Garden City

Association.

The Letchworth garden city was to

sustain a population of between 30,000 and

35,000 people, and would be laid out as

Howard explained in his book. There would be

a central town, agricultural belt, shops,

factories, residences, civic centres and open

spaces, this division of land for specific

purposes is now referred to as zoning and is an

important practice within town planning.

Howard constructed Letchworth as an example of how the Garden City could be achieved,

and hoped that in its success many other towns would be built emulating the same ideals. Some

criticisms of Letchworth exist, claims it to too spacious and there are few architecturally

impressive designs. However, it can be argued the space is what makes Letchworth pleasant, and

the architecture, while not highly impressive and uniform, has consistency of colour and is

satisfying to the needs of the people.

CONCENTRIC ZONE THEORY

Ernest Watson Burgess developed the concentric zone

theory of urban land use in the mid-1920s based on an examination

of the historical development of Chicago through the 1890s. It

contrasts from the von Thunen approach in being descriptive rather

than analytical (Harvey, 1996). The concentric zone theory of urban

land use is based on the assumption that a city grows by expanding

outwards from a central area, radially, in concentric rings of

development.

Burgess classified the city into five broad zones:

1. The central business district (CBD): the focus for urban activity and the confluence of

the city’s transportation infrastructures.

2. The zone of transition: generally a manufacturing district with some residential

dwellings.

3. The zone of factories and working men’s homes: this zone was characterized by a

predominantly working class population living in older houses and areas that were

generally lacking in amenities.

4. The residential zone: this band comprised newer and more spacious housing for the

middle classes.

5. The outer commuter zone: this land use ring was dominated by better quality housing

for upper class residents and boasted an environment of higher amenity.

Burgess often observed that there was a correlation between the distance from the CBD

and the wealth of the inhabited area; wealthier families tended to live much further away from the

Central Business District. As the city grew, Burgess also observed that the CBD would cause it to

expand outwards; this in turn forced the other rings to expand outwards as well. The model is more

detailed than the traditional down-mid-uptown divide by which downtown is the CBD, uptown the

affluent residential outer ring, and midtown in between.

The Burgess model of Chicago (after EW Burgess, 1925; Carter, 1981).

Cities grow and develop outwardly in concentric circles, i.e. continuous outward process

of invasion/succession.

The jobs, industry, entertainment, administrative offices, etc. were located at the center in

the CBD.

Felt that zone development resulted from competitive processes, i.e. competition for best

location in the city.

While useful in a descriptive sense for explaining the location of land uses in a monocentric

city, both the work of Burgess and von Thunen has (by extrapolation to urban cases), not

surprisingly, come under heavy criticism. Amongst the complaints levelled have been accusations

that the models are too rigid to ever accurately represent actual land patterns (the monocentric city

assumption is perhaps the largest flaw). They have also been accused of overlooking the important

influence of topography and transport systems on urban spatial structure and have been criticized

for failing to accommodate the notion of special accessibility and ignoring the dynamic nature of

the urban land use pattern (Harvey, 1996).

Orange areas represent census tracks

with the lowest median incomes compared

with the overall Chicago median income.

Dark green represents the wealthiest median

incomes, with gray areas being about even

with the Chicago median. Comparing the

1970 map with the 2012 map, we see a huge

erosion of the gray areas approximating the

median, along with a dramatic growth of

both the poorest and richest sections in the

city.

NEIGHBORHOOD UNIT

In the 1920′s, Clarence Perry introduced a concept that he

referred to as “The Neighborhood Unit“. It illustrates the

relationships between the residential components of a neighborhood

and the uses that could easily be traversed to and from by foot. Perry

utilized the 5-minute walk to define walking distances from

residential to non-residential components, in particular Perry was

very concerned about the walkability to and from schools.

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

neighborhood. The unit would be

served by shopping facilities,

churches, and a library, and a

community center, the latter

being located in conjunction with

the school.

The “Neighborhood

Unit” has since laid the

foundation for modern-day

planning movements including

the “new urbanism” movement

of the 80′s, 90′s and

today. Unfortunately, the

“neighborhood unit” concept has

also provided fuel for

today’s suburbanization and road

classification system. False interpretations of Perry’s concept have conceived segregation of land

uses, further validating the modern-day road classification system and unfortunately created an

auto-centric society in today’s first ring and outward suburban communities.

Perry outlined six basic principles of good neighborhood design. As may be understood,

these core principles were organized around several institutional, social and physical design ideals.

Major arterials and through traffic routes should not pass through residential

neighborhoods. Instead these streets should provide boundaries of the

neighborhood;

Interior street patterns should be designed and constructed through use of cul-de-

sacs, curved layout and light duty surfacing so as to encourage a quiet, safe and low

volume traffic movement and preservation of the residential atmosphere;

The population of the neighborhood should be that which is required to support its

elementary school;

The neighborhood focal point should be the elementary school centrally located on

a common or green, along with other institutions that have service areas coincident

with the neighborhood boundaries;

The radius of the neighborhood should be a maximum of one quarter mile thus

precluding a walk of more than that distance for any elementary school child; and

Shopping districts should be sited at the edge of neighborhoods preferably at major

street intersections.

However, several major criticisms of neighborhood unit have been mentioned in the

planning literature. In the end, Perry’s ideas came from sound desire to create new communities,

but failed to meet some of today’s planning challenges like sustainability, transportation, and social

justice. However, the concepts can be adjusted and applied towards older urban neighborhoods,

with transportation options, and an active center. And maybe, we will be one step closer to creating

social utopia.

PRINCIPLES OF TOWN PLANNING

Between 1915 and 1919 Geddes wrote a series of "exhaustive

town planning reports" on at least eighteen Indian cities. Sir Patrick

Geddes principles for town planning in Bombay demonstrate his

views on the relationship between social processes and spatial form,

and the intimate and causal connections between the social

development of the individual and the cultural and physical

environment. They included: (Bombay Town Planning Act of 1915")

Preservation of human life and energy, rather than superficial beautification.

Conformity to an orderly development plan carried out in stages.

Purchasing land suitable for building.

Promoting trade and commerce.

Preserving historic buildings and buildings of religious significance.

Developing a city worthy of civic pride, not an imitation of European cities.

Promoting the happiness, health and comfort of all residents, rather than focusing on roads and

parks available only to the rich.

Control over future growth with adequate provision for future requirements

From Le Play, Geddes took the triad of Lieu,

Travaille et Famille (place, work and family – folk

in his version) and produced one of his simplest

thinking machines.

From this, on pieces of paper folded in

complex ways came various 'thinking

machines' for rendering, as he put it, 'The City

Completed'.

Patrick Geddes explained an organism’s relationship to its environment as follows:

“The environment acts, through function, upon the organism and conversely the organism

acts, through function, upon the environment.“ (Cities in Evolution, 1915)

In human terms this can be understood as a place acting through climatic and geographic

processes upon people and thus shaping them. At the same time people act, through economic

processes such as farming and construction, on a place and thus shape it. Thus both place and folk

are linked and through work are in constant transition.

To put it in another way, Geddes said that “it takes a whole region to make a city”. The

valley section illustrated the application of Geddes's trilogy of 'folk/work/place' to analysis of the

region.

The valley section is a complex model, which combines physical condition- geology and

geomorphology and their biological associations - with so-called natural or basic occupations such

as miner, hunter, shepherd or fisher, and with the human settlements that arise from them.

WORK

FOLK

.

PLACE

Geddian Trio Representation

In 1925, the Scottish biologist, sociologist,

philanthropist and pioneering town planner Patrick

Geddes drew up a master plan for Tel Aviv which was

adopted by the city council led by Meir Dizengoff. Geddes's

plan for developing the northern part of the district was based

on Ebenezer Howard's garden city movement. The plan

consisted of four main features: a hierarchical system of

streets laid out in a grid, large blocks consisting of small-scale

domestic dwellings, the organization of these blocks around

central open spaces, and the concentration of cultural

institutions to form a civic center. While most of the northern

area of Tel Aviv was built according to this plan, the influx of

European refugees in the 1930s necessitated the construction

of taller apartment buildings on a larger footprint in the city.

LINEAR CITY

The linear city design was first developed by Arturo Soria y Mata

in Madrid, Spain during the 19th century, but was promoted by the

Soviet planner Nikolai Alexander Milyutin in the late 1920s.

The linear city was an urban plan for an elongated urban formation.

The city would consist of a series of functionally specialized parallel

sectors. Generally, the city would run parallel to a river and be built so

that the dominant wind would blow from the residential areas to the

industrial strip. The sectors of a linear city would be:

1. A purely segregated zone for railway lines,

2. A zone of production and communal enterprises, with related

scientific, technical and educational institutions,

3. A green belt or buffer zone with major highway,

4. A residential zone, including a band of social institutions, a band of residential

buildings and a "children's band",

5. A park zone, and

6. An agricultural zone with gardens and state-run farms (sovkhozy in the Soviet

Union).

As the city expanded, additional sectors would be added to the end of each band, so

that the city would become ever longer, without

growing wider.

Ernst May, a famous German

functionalist architect, formulated his initial plan

for Magnitogorsk, a new city in the Soviet Union,

primarily following the model that he had

established with his Frankfurt settlements:

identical, equidistant five-story communal

apartment buildings and an extensive network of

dining halls and other public services.

Oddly enough, the part of Madrid that

actually bears the name of Ciudad Lineal, is not,

because of reasons of topography, built to his

original plan, but more along those of Cerdá in

Barcelona. But if you take the metro on line five

to the “Ciudad Lineal” station, you will be where

Arturo Soria stood when the first stone was laid to

put his ideas into concrete and brick reality.

His tram company, like urban public

transport systems in other European towns, gave

people the opportunity to live away from the grime

of the inner city. Taking full advantage of this and

in an area some five kilometres east of the city

centre, work began on his linear city in 1894.

CONTEMPORARY CITY

Le Corbusier segregated the pedestrian circulation paths

from the roadways, and glorified the use of the automobile as a means

of transportation. As one moved out from the central skyscrapers,

smaller multi-story zigzag blocks set in green space and set far back

from the street housed the proletarian workers. In all those places

where traffic becomes over-intensified the level site gives a chance of

a normal solution to the problem. Where there is less traffic, differences

in level matter less.

This consists of the citizens proper; of suburban dwellers;

and of those of a mixed kind.

(a) Citizens are of the city: those who work and live in it.

(b) Suburban dwellers are those who work in the outer industrial zone and who do not come

into the city: they live in garden cities.

(c) The mixed sort are those who work in the business parts of the city but bring up their

families in garden cities.

To classify these divisions (and so make possible the transmutation of these

recognized types) is to attack the most important problem in town planning, for such a

classification would define the areas to be allotted to these three sections and the delimitation of

their boundaries. This would enable us to formulate and resolve the following problems:

1. The City, as a business and residential centre.

2. The Industrial City in relation to the Garden Cities (i.e. the question of transport).

3. The Garden Cities and the daily transport of the workers.

The street of today is still the old bare ground which has been paved over, and under

which a few tube railways have been run. The modern street should be a masterpiece of civil

engineering and no longer a job for navies. The “corridor-street” should be tolerated no longer, for

it poisons the houses that border it and leads to the construction of small internal courts or “wells.

The basic principles we must follow are these:

1. We must decongest the centers of our cities.

2. We must augment their density.

3. We must increase the means for getting about.

4. We must increase parks and open spaces.

The residential blocks, of the two main types already mentioned, account for a further 600,000

inhabitants. The garden cities give us a further 2,000,000 inhabitants, or more.The the great central

open space are the cafes, restaurants, luxury shops, halls of various kinds, a magnificent forum

descending by stages down to the immense parks surrounding it, the whole arrangement providing

a spectacle of order and vitality.

Density of population

.

(a) The skyscraper: 1,200 inhabitants to the

acre.

(b) The residential blocks with setbacks: 120

inhabitants to the acre. These are the

luxury dwellings.

(c) The residential blocks on the “cellular”

system, with a similar number of inhabitants.

SECTOR THEORY

Development of the wedge or radial sector theory of urban

land use is generally attributed to the work of Homer Hoyt (1939).

Hoyt’s model concerns itself primarily with the location of residential

uses across urban areas; it refers to business location only in an

indirect fashion. The model seeks to explain the tendency for various

socio-economic groups to segregate in terms of their residential

location decisions. In appearance, Hoyt’s model owes a great deal to

Burgess’s concentric zone model: Hoyt presents wedge-like sectors

of dominant urban land use, within which he identifies concentric

zones of differential rent.

The model suggests that, over time, high quality housing

tends to expand outward from an urban center along the fastest travel routes. In this way, Hoyt

transforms Burgess’s concentric zones into radial or sectorial wedges of land use.

Hoyt’s sector model (after H. Hoyt, 1939; Carter, 1981). The innovative element in Hoyt’s

model was in considering direction, as well as distance, as a factor shaping the spatial distribution

of urban activity. Hoyt’s model also goes further than its predecessors in recognizing that the CBD

is not the sole focus of urban activity (Kivell, 1993). One major criticism, however, is that the

model overlooks the location of employment, which itself is the major determinant of residential

location (Harvey, 1996).

Strengths

• The people that settle in a city would settle in an area

near transportation so that they can have easy access to

many different place

Weaknesses

• The theory is based on railroads and does not take into

account cars

• Physical Features may divert the growth in some areas

Hoyt’s model has been

applied, with some success, to

the English city of Sunderland

by Robson in 1963, as shown in

the diagram below. The model

had to be modified to take into

account unique physical factors,

such as the coastal position and

the River Wear running through

the city and it was found that a

more or less equal emphasis on

sectors and concentric zones

best fitted Sunderland. Note that

this was applied to Sunderland

as it was in 1963-1975 and note

the dominance of heavy

industry such as shipbuilding

and engineering and the

dominance of low and medium

income housing. This example

illustrates how models can apply well to specific cases, but typically require some modification.

Another point to note, is that in contrast to North American cities, in British cities there are often

found large council housing estates on the periphery of a city. This housing, though not middle-

class is sometimes of near middle-class quality (though sometimes it is low quality high rise flats).

MULTIPLE NUCLEI THEORY

The work of Chauncy Harris and Edward

Ullman (1945) in developing a multiple-nuclei

theory of urban land use is amongst the most

innovative descriptive or analytical urban models.

Their model is based on the premise that large

cities have a spatial structure that is predominantly

cellular. This, they explain, is a consequence of

cities’ tendencies to develop as a myriad of nuclei

that serve as the focal point for agglomerative

tendencies. Harris and Ullman propose that around

these cellular nuclei, dominant land uses and

specialized centers may develop over time.

The novelty in multiple-nuclei theory lies in its acknowledgement of several factors that

strongly influence the spatial distribution of urban activity: factors such as topography, historical

influences, and special accessibility. The theory is also innovative in its recognition of the city as

polycentric. In this sense, it moves closer to explaining why urban spatial patterns emerge.

Our attentions will now switch to land-use–transportation models—a class of predictive

mathematical simulations that take many of the theoretical concepts introduced by descriptive and

analytical models and operationalize them by infusing them with empirical data and testing them

in practice.

The theory was formed based on the idea that people have greater movement due to

increased car ownership. This increase of movement allows for the specialization of regional

centers (e.g. heavy industry, business parks, and retail areas). The model is suitable for the large,

expanding cities. The number of nuclei around which the city expands depends upon situational

as well as historical factors. Multiple nuclei develop because:

1. Certain industrial activities require transportation facilities e.g. ports, railway stations,

etc. to lower transportation costs.

2. Various combinations of activities tend to be kept apart e.g. residential areas and

airports, factories and parks, etc.

3. Other activities are found together to their mutual advantage e.g. universities,

bookstores and coffee shops, etc.

4. Some facilities need to be set in specific areas in a city - for example the CBD requires

convenient traffic systems, and many factories need an abundant source of water

5. Certain events benefit from the adjacent distance like the positions of factories and

residence.

6. In some cases, some constructions are located in less-than-ideal locations, often due to

outside factors such as rent.

London has concentric rings, with older and poorer inner city areas and more affluent suburbs.

London also exhibits sectors, such as the zone of worker's dwellings that developed in the

industrial revolution and extended from the East End to Dagenham and beyond. An affluent

residential sector developed in the north and west, from Mayfair to the Chiltern Hills. London

also contains multiple nuclei, such as the financial centre or the centre of medical services around

Harley Street (similarly banks and media institutions tend to be clustered).

BROADACRE CITY

Frank Lloyd Wright’s discontent with the city arose in the years

of the Great Depression which occurred some years after the Great War

(1914-1918) as a result of the Stock Market Crash of 1929. He viewed the

centralization of cities as “overbuilt”. He mocked the idea that a man in

his right mind would leave the opportunities granted in the countryside to

live in the confines of the overcrowded city.

He believed that a man’s true success lay in a greater freedom of

movement which he suggested would be possible with the improvements

in technology which brought about the automobile, electrification and

improvements in communication. True democracy would be achieved by

reclaiming one’s individuality and engaging in “natural architecture”

rather than communal living of the cities. His aim was to develop a truly American, and or as he

later renamed Usonian, way of life which was not an imitation of European counterparts to foster

creation.

Broadacre was to accommodate at least one acre per individual (adult or child) since

at that time there was fifty-seven green acres available per person in the United States. The models

proposed a new space concept in social usage for individual and community building. But the

whole establishment was laid out in accordance with the conditions of land tenure already in effect.

Though the centers were kept, a new system of subdivision was proposed.

In Wright’s mind, Broadacre City promised its denizens maximum autonomy and self-

reliance. In an age of official data mining, drone patrols, and the corporatization of everything, the

decentralization of daily life has its appeals. The contradiction is that Wright never recognized that

his plan to effectively destroy cities would have required the unprecedented public authority he

warned against.

Broadacre City Concepts:

Cities should flow over land in 1-acre increments (1-40 acre parcels)

Fits within existing Township and Range land system.

Traffic congestion will be relieved by spreading out across the countryside.

Individual family farms provide for the basic needs of families.

Decentralized government and cultural activities.

City administration through radio contact

The Chief Executive of the decentralized city should be its architect, the person best

equipped to see that buildings and occupants are in harmony.

Even though the development of Phoenix,

Arizona has been associated with the Broadacre City

concept, due to significant similarities, it must be

realized that though the pattern may be similar, the

growth was not carried out with a respect to the

environment but rather because it was easy to develop

the desert, and the economic forces to promote private

land ownership were not the same, and that the effects

of decentralization that occurred were likened to those

of sprawl (costly, waste of space, etc)

Broad Acre City Model

But what became

of Broad Acre City

Concept? Nothing. It was

never carried out.

The concept of

Broadacre, like many other

theories of urban

development addresses

many key issues, and

overlooks others. Many

principles may be adapted

from this theory and

applied, as appropriate, to a

given landscape

successfully. Additionally,

it may be incorporated with

various other theories to produce optimal results. Wright was simply responding to the notion that

decentralization would occur in some form or fashion, and Broadacre city is his contribution to

organize or formalize the movement. His perspective may be architectural and therefore seen a

limited, but there is yet one person that has yet produced the perfect solution to the problem of

centralization, or decentralization (in the form of sprawl).

RADIANT CITY

Ville Radieuse (The Radiant City) is an unrealized urban

masterplan by Le Corbusier, first presented in 1924 and published in

a book of the same name in 1933. 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 creating a better society.

Though radical, strict and nearly totalitarian in its 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.

In accordance

with modernist ideals

of progress (which encouraged the annihilation

of tradition), The Radiant City was to emerge

from a tabula rasa: it was to be built on nothing

less than the grounds of demolished vernacular

European cities. The new city would contain

prefabricated and identical high-density

skyscrapers, spread across a vast green area and

arranged in a Cartesian grid, allowing the city to

function as a “living machine.” Le Corbusier

explains: “The city of today is a dying thing

because its planning is not in the proportion of

geometrical one fourth. The result of a true

geometrical lay-out is repetition, the result of

repetition is a standard. The perfect form.”

At the core of Le Corbusier’s plan stood

the notion of zoning: a strict division of the city

into segregated commercial, business,

entertainment and residential areas. The business

district was located in the center, and contained

monolithic mega-skyscrapers, each reaching a

height of 200 meters and accommodating five to

eight hundred thousand people. Located in the

center of this 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.

The housing districts

would contain pre-fabricated

apartment buildings, known as

“Unités.” Reaching a height of

fifty meters, a single Unité could

accommodate 2,700 inhabitants

and function as a vertical village:

catering and laundry facilities

would be on the ground floor, a

kindergarten and a pool on the

roof. Parks would exist between

the Unités, allowing residents

with a maximum of natural

daylight, a minimum of noise and

recreational facilities at their

doorsteps.

Pruitt-Igoe was planned to

accommodate the growth of an industrial

powerhouse city already a shade past its

prime, the project was a Modernist dream

come true: an effort to replace St. Louis’

slums with new, clean affordable housing

rising into the sky. It was profoundly

influenced by Le Corbusier’s “radiant

city” vision of Modernism, with

landscaped parks surrounded by towers

of glass and concrete lifting working

people out of dark, near-shantytowns

isolated from running water, electricity,

and civilized urban infrastructure.

Only 20 years after completion, the Pruitt-Igoe housing project was dynamited.

Nevertheless, the idea of proposing order through

careful planning is as relevant now as when Le Corbusier

first published The Radiant City. Issues of healthy living,

traffic, noise, public space and transportation, which Le

Corbusier - unlike any architect before him - addressed

holistically, continue to be a major concern of city planners

today.

CITY BEAUTIFUL MOVEMENT

The City Beautiful Movement occurred in America around

the turn of century (1890‐1910) and it was primarily a state‐led

planning movement based on the idea that design and beauty could

be a means of improving the city. In America, the movement was

most associated with Daniel Burnham, the architect and city

planner, most known for his 1909 Chicago Plan, which redesigned

the Central Loop of Chicago into the monumental space that it is

today.

As a movement, the City

Beautiful is significant in that it raised

awareness of planning and in some

way, gave birth to modern American

planning. What is interesting and more

significant about the City Beautiful

movement, is its ties to Haussmann

and his central Paris plan. The City

Beautiful movement brings the grand

plan idea—the ability to demolish the

old and start fresh with “good” design

to improve the city. However,

implementing such plans was costly.

The idea of starting fresh, with a clean slate, that began in Paris with Haussmann and was

made popular in American by Burnham, will continue to resurface with other planning movements

and planning strategies:

The modernist and Le Corbusier’s Radiant City

Urban renewal in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.

Downtown and waterfront redevelopment

The New Urbanisms

Burnham launched the City Beautiful movement at the 1893 World's Fair. While the

relatively informal lagoon area on the north side of the fairgrounds reflected the picturesque

preferences of Frederick Law Olmsted—the designer of New York City's Central Park and a

participant in the fair's planning from its earliest sessions—the stately and well-ordered White City

formed the seminal image of the City Beautiful approach.

Washington, D.C., in 1902 became the first city

to carry out a City Beautiful design, the McMillan Plan,

named for Michigan’s U.S. Sen. James McMillan, who

was chairman of the Senate Committee on the District

of Columbia. It limited building heights and positioned

new structures and monuments throughout the city to

create a balanced aerial composition. Other cities that

benefited from the movement were Cleveland

(1903), San Francisco (1905), and St. Paul, Minnesota

(1906).

Over time, the movement’s

shortcomings came to the fore, and it

became apparent that improvement of

the physical city without addressing

social and economic issues would not

substantively improve urban life. The

movement, as a whole, began to wane

by World War I and was then succeeded

by a modernist approach to architecture

known as the International style.

CITY EFFICIENT MOVEMENT & HISTORY OF ZONING

With the industrial revolution, cities grew

in size and importance. The Public Health, Garden

City, and City Beautiful movements of the 19th

century raised issues of health and aesthetics in the

city, and profoundly affected the design and

development of cities during the first half of the

20th century.

The City Efficient Movement saw the

passage of new laws and court cases relative to

land use, zoning, subdivision control, and

administrative planning regulation. Civil engineers, attorneys, and public administrators began to

play a larger role in city planning with an increase in demand for public services and facilities such

as highways and sanitary sewers. Perhaps the best known leaders were engineers Frederick

Winslow Taylor, and Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr.

There were early efforts to temper

New York's building streak. A landmark

1885 law restricted tenement buildings to

one-and-a-half times the street width (the

Supreme Court ruled that height

restrictions were legal in 1909, when

builders challenged Boston's decision to

restrict buildings around Copley Square to

90 feet). The building that broke the camel's

back was the 42-story Equitable Building.

Built in 1915, the building's height and heft

were unprecedented.

In 1916, the city responded by passing the country's first

comprehensive zoning code. That effort was largely spearheaded by

lawyer Edward Bassett, who went on to invent the freeway and parkway.

Bassett was said to be “The Father of American Zoning", and one of the

founding fathers of modern day urban planning.

This, he explains, is why New York's skyscrapers from the

period have such a particular profile. The Heckscher Building on Fifth

Avenue, for example, stacked smaller and smaller boxes on top of one

another, with a crown on top. Other architects experimented

with cascading setbacks and buttresses.

The city's new zoning code did

more than just regulate building design.

It also set up separate residential and

business districts (as well as

unrestricted and undetermined areas).

The first city to experiment with

this was San Francisco. In 1885, the

city banned public laundries from most

areas, a not-so-subtle attempt to zone

the Chinese out. That law was

invalidated by an 1886 Supreme Court

case.

In 1909, Los Angeles experimented with a city-wide regulation that kept heavy industry

and commerce out of certain neighborhoods.

Initially, officials were reluctant to do so, fearing that they'd lose businesses to

neighboring cities. But land-owners were insistent, arguing that their property values had gone

down thanks to brick-makers and smoky glue factories.

It seems unlikely, then, that zoning thus was the product of circumstances in one particular

place. Nor was it the product of planners who had embraced the ‘City Beautiful’ movement,

progressives who supported scientific management of government or lawyers who argued for an

expansive view of the police power. The roles of planners, progressives and lawyers were supply

responses to a popular demand for zoning. This popular demand did not manifest itself as direct

democracy. It was filtered through housing developers who found that they sell homes for more

profit if the community had zoning.

BALTIMORE NEIGHBORHOOD DESIGN CENTER

Since 1968, the Neighborhood Design Centers in Baltimore and

Prince George's County, MD, have helped residents

revitalize commercial areas, reclaim vacant lots, and provide planning

and design services to more than 1,800 community initiatives. Jennifer

Goold, Executive Director, joined the Neighborhood Design Center in

2012 after more than a decade of work in cultural resources management,

historic preservation, development and planning.

The NDC was developed following a speech by the executive

chairman of the Urban League, Whitney Young, in 1968 issuing a challenge for architects and

designers to participate actively in renewal and transformation in the wake of urban decay during

the Civil Rights Movement.

NDC’s priorities are determined by the community and

neighborhoods themselves, according to Laura Wheaton, architect and

program manager for the Baltimore office. “Essentially, the community

looks at its own neighborhood and finds ways to enact change,” she says.

Wheaton says that many of the projects recently proposed have

involved transportation and greening on a neighborhood scale. She cites a

current example, the streetscaping of a 3-mile corridor, which she says is a

bit of a vacuum between neighborhoods but serves as a major thoroughfare

for Baltimore commuters.

Another popular NDC program helped turn

vacant lots into venues for performing arts in the

Union Square, Franklin Square and Hollins

Roundhouse neighborhoods. Baltimore’s Adopt-A-

Lot program enables neighborhoods to reclaim and

care for vacant lots for a period. The city will later

assess whether that lot is needed for city projects, and

if not, the residents can transform it to permanent

green space.

A recent Baltimore project designed a sign for

the historic Glen neighborhood to help it rebrand. The

old metal sign was in disrepair, and the volunteer

designers envisioned a sturdier one in brick. They

made use of programs with Baltimore’s Department

of Public Safety, both using reclaimed bricks from

one of its demolished old prisons and utilizing labor

from inmates who have completed a masonry training

program.

“Programs like NDC’s were more common in

the late ‘60s and early ‘70s,” Wheaton says, “when

there was a groundswell of community design. Whitney Young’s speech inspired many people.

Unfortunately, a lot of organizations disbanded over the years because they couldn’t get funded.

Now there seems to be a new interest, and we’re excited to see that. There is certainly enough need

for this kind of design.”

NDC started as an all-volunteer organization, with designers getting together to work.

When asked how other communities can build similar programs, Wheaton says it comes down to

the work of volunteer designers lending their efforts and talents, and to the support of local

government to help make this kind of urban renewal possible.

NEW URBANIST MODEL – SEASIDE FLORIDA

The New Urbanism is a reaction to sprawl. A

growing movement of architects, planners and

developers, the New Urbanism is based on the

belief that a return to traditional neighborhood

patterns is essential to restoring functional,

sustainable communities. The heart of new

urbanism is in the design of the neighborhoods,

and there is no clearer description than the 13

points developed by town planners Andrés

Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk.

The plan for the town of Seaside began in

1978 after Robert Davis was gifted an 80 acre plot

of land in the Florida Panhandle. Following in his

grandfather’s footsteps, Robert and his wife

Daryl set out to build a “livable” resort town in

the “Redneck Riviera” and create a haven for

those who missed the communities that were

developed when cars were not the dominant form

of transportation. Enter Andrés Duany and

Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, a lauded husband and

wife team from the prestigious architectural firm

Arquitectonica. The four of them, along with

European classicist and town planner Léon Krier,

set out to design the kind of place that had been

overlooked in contemporary American town

planning. The kind of community we all wish we

could be from.

Planning Seaside developed over several

years; first in the offices of Arquitectonica and

later in the firm of Duany Plater-Zyberk and

Company (DPZ). The final plan, the result of many drafts, was completed in about 1985 and is the

result of the efforts of DPZ, contributions by Leon Krier, and numerous tests and charrettes.

The Seaside plan proposes

traditional American settlement

patterns as an alternative to

contemporary methods of real estate

development. To this end, the retail

center was designed as a downtown

commercial district; the conference

facility doubles as a town hall; and a

portion of the recreation budget was

dedicated to the creation of small

civic amenities, including a chapel, a primary school, a fire station, and a post office, all to be

shared by adjacent communities.

A study of towns throughout the American South indicated that a community of genuine

variety and authentic character could not be generated by a single architect. Building was therefore

given over to a multitude of designers. The public buildings have been designed by architects

selected for their known sympathy with the regional vernacular, and the private buildings have

been commissioned by the individual buyers. A master plan and zoning code regulate the buildings

to ensure the creation of an urban environment similar to that of a small Southern town of the

period before 1940.

13 Principles of the New Urbanism by Duany-Zyberk:

The neighborhood has a discernible center. Often a square of a green and sometimes

busy or memorable street corner.

Dwellings are within a five-minute walk of the center.

There is a variety of dwelling types – houses, row houses, apartments, etc.

Shops and Offices located at the edge of the neighborhood.

Small ancillary building is permitted within the backyard of each house.

An elementary school is close enough

Small playgrounds near every dwelling

Streets within the neighborhood are a connected network and provision of

pedestrian routes

Streets are relatively narrow and shaded by row of trees.

Buildings in the neighborhood center are placed close to the street, creating a well-

defined outdoor room

Parking lots and garage doors rarely front the streets.

Certain prominent sites at the termination of street are reserved for civic buildings.

The neighborhood is organized to be self-governing.

REFERENCE

http://www.feweb.vu.nl/gis/ModellingLand-UseChange/ExerciseVonThunen.pdf

http://www.planning.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/6700/gardencity_values.pdf

http://urbanplanning.library.cornell.edu/DOCS/howard.htm

https://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/casa/pdf/paper20.pdf

http://evstudio.com/the-neighborhood-unit-how-does-perrys-concept-apply-to-modern-day-

planning/

http://www.itpi.org.in/files/jul10_11.pdf

http://www.slideshare.net/macshivalkar/patrick-geddes-theory

http://id2125cl.pbworks.com/f/linear_city.PDF

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omer%20Hoyt%20Model%20Project.pdf

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Teach-Us/

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_Lecture%204_-_The_City_Beautifule_Movement_-_Fall_2011.pdf

http://www.azdema.gov/MIF%20Website%20Files/smartgrowth/pdf/p&zchapter2.pdf

http://www.citylab.com/politics/2012/06/birth-zoning-codes-history/2275/

http://www.livability.com/topics/community/why-every-city-needs-neighborhood-design-

center

http://www.botsfor.no/publikasjoner/Litteratur/New%20Urbanism/About%20New%20Urb

anism%20by%20Robert%20Steuteville.pdf

http://www.dpz.com/Projects/7903

http://thecharnelhouse.org/2014/06/03/le-corbusiers-contemporary-city-1925/