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Building history
Published in Duncan Marshall, Derek Worthing, Roger Heath, Nigel Dann, Understanding Housing Defects, 2013
Duncan Marshall, Derek Worthing, Roger Heath, Nigel Dann
In 1898, Sir Ebenezer Howard inspired the Garden City Movement with his book Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform. A social and political reformer, he argued for a self-contained city for 32,000 people planned on a concentric pattern of open spaces, public parks and greenbelt, plus six radial boulevards and better-quality housing for the working classes. From 1904, he developed Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire, although the final design was more ‘organic’ and less symmetrical than Howard’s original proposals. The next Garden City was not developed until after the First World War (Welwyn Garden City, again in Hertfordshire, in 1919) and further Garden Cities have subsequently been developed in the UK and elsewhere in the world.
A menu of case studies
Published in David Thorpe, ‘One Planet’ Cities, 2019
Ebenezer Howard was a British socialist reformer and the founder of the Garden City movement, whose idea was to provide “a web of solutions as to how we could live, from energy and local food to access to green space and health care”. In the 19th century, Howard founded the Garden City Association, which became the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA). Finance for the cities came from rich investors who received interest from rents. He tried to obtain financial support from working-class co-operative organisations but didn’t succeed. As a result he had to ditch his plans for a co-operative ownership scheme with no landlords, and introduce short-term rent increases.
“Imagine ahead - plan backwards”: melding critical infrastructure planning with strategic foresight
Published in Journal of Mega Infrastructure & Sustainable Development, 2019
The concept of healthy towns and cities, of course, is not new; even the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians understood the relationship between the built environment and the health of the population. Meanwhile, Ebenezer Howard’s “Garden City” movement at the end of the nineteenth century has its origins in a public health response to the vicissitudes of the rapid urbanisation occasioned by the industrial revolution. Today, the idea of a healthy town or city focuses on creating a process that engages all of the different stakeholders - municipal government, the private sector, community sector, faith sector, and so on - to develop a shared purpose and focus on creating a healthier environment for citizens. Strategic foresight is starting to play a vital role worldwide in this, demonstrating repeatedly through evocative scenarios the extent to which civic infrastructure plays such a massive part in the health of urban areas. Transport options, access to clean water, efficiency of solar systems and waste treatment plants, and the location and type of power generation facilities, all influence the health of the local population. So to do the design and location of development projects such as residential and commercial developments, shopping malls, sports complexes and parks. Hard infrastructure influences health outcomes and, to this end, megaprojects are capable of delivering significant improvement.