Introduction
This essay wishes to examine to what extent are planners utopian and how has utopian planning varied over time. It will begin by taking a look at the development of utopianism over time. Next, it will examine how utopian thinking was brought into planning and its social background. Then, by looking at how utopian ideas were developed and manifested in cities, readers can have a clear understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of utopian planning and how it has influenced our society. Finally, the essay will discuss about the major critiques of utopian planning.
What is a utopia?
In 1516, Thomas More first described a fictional society in Greece to be a "utopia" in his written masterpiece, Utopia. The word “utopia” if directly …show more content…
The haunting and repulsive images of poverty, deprivation and alienation associated with the Victorian industrial cities provided the stimuli for the production of many utopian schemes.
The first utopian cities in the UK
In the 19th century, utopian planning generally took the form of industrial villages. An example would be Robert Owen’s experiment at New Lanark in Scotland in 1800. Soon after, others such as Titus Salt, William Lever and George and Richard Cadbury followed suit and built Saltire, Port Sunlight and Bournville Estate respectively.
Bournville estate was one of the later industrial villages developed by the Cadbury brothers in 1893 that was influenced by the garden city movement. They bought 120 acres of land close to their factory and planned a model village which would alleviate the poor living conditions that many labourers during that time endured. In 1900, the Bournville Trust was set up to formally control the development of the estate, independent of the Cadbury brothers or the Cadbury …show more content…
The city would have both quiet residential neighbourhoods and facilities for full range of commercial, industrial and cultural activities. His goal was to alleviate the spatial concentration of the massive urban population in industrial cities through decentralisation from the slums where the living condition was dreadful and the land was expensive. Hence, he did not regard the garden city as a specialised “satellite town” or “bedroom town” that served a metropolis. His ultimate goal was that no longer would a single metropolis dominate a whole nation nor would giant companies of big industrial cities continue to rule modern society. Instead, the urban population would be distributed among hundreds of garden cities whose small-scale and diversity of functions would guarantee everyone a higher standard of life (Fishman,
This essay wishes to examine to what extent are planners utopian and how has utopian planning varied over time. It will begin by taking a look at the development of utopianism over time. Next, it will examine how utopian thinking was brought into planning and its social background. Then, by looking at how utopian ideas were developed and manifested in cities, readers can have a clear understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of utopian planning and how it has influenced our society. Finally, the essay will discuss about the major critiques of utopian planning.
What is a utopia?
In 1516, Thomas More first described a fictional society in Greece to be a "utopia" in his written masterpiece, Utopia. The word “utopia” if directly …show more content…
The haunting and repulsive images of poverty, deprivation and alienation associated with the Victorian industrial cities provided the stimuli for the production of many utopian schemes.
The first utopian cities in the UK
In the 19th century, utopian planning generally took the form of industrial villages. An example would be Robert Owen’s experiment at New Lanark in Scotland in 1800. Soon after, others such as Titus Salt, William Lever and George and Richard Cadbury followed suit and built Saltire, Port Sunlight and Bournville Estate respectively.
Bournville estate was one of the later industrial villages developed by the Cadbury brothers in 1893 that was influenced by the garden city movement. They bought 120 acres of land close to their factory and planned a model village which would alleviate the poor living conditions that many labourers during that time endured. In 1900, the Bournville Trust was set up to formally control the development of the estate, independent of the Cadbury brothers or the Cadbury …show more content…
The city would have both quiet residential neighbourhoods and facilities for full range of commercial, industrial and cultural activities. His goal was to alleviate the spatial concentration of the massive urban population in industrial cities through decentralisation from the slums where the living condition was dreadful and the land was expensive. Hence, he did not regard the garden city as a specialised “satellite town” or “bedroom town” that served a metropolis. His ultimate goal was that no longer would a single metropolis dominate a whole nation nor would giant companies of big industrial cities continue to rule modern society. Instead, the urban population would be distributed among hundreds of garden cities whose small-scale and diversity of functions would guarantee everyone a higher standard of life (Fishman,