An investigation into the applicability of the Garden City principles to a 21st Century Britain

Today in the UK we face a housing crisis and public health crisis amidst a global climate emergency. Houses are getting smaller and more expensive due to outdated land value laws and the growing culture of residential investment buying. Most new builds are situated on sprawling suburban estates which force car dependency and remove community bonds. This is not healthy or sustainable.

This research aims to support the rethinking of our current housing provision and provide policy makers with a greater understanding of what the solution to the housing crisis, public health crisis and climate emergency could be.

In 1898, Ebenezer Howard outlined his Garden City model, which combined the employment opportunities of the city with the healthy environment of the countryside. But this was not just an urban design model; it incorporated socio-economic principles for creating sustainable communities.

There has been a resurgent interest in the Garden City model over the last 15 years from central government, with support for a new series of garden cities announced by the Prime Minister in 2012. Building new towns can be controversial and affects many lives, so it must be done right, through well-informed policies.

This research investigates how the Garden City model could be applied to the 21st Century, through three questions:

1) What is a Garden City?
The Garden City name has been misused over the years, so I have defined the principles from a re-reading of Ebenezer Howard’s original manifesto. I have examined the evolution of the movement since its inception and where misinterpretations might have arisen, along with addressing criticisms of the movement.

2) What issues face the UK today and what are the solutions?
These key issues examined are the housing crisis, public health and wellbeing, and sustainability. Academic solutions for them are compared against the Garden City principles to assess how well the model meets the needs of the 21st Century.

3) How does the model translate from theory to practice?
A case study of Letchworth and Welwyn Garden Cities examines how well the model was translated to reality at the time of construction and how well the towns perform today in relation to current issues. This outlines issues with the use of urban models, how Garden Cities might be built today in the UK and how successful they could be.

The model is capable of alleviating some of the major issues facing the UK today, although is not the only solution. Common misinterpretations have lead to suburban estates being wrongfully branded as Garden Cities. I find difficulties in translating the theoretical to reality, with compromise a necessary part of development, which is common of all models. Garden Cities constructed today will be more likely to succeed if the socio-economic principles are prioritised over physical form. This opens a wider debate into how we design places, where the process and social goals are prioritised over the implementation of physical urban models.