The Garden City: Past, present and future

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, an interesting phenomenon began to emerge within planning circles across parts of the Western world: a renewed interest in the garden city concept. Despite the dominant political trend of the 1980s—shifting away from collectivist solutions and state-led planning toward market-driven urban regeneration—the garden city idea quietly returned to the planning agenda.

In Britain, this revival has been particularly striking, marked by a surge of enthusiasm among private housebuilders, a wave of conferences, numerous professional and promotional reports, and even official statements. To underscore its cultural relevance, the theme was even wittily captured and satirized by the renowned novelist John Mortimer (1990). However, the scale of this British resurgence remains unique; no other country has witnessed such momentum, though similar signs can be observed in parts of Europe and beyond.

Some of this trend might simply reflect commercial exploitation of the garden city’s historic credibility and legitimacy for profit in property development—Mortimer’s fictional “Fallowfield” town is largely portrayed in this light. Nostalgia for old diagrams and terminology also contributes. Yet beneath these surface elements lies something more profound. A review of the emerging social and environmental priorities in Western societies at the close of the 20th century reveals how closely they align with principles of the garden city movement. These include a growing rejection of large metropolitan areas, a preference for small-town living and working, a desire for genuine community engagement, and, importantly, a commitment to a new ‘green’ lifestyle—all of which reflect widely shared social values.

Although few people today would explicitly define these aspirations in terms of the garden city, the full realization of such values implies something very similar to it. If this reasoning holds true, the garden city concept—whether under its original name or a different one—appears poised to play a much stronger role in planning debates during the 1990s than it has in many decades.

The risk, however, is that these debates may occur with limited awareness of what the garden city truly represents and the diverse traditions that stem from it. Historically, discussions on the garden city have often been marred by ideological disputes over the legitimacy of various interpretations. This book seeks to avoid such partisanship and instead aims to inform and broaden current debates by examining the origins, evolution, and diversification of the garden city idea.

Source:

https://files.fm/f/uqhr9twuxk