MODULE 02

PLANNING THEORIES OF POST-INDUSTRIAL AGE

Contributions by
Ebenezer Howard, Lewis Mumford, Patrick Geddes, Clarence
Stein, Clarence Perry, C. A. Doxiadis and Le Corbusier
to town planning.
Post INDUSTRIALIZATION
Post-industrial society is the stage of society's
development when the service sector generates more
wealth than the manufacturing sector of the economy.
 Mid- and late 19th century

Rapid population growth

Unfettered business enterprise
Great speculative profits
Public failures in development

Giant sprawling cities

Exhibiting the luxuries of WEALTH and the meanness of POVERTY in

sharp juxtaposition
Jacob Riis: photograph of a New York City tenement Shelter for immigrants in a New York City tenement, photograph by Jacob Riis, 1888.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no. 3a18572)
Corruption and exploitation of the era gave rise to the Progressive movement,
of which city planning formed a part.
The slums, congestion, disorder, ugliness, and threat of disease provoked a
reaction in which sanitation improvement was the first demand

Public health resulted in water supply and sewerage development

It cause further growth of urban populations.
Ebenezer Howard
To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform (1898), the description of a
utopian city in which people live harmoniously together with nature.

In 1902 it was reprinted as Garden Cities of To-Morrow.

Ebenezer Howard

Howard started his career as a stenographer in London.

Failed farming efforts done in America, discovered he did not wish to be a farmer.
He then relocated to Chicago and worked as a reporter for the courts and newspapers.

By 1876 he was back in England, where he found a job with Hansard company, which produces the official
verbatim record of Parliament, and he spent the rest of his life in this occupation.

Howard's time in parliament exposed him to ideas about social reform,

and helped inspire his ideas for the Garden City.
Ebenezer Howard
Founder of the English garden-city movement, which
influenced urban planning throughout the world.

In this book he proposed the founding of GARDEN CITIES, a self-sufficient entity—not a dormitory suburb—of
30,000 population, and each ringed by an agricultural belt unavailable to builders.

• Attempted to reverse the large-scale migration of people from rural areas and small towns to cities
• Rural districts with the economic opportunities and the amenities of large industrial cities.
• Each garden city would be owned by a private corporation.
During his lifetime two garden cities
were founded:
Letchworth (1903)
Welwyn (1920).
They served as prototypes of the new
towns organized by the British
government after World War II.
Garden Cities of To-morrow was based
on ideas of social and urban reform. Town
Garden Cities were to avoid,

• Downfalls of industrial cities

• Urban poverty Country
• Overcrowding
• Low wages
• Dirty alleys with no drainage
• Poorly ventilated houses
• Toxic substances & dust TOWN -
• Carbon gases COUNTRY
• infectious disease
• Lack of interaction with nature.
UTOPIAN VISION- TOWN & COUNTRY MAGNETS

JOYOUS UNION & NEW LIFE & NEW CIVILIZATION

 TOWN COUNTRY TOWN-COUNTRY

Garden Cities of To-morrow was based on

ideas of social and urban reform.
UTOPIAN VISION- TOWN & COUNTRY MAGNETS

TOWN (such as opportunity, amusement

and good wages) & COUNTRY(such as
beauty, fresh air and low rents)
JOYOUS UNION & NEW LIFE & NEW CIVILIZATION
 TOWN-COUNTRY

Town Offered beauty of nature, social opportunity,

The pull of ‘Town Magnet’ are fields of easy access, low rent, high wages and
the opportunities for work field of enterprise.
and high wages, social
opportunities, amusements Thus, the solution was found in a combination of
and well – lit streets. the advantages of Town and Country.

‘Town – Country Magnet’

Country
The pull of ‘Country Magnet’ is
It was proposed as a town in the Country, and
natural beauty, fresh air,
having within it the amenities of natural beauty,
healthfulness. It was closing
fresh air and healthfulness.
out of nature, offered isolation
of crowds and distance from
Thus advantages of the Town – Country are seed
work. It offered low rents and
to be free from the disadvantages of either.
low wages.
Society be reorganized with
networks of garden cities
that would break the strong
hold of capitalism and lead
to cooperative socialism.

MODEL FOR SUBURBAN

DEVELOPMENT

Suburban towns of limited

size, planned in advance,
and surrounded by a
permanent belt of
agricultural land.
Some of the important features
are,
Accommodate 32,000 People
6,000-acres of land used
1000 acres of towns

5000 acres permanent green belt

Concentric pattern with radial
boulevards, proportionate area for
Industry, residences and agriculture.

Self sufficient, cluster of several

garden city as satellite of one
central city, linked by road and rail.
USE OF GREEN BELT
• Preservation of agriculture & rural life
• Nature & heritage conservation
• Recreation
• Pollution minimization & Growth management
CORE PRINCIPLES OF GARDEN CITY
• Strong Community
• Ordered Development
• Environmental Quality
PRINCIPLES OF GARDEN CITY

• Co-operative holding of land to insure that the advantage of

appreciation of land values goes to community, not the
private individuals.
• Economic and social advantages of large scale planning
• Establishment of cities of limited size, but at the same time
possessing a balanced agricultural industrial economy
• Urban decentralization
• Use of surrounding green belt to serve as an agricultural
recreational area.
• Contains open spaces and gardens around all dwelling houses and factories
• Has a population neither too small nor too large
• City owned by all citizen on a cooperative basis
• It is an independent entity having its own civic life and affording all daily
needs with adequate spaces for schools and other functional purposes
The main features of Howard’s scheme
were:

• At the center of the city would lay a

garden ringed with the civic and
cultural complex including the city hall,
a concert hall, museum, theatre, library,
and hospital.

• Central park enclosed with a glass

palace as an arcade for indoor shops &
garden

• Six broad main avenues would radiate

from this center.
• Concentric to this urban core would be
a park, a combination shopping
center and conservatory, a residential
area, and then, at the outer edge,
industry.

• Traffic would move along avenues

extending along the radii and
concentric boulevards.
• Streets for the houses are formed
by a series of concentric ringed
tree lined avenues
• Accommodation of residents,
industry, and agriculture within the
town.
• Grand avenue(420 feet wide)
houses houses and school and act
as a continuous public park
• Distance between each ring 3- 5km
• Industries, factories & warehouses
at its periphery
• Municipal railway, closer to
industrial ring
• Natural rise in land values to be
used for the town’s own general
welfare.
• Planned Dispersal & Planning
Control
• Town and Country Relationship &
Neighborhoods
Letch worth Garden City
The first garden city developed in 1903 based on a population of 30000 . It is 34
miles away from London. It has an area of 5000 acres with 3000 acres of green belt.
Communal ownership of the land and the permanent green belt has been carried
through. It was a town of homes and gardens with ample open spaces and a
spirited community life. A great attention was paid to landscaping and planting.
Communities ranged from 12000 – 18000 people, small enough which required no
vehicular transportation. Industries were connected to the central city by rapid
transportation.

Welwyn – It was the second Garden City founded by Sir Ebenzer Howard and
designed by Louis De Soissions in 1920 and was located 20 miles from Kings Cross. It
was designed for a 4000 population in 2400 acres. It was a town visually pleasing
and was efficient technically and was human in scale.
Had a parkway, almost a mile long central mall
Town laid out along tree-lined boulevards with Neo Georgian town center
Every road had a wide grass verge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gLa4wAia9g
Sir Patrik Geddes ………………..Father of modern town planning

Sir Patrick Geddes (2 October 1854 – 17 April 1932)

Scottish biologist, sociologist, geographer & philanthropist.

First to link sociological concepts into town planning

Pioneers of the concept of town and regional planning.

He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban

planning and sociology.

He introduced the concept of "region" to architecture and

planning and coined the term "conurbation.
Geddes advocated the civic survey as indispensable to urban planning:
his motto was "diagnosis before treatment". Such a survey
should include, at a minimum, the geology, the geography, the climate,
the economic life, and the social institutions of the city and region.
CONCEPTS & THEIR INFLUENCES

GEDDESSIAN TRIAD(NOTION OF LIFE)

Geddes states his understanding of 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.
• In human terms this can be
understood as a place acting through
climatic and geographical process
upon people act, through economic
processes such as farming and
construction on a place and thus
shape it. Thus both place and folk are
linked through the work and in
constant transition.
CONCEPTS & THEIR INFLUENCES

REGIONAL PLAN (VALLEY SECTION)

illustrated the application of trilogy of
work/place/folk to analyze the region.

• First illustrated the idea during 1909.

• Physical geographies as a
determinant of pattern of human
settlement
• The region is expressed in the city
and the city spreads the influence of
the highest level into the region.
• It takes a whole region to make a
city.
• Complex & inter related relationship
between humans and their
environment.
CONCEPTS & THEIR INFLUENCES

DIAGONOSTIC SURVEY
• Geddes advocated the civic survey as indispensable to urban planning
• Critical of that form of planning which relied overmuch on design & effect
and which neglected the existing set of conditions and the context.
• Emphasis on local survey and context
• Sequence for development of a region should be as follows.
Regional survey
Rural Development
Town Planning
City Design
CONCEPTS & THEIR INFLUENCES

CONSERVATIVE SURGERY
• Conservative surgery means amending or improving an urban
quarter by minimizing the destruction of existing buildings
• Consequences like the expulsion of the former inhabitants are
avoided
• Can be viewed as a prefigure to the work of seminal urban
thinkers such as Jane Jacobs
• CONCEPTS & THEIR INFLUENCES

CONSTELLATION THEORY
• It takes a whole region to make the city (Cities in Evolution, 1915)
• Group of important cities coming together for developing an
entire region
• Maharashra as an example: Mumbai- Economic and capital city,
Aurangabad - Administrative capital, Noida - Religious city,
Nagpur-Political city, Pune-Educational important city
• Cities which are economically socially politically not equal come
together to develop a whole region.
CONCEPTS & THEIR INFLUENCES

CONURBATION
• Coined the word(Cities in Evolution, 1915)
• NCR Delhi as an example
• Draw attention to the ability of new technology of electric power
and motorized transport to allow cities to spread and agglomerate
together.
• Conurbation is a region comprising a number of cities, large towns
and other areas link through population growth and physical
expansion have merged to form one continuous urban and
industrially developed area.
• Transportation has developed to link area to create a single urban
labor market or travel to work area in a conurbation.
Sir Patric Geddeis Work in India
His 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,
cultural and physical environment.
• 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.
Lewis Mumford
American historian, sociologist, philosopher, and literary critic.
THE CITY IN HISTORY, THE CULTURE OF CITIES
• Born in Flushing, NY (1895)
• Mumford taught and held numerous
research positions.
• He received the U.S. Medal of Freedom
(1964) and was decorated Knight of the
Order of the British Empire (1943).
• Historian-sociologist who studied cities and
architecture
• English utopian planner and advocate of
garden cities
• Give the concept of an organic city
• Rationalize how planning has various discipline
• Analyzed the effects of technology and urbanization on human
societies
• Ebenezer Howard, inspired Mumford toward an active role in city and
regional planning. He helped organize the Regional Planning
Association of America (1923) and served as special investigator for the
New York Housing and Regional Planning Commission, beginning in
1924.
• He advocated the conservation of "green belts," with self-contained
cities supporting residence, work, markets, education, and recreation.
• Proposed the idea of developing new cities on a pedestrian's scale with
organic coherence among the urban functions.
By creating we think, by living we learn’ Patrick Geddes (1854-1932),
used his Place-Work-Folk diagram to show that knowledge of these inter-
relationships is necessary for the re-creation of city-regions.
Physical design & economic functions are secondary to a city’s relationship to the natural
environment & spiritual values of human community.

Many housing plans are handicapped because those who undertook the work did not understand the social function of a city.
 • Mumford became an associate editor of
the Dial (1919) and wrote
architectural criticism and urban
commentary for The New
Yorker magazine from 1931 to 1963.

• Mumford’s early writings, established

him as an authority on
American architecture, art, and urban
life as interpreted within their larger
social context.

Mumford was friends with City Beautiful advocated

Frank Lloyd Wright, Clarence Stein and Federic Osborn.
• The four books in Mumford’s “Renewal of Life” series are: Technics and
Civilization (1934), The Culture of Cities (1938), The Condition of Man (1944),
and The Conduct of Life (1951).

• In these works Mumford criticized the dehumanizing tendencies of modern

technological society and urged that it be brought into harmony with
humanistic goals and aspirations.

• Mumford thus fostered a regionalist vision in which the automobile,

electricity, and other new technologies would help transform congested cities
into balanced and decentralized communities
The City in History

From his 23 books, the most prominent in city

planning is THE CITY IN HISTORY, a sweeping
historical study of the city’s role in human
civilization.

In his book, he pointed out how technology and

nature could be harmonious

Cities originate, how they grow and transform, and

what we can expect future cities to look like.

He also comments on how the ideal city is when

vision and goals meet reality.
• Mumford also saw science and technology as positive forces in history.
• Technology would usher in an era of material abundance, but
maintained that such promise would be fulfilled only if technology
were subject to social democracy and wise regional planning.
• The Great Depression, however, raised grave doubts, in response to
which he argued for new institutions and revitalized values to redirect
technology to human ends.
• Among Mumford’s late works is The Myth of the Machine, 2 vol.
(1967–70), a harshly critical historical reassessment of technology’s
role in human development.
• A critic of the dehumanizing effects of technology, he nevertheless believed in the
need for large-scale regional, even national, plans.
• (Founding-member of the Regional Planning Association that sponsored the
Garden City complex of Sunnyside Gardens, Queens, NYC, and also worked for the
New York, Housing and Planning Commission)

• Mumford was an early advocate of World War II, but the loss of his son in the war,
the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the ensuing
nuclear arms race left him a fading hope "that a moral transformation may alter
the fateful course of technological development" (Hughes and Hughes 1990, p. 6).

• Many of his later works betrayed a growing pessimism that science and
technology were fundamentally irrational and dangerous, which led him to
challenge the equation between rationality and modernity

• Mumford appeared to despair that his cautious utopian vision of an organic

culture was at odds with an increasingly mechanistic post-World War II society.
Polytechnics versus monotechnics
Technology was twofold:
•Polytechnic, which enlists many different modes of technology, providing a
complex framework to solve human problems.
•Monotechnic, which is technology only for its own sake, which oppresses
humanity as it moves along its own trajectory.

Three epochs of civilization

Division of human civilization into three distinct epochs (following concepts
originated by Patrick Geddes):
• Eotechnic (the middle ages)
• Paleotechnic (the time of the industrial revolution) and
• Neotechnic (later, present-day)
What is a NEIGHBOURHOOD UNIT?
Neighborhood: sub-divisions of urban or rural settlements. It is the vicinity in
which people live.

Lewis Mumford presented ‘neighborhood’ as a ‘fact of nature’, which comes into

existence whenever a group of people share a place.
Clarence Perry
a major proponent of the "Garden City
movement“ in US.
Ideals of safe, community-based housing.
In the 1920, Growth of cities and rise of automobiles were affecting the neighborhood

Need of human scale neighborhood in modern world

Need of 20th century Urban Planning
A diagram of Clarence Perry's neighborhood unit, illustrating the spatiality of the
core principles of the concept, from the New York Regional Survey, Vol 7. 1929
6 basic principles of good neighborhood design.
• 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

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

major street intersections.
Clarence Stein
Proponent of the "Garden City movement“ in US.
Ideals of safe, community-based housing.

Wright, Lewis Mumford, and other colleagues, Stein founded the Regional Planning
Association of America in 1923 envisioning widespread reform of U.S. planning and
design practices, focusing on high-density urban housing and the residential subdivision.
Urban design principles of Stein
and Wright included the idea of
a superblock of residential units
grouped around a central
green, the separation of
vehicles and pedestrians, and a
road hierarchy with cul-de-sac
for local access roads.

A cluster of superblocks was to

form a self-contained
neighborhood. A group of
neighborhoods would then
comprise the city.
• Clarence Stein placed the elementary school at the center of the
neighborhood unit and within ¼ mile radius of all residents.
• A small shopping center for daily needs is located near the school.
• Most residential streets are suggested as cul-de-sac or ‘dead-end’
roads to eliminate through traffic,
• Park space flows through the neighborhood

• He further expanded the definition of neighborhood center by

connecting the neighborhoods together to create towns.
RADBURN MODEL
CONSTANTINOS A DOXIADIS

"What human beings need is not utopia ('no place') but entopia
('in place') a real city which they can build, a place which satisfies
the dreamer and is acceptable to the scientist, a place where the
projections of the artist and the builder merge."
Born 1913
Architect of Islamabad, Designed more than 40 cities
Worked as a Chief Town Planning Officer, Greater Athens
Head, Department of Regional & Town planning Ministry of public works, Greece
• Introduces EKISTICS(Coined 1942) Planning theory; aimed to propose
radically new approach to urban and regional planning
• Science of Human settlement
• Ekistics: Science which illuminates the problem of human settlement and
define the way which architecture must go.
• Ekistics, will take into consideration the principles man takes into account
when building his settlements, as well as the evolution of human settlements
through history in terms of size and quality.
• The target is to build the city of optimum size, that is, a city which respects
human dimensions.
• Since there is no point in resisting development, we should try to
accommodate technological evolution and the needs of man within the same
settlement.
EKISTICS UNITS
EKISTICS LOGARITHAMIC SCALE
EKISTICS ELEMENTS
EKISTICS FUNCTION
EVOLUTIONARY PHASES
BY FACTORS & DISCIPLINE
According to CA Doxiadis, the greatest problem facing by the cities a
worldwide was the problem of managing growth.
He proposed many solutions to leave room for expansion.

Some of his proposals are,

• Limiting all buildings to three levels or less with permission to build
higher, Separating pedestrian and vehicular traffic completely.
• Constructing cities as a beehive of cells, each not bigger than 2x2 km,
the maximum comfortable distance of pedestrian.
 ISLAMABAD: APPLICATION OF DOXIADIS PRINCIPLE
ISLAMABAD was an idea
to create a city of the
future with the concept of
dynapollis, a planned uni
directional city as the only
solution to cope with the
growth of an explosive
urban area, relying on
strong environmental
elements and a synthasis
of townplanning and
architectural principles.
LE COURBUSIER
th
A 20 Ccentury architect and planner
of planetary ambitions.

Born in Switzerland in 1887.

Travelled widely during his youth and finally settled in Paris.
Founding father of modernist movement.
• He was also a self-proclaimed
town-planner.

• His building designs celebrated in

architectural history and theory.

• He was the first planner to express,

in his writings and projects, the
importance of high density
concentrations, the city centers, to
the functioning of a mechanized
highly populated society.

• His separation of traffic according

to speed and function was an early
recognition of the growing
importance of the automobile in
urban design, but in his earliest
designs this is overemphasized to
the detriment of the pedestrian
and the visual effect of the city-
scape.
In the context of utopian city and city planning, Le Corbusier is one of
the pioneers who introduced the idea of living in a city that is actually
planned, designed and then built. He forced people to think what it
will be like to live in an environment that is predetermined. Ultimately
he succeeded in actually building such kind of an environment.
• Le Corbusier succeeded soon due to his perfect perception of the great
problems of the contemporary cities.

• His approach to urban planning concepts developed during two decades of

the 20th century, and it was presented for the first time in the L’Espit Nouveu
articles, and next in his book Urbanisme in 1925.

• Due to the fact that his urban theory evolved gradually over years, we can
divide it into several stages: “Contemporary City” theory, “Radiant City”
theory and “Linear City” theory.
 Contemporary City

• Le Corbusier’s first foray into urban planning was the Contemporary City
(Ville Contemporaine), a universal concept for a city of 3 million: a central
business district of 24 identical glass skyscrapers on a 400-yard grid with
broad park space between them. He thereby aims to increase density
while decreasing congestion: 95 percent of this area would be open, and
include various squares, restaurants and theaters.
• Each skyscraper includes a tube station, part of a complex transportation
system comprised of as many as half a dozen layers of distinct types of
traffic, including highways raised above the ground and a central
aerodrome for air taxis.
• Housing would be in similarly geometric low-rise buildings around this
center, plus Garden Cities outside a protected ring of woods, fields and
sporting grounds (reserved for expansion).
Radiant City

Designed in the 1920s by Le

Corbusier, “Radiant City” was
to be a linear and ordered
metropolis of the future. It was
ambitious, a blueprint not only
for a more rational urban
environment but also for radical
social reform.

ideal city was abstractly

inspired by the arrangement
and functions of the human
body. Like a living organism, it
consisted of organized parts
that would work together as a
whole.
The basic strategy behind these various schemes was to create vertical
architecture and leave plenty of shared open space in between for people to use
and enjoy. The resulting horizontal areas would serve as traffic corridors as well as
public landscapes with lush greenery. Pedestrians, cyclists, drivers and public
transportation users were given dedicated routes to get around, set up (or down)
at various elevations.
Everything in the Radiant city would be symmetrical and standardized. At
the center, a business district would be connected to separate residential
and commercial zones via underground transit. Prefabricated housing
towers would serve as vertical villages with their own rooftop kindergartens
and playgrounds. Apartments would have views out onto shared public
spaces. Residents would enjoy peace and quiet, separated from industrial
districts.
Principles of Radiant City
“The Plan must rule.
Disappearance of the street.
Differentiation between simple and multiple
speeds.
What to do with LEISURE in the machine age;
leisure could turn out to be the menace of modern
times.
The use of land in town and country.
The dwelling unit considered as part of the public
services.
The green city.
The civilization of the automobile replacing that of
the railroad.
Landscaping the countryside.
The radiant city.
The radiant countryside.
The decline of money.
The basic pleasures: satisfaction of psycho-
physiological needs, collective participation and the
freedom of the individual.
The rebirth of the human body.”
Le Corbusier created the general layout of this new Indian city, separating it into
different functional sectors (or “urban villages”). He also worked on key
structures, including the High Court, the Palace of Assembly, the Secretariat and
a series of Open Hand sculptures. In the end, he wasn’t entirely pleased with the
outcome, in part because he had to work with others who had competing visions.
Still, Chandigarh arguably represents his most complete urban achievement.