To what effect has Sir Ebenezer Howard's concept of a garden city influenced future design? by Tom Eddison

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TOM EDDISON

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Contents

“To what effect has Sir Ebenezer Howard’s concept of a garden city influenced future design?” References

Illustrations & Further Reading

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In the year of our Lord 1876, the ‘Great Depression’ was just beginning to take a hold on the British populace. Spanning three decades, this unprecedented depression caused massive decreases in industrial profits and agricultural production, and ultimately irrevocably altered Britain’s economic direction. It was in this year that young Ebenezer Howard, a utopian economist and small scale inventor, stepped off a boat in Southampton after a five year sojourn in America, to return to his home in London’s Barbican to begin work on what would eventually become his concept for a ‘garden city’. At the time, London was in a state of social and intellectual turmoil. A series of disastrous harvests blighted the rural economy; agricultural production plummeted, and the harvest of 1879 was the worst of the century. This led to massive rural depopulation as country folk flocked into the cities, exacerbating living conditions as the streets became ever more congested. Selwyn Parker describes the condition of Glasgow during the Great Depression as the worst in Europe: “…nearly 85,000 people were squeezed into… soot-blackened tenements in which half a dozen families might share one outside privy… Most of the dwellings were within sight and sound of the belching smoke stacks, and the crashing and clanking of heavy industry.” (Parker, 2008: p72). Ebenezer Howard

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The effect of this rural exodus was even more dramatic in London. In the decade 1871-1881 alone the population of Greater London rose by nearly 900,000 (The Times, 19th Oct 1898). Thus, propelled by the current economic condition, Howard set about conceptualising a society in which the positive aspects of the ‘Town’ might be combined with those of the ‘Country’, creating what he termed the ‘Town-Country’. In his book ‘Garden Cities of Tomorrow’ Howard illustrates his theory using a diagram known as ‘The Three Magnets’.

Fig 1: The Three Magnets from Garden Cities of Tomorrow (1902)

Possibly the most infamous of his illustrations, The Three Magnets summarises the physical, social and economic objectives of Howard’s garden city movement in a brilliant analogy. The intention was that ‘if he achieved this ideal, the people would, given free choice and mobility, flock to the town-country magnet like iron filings’ (Miller, 1989: p14.). Certain terms mentioned in his diagram, such as ‘Slums and Gin Palaces’ and ‘Social Opportunity’, have since acquired a certain Dickensian overtone, but this does not detract from the overall point that Howard is arguing, of which most points considered for the Town-Country idyll are still attributes that we would consider attractive today. The way to achieve this Garden City ideal, Howard deduced, was to build an entirely new town in the middle of the countryside, ‘outside of the sphere of the big city, where land could be bought at depressed agricultural land values’ (Hall & Ward, 1998: pp19-20.). 5

The scheme was a medium density proposal, a one-and-a-half mile diameter circular town rich in picturesque gardens and public parks. It would be set with an upper limit of 32,000 residents and surrounded by agricultural fields to inhibit urban growth and to provide basic foods for the community. Writing in his only published work, ‘To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Social Reform’ (later re-written under the title ‘Garden Cities of Tomorrow), Howard speaks passionately about his ideal town: “It is of circular form, about threequarters of a mile from centre to circumference, and is traversed by six main boulevards which divide it into six equal parts or wards. Quite in the centre of the town is a public garden of circular form five acres in extent, and… is surrounded by the chief municipal buildings – town hall, principle concert hall, lecture hall, museum, picture gallery, library, theatre, etc.” The most crucial aspect of Howard’s proposal, however, was not the careful planning of his town; rather it was the very ethics upon which the town was designed. ‘The residents of the Garden City were to collectively own the land, capturing long-term profits from rents to feed into a trust fund to provide for community needs’ (Alexander, 2009: p59.). This is essentially a localised antecedent to the modern welfare state of today, and is revealing of Howard’s socialist beliefs, but this ideal in reality proved much harder to accomplish than on paper, as shall be disA.C

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cussed in the subsequent paragraph. Howard’s Garden City concept finally came into realisation in 1903 when he founded the company ‘First Garden City Ltd.’ and held a competition to design a town which could translate his ideas into reality. Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin won this competition with their proposal for Letchworth Garden City. In keeping with the ideology of the garden city, only one tree was felled during the building of the entire town, and the agricultural zone on the outskirts became the first ever ‘green belt’ in Britain. Let us consider momentarily the effect that this has had on the country; Howard’s green belt spanned 2,023 hectares in 1903, today there are 1,639,560 hectares of green belt land in England alone, an increase of 81,000 per cent (BuildingLandUk, 2010). Letchworth became the prototype for other such projects as Welwyn Garden City, again applying Howard’s principles. He played an essential role in the creation of both towns, but was ultimately disappointed with the outcome. He regarded the projects as merely ‘poky experiments’, as neither Unwin nor Parker had realised many of the aspects Howard considered fundamental to his garden city ideal. . For instance, his communityowned land scheme had to be compromised by the need to attract private investors in order to start off the construction of the town, who in turn then demanded a return back for their investment. Howard’s social utopia quickly fell apart, exacerbated by the

Fig 2: Over London by Rail, Gustave Dore, (1832) - displaying the advance of the Industrial Revolution and the squalid conditions of the urban environ

influx of Belgian refugees fleeing from the Great War, who at one point constituted 30 per cent of the total population of Letchworth (Carr, 1995). Letchworth was not a complete disaster though. The principles with which it was constructed have helped to influence in the design of many major towns and cities. His book became a central inspiration for Le Corbusier, whose geometrical Radiant City concept clearly derives from Howard’s radial garden city.

Fig 3: Garden City, Ward and Centre from Garden Cities of Tomorrow (1902)

As well as Le Corbusier and the modernist planners of the 20s and 30s, Howard influenced several movements such as the Arts and Crafts and Art Deco styles. In many ways the newly built Accordia Housing in Cambridge bears similarities to the first garden city of Letchworth, home of the Arts and Crafts movement. Both developments utilised the expertise of multiple architects to create cohesive yet differing architectural styles. Accordia features numerous communal quadrangles and green spaces, a key feature in the first garden cities, and a diverse range of modernist houses and apartments to accommodate various social classes. . Its exclusivity and ‘kerb appeal’ however, dictates the house prices (which soar to nearly £1million for a 4-bedroom home) which distinctly segregate the classes into zones dictated by the house type they can afford. Letchworth differs in this respect, with a seemingly random array of one- and two- bedroom flats, and two- and three- bedroom cottages 7

constructed to house both upper working and lower middle class families. These dwellings were built to be ‘of the most varied architecture and design that ingenuity and individuality can suggest’ (Hall & Ward, 1998: p22.). Howard’s influence spread rapidly throughout Europe in the 1900s. In less than two decades, France, Germany, Russia, and many other smaller countries had begun construction on their various interpretations of the ’Garden City’. The problem was, however, that Howard’s ethics of a garden city were largely misinterpreted, and subsequently almost all European developments based upon Howard’s principles, however sophisticated they may have been, were actually garden suburbs. Henri Sellier adopted certain principles from Letchworth in his 1916 design of sixteen Cités-Jardins around the city of Paris. These satellite settlements encircled Paris and were connected to commuter train lines; a typical suburban setup. Similarly, in Germany, construction began in 1908 on a ‘German Letchworth’ called Hellerau, lying barely five miles outside of Dresden at the end of a tram line. In Copenhagen in 1948 their answer to metropolitan growth was restricting outward spread of a city to certain finger-like protrusions, continuous corridors of growth, emerging from the city centre. In barely 40 years, then, Howard’s proposal of an ideal garden city had been utterly debased; applied to individuals’ specific needs without consulting the ethical princiA.C

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ples behind his design, and the resulting developments are certainly exempt from consideration as garden cities. Despite this, though, it is clear of the influential effect that Howard’s garden city has had on the development of European towns. But can Howard’s ideal garden city ever become a reality? In 1969 visionary futurist and social economist Jacque Fresco started development of a new city concept called the Venus Project. His underlying ambition with the project is to design a city which can utilise the principles of a Resource-Based Economy, another of his creations, proposing that ‘many of the dysfunctional behaviours of today’s society stem directly from the dehumanising environment of a monetary system’ (Fresco, 1969). The answer to this issue lies in creating a total abundance of products freely available to the populace, thereby reducing the products’ worth to zero. He claims that with an abundance of technology there would be no need for jobs, as all trades would be automated. With an abundance of food production there would be no need to buy produce, and with enough resources there would be no need for money. As Fresco states, ‘abundance will set us free’ (Fresco, 1969).

Fig 4: Le Corbusier’s Radiant City design, with different zones highlighted (1935)

This city concept bears incredible similarities to Howard’s garden city ideal. Note the striking initial parallels between the two town plans, the radial shape providing shortest access routes to any part of the city. The central node is concerned with cultural and 8

community events, then radiating from this span specific zones such as residence and industry, followed by an agricultural band and finally a massive recreational green belt surrounding the city limits. All these factors are coherent with Howard’s design proposal, and the moral ethics applied to the Venus Project would no doubt satisfy Howard’s socialist beliefs. Conclusively, then, Howard’s concept of a garden city has had profound effects on the future of design, be it from the formation of new architectural styles such as the Arts and Crafts movement, to the inspiration of future influential architects as Le Corbusier. Howard’s concept has aided in the creation of over 1.6million hectares of green belt land in England, and inspired the principle to be applied throughout European cities, in albeit transmuted terms. His work has led to the development of ever more utopian concepts, and has prompted the research into resource-based economies, arguably a potentially attainable goal requiring ‘only the intelligent application of what we already know’ (Fresco, 2007). Ultimately Howard’s concept changed the course of modern architecture and town planning, changing the face of the British town and suburb despite his garden city ideal never actually being accomplished.

Fig 5: Plan of the Venus Project, design bby Jacque Fresco (2007)

References

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Alexander, A., (2009), Britainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s New Towns: Garden Cities to Sustainable Communities (Oxon & New York: Routledge).

Beevers, R., (1988), The Garden City Utopia: A Critical Biography of Ebenezer Howard (London: Macmillan Press).

Carr, B., (1995), Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society, newsletter, August.

Creese, W. L., (1966), The Search for Environment â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Garden City: Before and After (New Haven & London: Yale University Press).

Fresco, J., (1969), Looking Forward (South Brunswick and New York: A.S. Barnes).

Fresco, J., (1969), Designing the Future (Florida: Venus Project, Inc.).

Filler, R., (1986), A History of Welwyn Garden City (Southampton: Camelot Press)

Hall, P., (1988), Cities of Tomorrow (Oxford: Blackwell).

Hall, P. & Ward, C., (1998), Sociable Cities: The Legacy of Ebenezer Howard (West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons).

Howard, E., (1946), Garden Cities of Tomorrow (London: Faber & Faber).

Miller, M., (1989), Letchworth: The First Garden City (Sussex: Phillimore).

Illustrations & Further Reading List of Illustrations Fig. 1:

Dore, G., (1832), Over London by Rail. [Etching] sourced from Letchworth: The First Garden City

Fig. 2:

Howard, E., (1902), The Three Magnets. [Pencil drawing] from Garden Cities of Tomorrow

Fig. 3:

Howard, E., (1902), Garden City, Ward and Centre. [Pencil drawing] from Garden Cities of Tomorrow

Fig. 4:

Le Corbusier, (1935), Radiant City [Image online] Accessible at: <http://www.flickr.com/photos/8haron/3453317559/>

Fig. 5:

Fresco, J., (2007), The Venus Project Plan [Image online] Accessible at: <http://www.thevenusproject.com/>