The Garden Cities of Ebenezer Howard

In England, in the late nineteenth century, with the tremendous growth of the urban population, Ebenezer Howard came up with an innovative proposal: join the advantages of town and country in one space, thus creating a space with better quality of life for the residents. With major influences of the Arts and Crafts period, the garden cities of Ebenezer Howard were successful when executed and they influenced buildings worldwide.

Howard, with his proposal, intended to resolve the problems arising from urbanization, such as poverty, homelessness, garbage collection, water and sewage networks, unplanned housing, pollution, lack of entertainment, and the destruction of the environment. He believed that the integration of town and country would ensure the combination of the advantages of urban living and quality of life of the field.

The theory was proposed by the publication of the book Garden Cities of To-morrow. The author proposed more than harmony between man and nature, in fact he introduced a policy to maintain the social balance, threatened by the sordid conditions of urbanization of English folk layers during the nineteenth century. This concept of urbanization beyond plan forms, functions, financial and administrative resources of an ideal, healthy and beautiful city mainly considers the satisfaction of the masses, controlling their concentration in metropolitan centres. Initially, Howard uses diagrams to warrant the creation of a garden city.

This diagram shows the advantages of country life and city life, also showing the disadvantages, then makes the combination of the two and mount one place with advantages. This diagram, better known as "The Three Magnets" also brings people in the center and just below the question "W...

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...n urban areas. These two cities have failed to achieve the autonomy that Howard wanted and eventually became cities of London.

The concept of garden cities ended up not applicable, which meant they had the opposite effect than was intended, the suburbanization. Even the attempt to approach the countryside became not applicable and ended up being replaced by new modern architectural models. These models made use of the entire area for the construction of buildings, aiming the practicality, since the urban population kept growing and so did their requirements.

It's important to realize that an integrated life between town and country is quite possible and that the first step has been taken with the proposals of Howard. But as all pioneer projects, the Garden Cities also has its points that do not apply and should be rethought to have greater applicability nowadays.