Friday, March 18, 2005

Planned Communities

4:57 pm Simon

Communities are planned and created all around the world. My work on Northstowe brought me back to something I was fascinated by a while back when I found out about the original plans for EPCOT. Northstowe is just one of many, albeit the first for a long time. This List of planned cities shows it's hardly a new idea. In fact...



Ancient


It has been shown that as early as 1287 there were British planned towns- one was created to house the residents of Winchelsea who were made homeless by floods.



But long before that civilisations were planning and structuring their living enviroments in a very sophisticated manner. Take a look at the Indus' water management!



Garden Cities


In fairly recent modern history however there have been a number of moves by governments to construct better living enviroments. One such plan was the brainchild of Ebenezer Howard and became known as the Garden City. The first of these was Letchworth, but many more followed.



New Deal


Whilst Garden Cities really took off in the UK, they were developed elsewhere too. Under the New Deal America took to planned communities with a vigour not seen elsewhere; its plans were very idealistic.



EPCOT


Disney's EPCOT, known at the time as both Project X and The Florida Project (They knew how to name things back then) was originally going to be the next step in Garden Cities. Very much a child of the '60s, EPCOT (Experimental Prototype City Of Tomorrow) was to be the sci-fi town we've all seen; monorails, no crime, the latest technology, tunnels for cars, groceries, etc. Walt died before it could be built, but after he announced it- so Disney had to build something. What they built was the theme park that bears the city's name.




Greater London Plan & the New Towns


Again powered by one man's vision, this time a gentleman named Sir Patrick Abercrombie, the document named Now We Must Rebuild: The Greater London Plan, 1944 proved to be a spur to build new towns- the ones we now call New Towns. Not all sucessful- I'm looking at you, Peterlee and Milton Keynes- they nevertheless were an improvement on the rubble that was left towards the end of the war.



Model villages


Not all improving measures were government-sourced. Philanthropists Such as Salt, Cadbury and Lever created whole worlds around their factories, housing those they employed. Often religiously minded, they controlled the lives of their workers in a fashion that would be frowned upon today in the West, but continues to this day when you take into account places such as Disneyworld's staff villages. The model villages provided workers with a comfortable lifestyle totally unlike their peers of the time- even if they couldn't get a pint in a local pub.



Modernism / Brutalism


One of the most misunderstood and (currently) hated architecture forms, Modernism as architecture is actually the child of modernism as town planning. Modernism held a belief in the rigid geometric structure as the ideal form for cities and for buildings- Le Corbusier famously saw the building as a machine for living. Butalism was what happened when the stark, beautiful buildings were translated into English and became souless, ugly boxes. Mind you, Modernism is coming back into fashion- are you ready for another Tricorn Centre? Some are willing to defend the original...






New Urbanism


Urban planning hasn't really had another 'movement' since modernism until the late '90s. New Urbanism is the backlash against suburbia and particulary the sovereignty of the car.



Modern (80s+)


Not all recent constructions follow the New Urban plan. As I mentioned above, 'classic' Urbanism is still alive and well; it just now goes under the names of Urban Regeneration or 'Doughnut Theory'.



  • BedZed BedZed is an example of a sustainable lifestyle- every factor possible has been analysed to try to reduce energy wastage

  • Urban Splash Not everyone believes that Urbanism is dead- this company are responsible for a lot of the regeneration in the more slummy ends of Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham. Very nice, their places are, too!

  • Prince Charles' Poundbury Even Charlie's turned his hand to it- Poundbury's designed on the principles of high-density, low-rise, low-population; that is, old-fashioned village.



Follies


Of course, Not everyone who goes about designing a community is trying to change the world...



Other


Many other resources, examples, fictional versions and blogs here.


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