Garden Cities Notes

Late 19th-century industrial cities criticized for issues like overcrowding and disease.
Ebenezer Howard (1850–1929) proposed the Garden City in 1902 in his book "Garden Cities of To-Morrow."
- Key Features:
- Towns of 30,000 to 60,000 combining urban and rural life.
- Emphasis on clean air, greenery, infrastructure, cultural institutions, and diverse employment.
- Integration of agriculture and industry in a compact urban format.
- Railway transport connects cities for efficient circulation of goods and people.
The evolution of urban planners who began focusing on collective benefits and lobbying investors, contrasting with ministerial officials' regulatory roles.

First garden cities initiated by British industrialists in late 1880s-1900s:
- Examples:
- Port Sunlight (1888), developed by the Lever brothers.
- Letchworth, initiated by Howard in 1899 through First Garden City Limited.
Formation of garden city associations in other countries (Germany, France, Belgium) between 1902-1914, leading to the International Federation for Housing and Town Planning (IFHTP) in 1913.
Professional associations led to international networking and impacted land use regulation.

Hans Kampffmeyer’s classification of garden cities into three scales:
- Garden Cities: Larger towns (~30,000 residents) with housing and manufacturing sites (e.g., Letchworth).
- Garden Villages: Smaller clusters (~3,000 residents) focused on single production plants (e.g., Port Sunlight).
- Garden Suburbs: Suburban developments that emphasize dwellings and urban amenities (e.g., Le Logis Floréal, Brussels) without extensive agricultural land.
Common characteristics:
- Predominantly low-rise semi-detached houses with gardens.
- Urban models featuring public transport and community facilities.

Importance of landscape design exemplified by Le Logis Floréal by Louis Vander Swaelmen.
- Integration of topography and communal green spaces.
- Differentiated pathways and communal spaces to foster neighborhood identity.
Emphasis on non-speculation and cooperative property as core garden city principles.

Motivation for non-speculation: ensure land value growth benefits the community, not individual owners.
Howard’s Model:
- Community ownership of land with options for renting or cooperative selling.
- Rental income supports infrastructure development and social insurance.
Kampffmeyer's Model:
- Advocated municipal land reserve to redirect land value increases to the public sector.
- Proposed zoning plans ensuring public and private green space.

Advocated collectivization of domestic labor for modernization (e.g., Cooperative Quadrangle).
Contrast between Howard's collective household vision and feminist critiques by figures like Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Gilman's model of communal living aimed to empower women through shared domestic labor and professional childcare.
Garden city planners' views were often limited by contemporary gender norms, perceiving women's economic dependency as a given.

Emergence of cooperative garden cities in Belgium (1919-1922) during post-WWI reconstruction.
National Society for Cheap Housing provided support for housing cooperatives until 1922 when government support shifted to owner-occupation.
Influential urban planning debates fostering spatial development through land use regulations.
Historical context of Belgian housing policies promoting home ownership, which led to sprawling urban landscapes.
Growth of infrastructure supporting owner-occupied homes at the expense of cooperative developments.

While cooperative garden cities like Le Logis Floréal showcased effective urban design, broader political and social paradigms ultimately favored individual home ownership.
Important to recognize historical implications of garden city concepts within colonial and antisemitic frameworks.This shift not only influenced urban planning practices but also reinforced socio-economic disparities, as the focus on private property often marginalized community-led housing initiatives.