Industrial City and Its Critics Lec #8 Flashcards
What is a modern urban planning a response to?
the industrial city!
What were the 19th century Industrial cities like?
- terrible conditions, death, economic reduction
-physical and social disorder
-pollution and smoke from industry, crowded conditions - poorly-paid wage labourers made up a class that was feared due to unrest and potential revolution
- “Dark satanic mills” says William Blake
-“coketown” written by Charles Dickens
What are Ralph’s 4 predecessors of urban planning?
1) Municipal by-law movement
2) picturesque town movement
3) company towns
4) Haussman’s reconstruction of Paris
What is the municipal law movement?
fire and safety regulations common many Cs before the 19th century
Building regulations doorway and window height regulations –> led to cookie cutter homes
What was the picturesque town movement?
inspired by Camillo Sitte’s book on town-building as a work of art
thinks towns should be a series of concretions, picking up patterns of existing streets and housing layouts and extending them
What are company towns?
Paternalistic towns that were built by companies to produce a satisfied and productive workforce
ex) Pullman, IL
What was Haussman’s reconstruction of Paris?
most common example of construction in mid-19th century
A COMPLETE REBUILD
Destruction of the medival street designs and replaced with broad avenues
Focusefd on health and sanitation (installation of sewage and water systems)
Also a form of social control –> broad streets good for moving troops
What were the two main movements of 20th C urban planning?
City Beautiful Movement
Garden City Movement
Explain the City Beautiful movement
Created by Daniel Burnham
Associated with Columbia World’s fair in Chicago, 1893, believed in full rebuilds and inspired by greek and roman temples
Used in capital cities
MAIN IDEA: beautiful landscape produces good cities and cities are visual spectacles,
Top down focus, used master plans
What was the Burnham plan of Chicago?
first use of a MASTERPLAN
Wanted radial street layout with grid overlayed, increase heights, and change location of civic buildings (to the centre).
Tree-lined, broad streets, uniform building height
Why did the city beautiful movement peter out?
no cities had the money to fully rebuild
too many regulations
rejection to industrialism (?)
Burnham ignored advancements in industry (more powerful division of urban life) and technology (new tech to build high rises)
What is an example of the influence of the city beautiful movement?
Olympic stadium in montreal built in 1976
Explain the garden city movement
A contemporary of city beautiful, created by Ebenzer Howard
More focused on new cities, not rebuilding old ones
Views cities as places to live–> the “humanscape”
Not uniform style, fan of unity and completeness, influenced by pictuesque town movement
Still top down plan, meant to be for small towns which is why it is commonly used as suburbs
Embraced technology, transportation, and industry
What does a typical garden city look like?
There is communal gardens, laundry, and kitchens, tree-lined streets, industry at the edges of town, central area is called a “crystal palace” (like a shopping mall)
“The best combo of city and country”, urban settlement with ideals of pastoral life
What is the first garden city?
Letchworth, UK
Town of Mount Royal
real estate to support construction of railroad, more of a corporate suburb or a garden suburb
influenced also by city beautiful from its radial streets
What are neighbourhood units?
created by Perry who thought kids shouldn’t have to walk too far to school, thought they would solve traffic issues
1) The unit’s size depends on amt of houses required to support school
2) boundaries should be arterial roads
3) open spaces should be 10% of area
4) school and other institutions should be at centre
5) local shops should be located at periphery of neighbourhood near arterial roads
6) internal street system has varied layout, only wide enough streets for local traffic
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What are some issues with neighbourhood units?
creates urban islands, separated by busy roads,
usually social centres are actually near boundary
age structures change and schools have to close
What is the Radburn principle?
separating pedestrian and automobile areas
- Radburn was a new town conceived in the Garden City tradition
created due to rising car ownership
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What is the superblock?
a large expanded city bock where city-through traffic is super limited
What are some issues about the radburn principle?
not walking friendly
very private
not communal
