MODERN TOWN PLANNING THOUGHTS

PALLAVI \ LAKSHMI \ RENJITH \ IRIN \ GOUTHHAM \ ANLIN

• American architect and Urban planner

• With his colleagues he founded the Regional

Planning Association of America in 1923
envisioning widespread reform of U.S. planning
and design practices, focusing on high-density
urban housing and the residential subdivision.

• His designs were successful in great part

because of their emphasis on the landscape.

• Stein participated in several of the most

influential housing complex designs of the 20th
century, including the "garden city" plans for
Sunnyside Gardens in Queens, New York;
Radburn, New Jersey; Chatham Village in
Pittsburgh; and Baldwin Hills Village Los
Angeles.

• In 1921, he and Henry Wright developed a

partnership rooted in Ebenezer Howard’s
"Garden City" ideals of safe, community-based
housing.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT

• During World War I, the US government assumed responsibility for

the housing of workers in war industries.

• Two agencies were created to implement this program: the Housing

Division of the Emergency Fleet Corporation & the United States
Housing Corporation.

• During this period, many were producing monotonous rows of cheap

& poorly planned single family houses & apartments.

• Studies by Henry Wright & Clarence Stein demonstrated the need for
complete analysis of all costs that enter into housing.

• They went one step further, demonstrated the superiority of the

dwellings rather than the tandem arrangement to which the usual
row house had degenerated.

• They showed how the group house improved land planning, in

comparison with detached units and their wasteful side yards.

• These architects contributed much to the enlightenment in planning

that emerged in the 1920s & early 1930s.
CLARENCE STEIN’S GARDEN CITIES
 During the early 20th century, architects Clarence Stein and Henry Wright founded the Garden city movement
in the United States. Their purpose was to design viable communities as a solution to the complex problems
faced by the nation as it was being transformed into an urban society by the technological advances of the
Industrial Revolution.
 Designs dealt with solving the recurring problems of an urban society— high density, lack of affordable
housing, and a compromise in the quality of life for the common man.

PRINCIPLES
 Communities built on open, undeveloped land just outside city limits.

 Green belts around the community.

 Specialized highway system.

 Separate pedestrian and automobile traffic.

 Planned attractive shared open spaces, it was hoped that their surroundings would subtly mold and direct
people toward socially progressive aims and greater involvement in the community.
 Ample access to fresh air, light, and recreational facilities.

 Park space flows into the neighborhood

SUNNYSIDE GARDEN OF QUEENS,
NEW YORK

 A seventy-seven acre low-rise development, was

constructed from 1924-1929.
 Selected northwestern Queens due to the large amount of
available land there. In addition, the area's bucolic nature
and separation from the city served as an ideal setting for
this kind of development.
 Kept square-footage to a minimum, Stein allowed for lower
land prices while still maximizing amenities for residents.
 Separate 3.5-acre park built exclusively for the use of
Sunnyside Garden’s residents.
 1,200 moderately priced units were built on a series of 12
courts.
 That construction made up 28 percent of the site, leaving
the remainder for communal open space.
MAJOR ELEMENTS :
 It has central courtyards where families could gather.
 Brick row houses, a majority of the units, were
arranged on superblocks and built in the Colonial
Revival or Art Deco styles, featuring a variety of
setbacks and rooflines for visual interest.

BUILDING DESIGN:
 To maximize light and air, most of the development
was built in the form of row houses no higher than
two and a half stories.
 To maximize open space in the interior of the block,
the buildings were set close to the sidewalk, but with
varied setbacks that permitted small front gardens;
instead of driveways and individual garages for each
house, a two-story parking facility and a block of
single garages were located at the community's edge.
COMMON GARDENS:
 Each block was designed around landscaped,
central courts, taking the form of either a
series of quadrangles running down the
center of the block, or a set of U-shaped
areas opening on one side of the block.

PRIVATE GARDENS:
 In addition to a small front garden, each house
was given a 400 to 500 square foot private
garden in the rear
LANES AND PATHWAYS:
 Public walkways were laid out to traverse the blocks from street to street and to provide access to the
common gardens and the rear entrances of homes.

COMMUNITY PARK:
 Created a three and a half acre private park with play areas, a baseball field, and clay tennis courts,
the largest private park in the city.

RADBURN, NEW JERSEY

ARCHITECTS- Clarence Stein and Henry Wright

BUILT IN - 1929

POPULATION-There are approximately 3100

people - some 680 families living in Radburn.

HOUSING-Housing consists of 469 single family

homes, 48 townhouses, 30 two family houses, a
93 unit apartment complex and 10 condominium
units
RADBURN CONSISTS OF :
 Residential areas

 149 acres of interior parks

 Walkways

 Swimming pools

 Tennis courts

 Playgrounds

 Archery plaza & a school

 Outdoor basketball courts

 A community center,which

houses administative offices,

library, gymn, clubroom,
service & maintainance
areas.
ELEMENTS
 The design of the Radburn neighbourhood model was is a hierarchical
levels.
 Enclave

 Block

 Superblock

 Neighbourhood

 Enclave
 The enclave have 20 or more houses.

 Houses are arrayed in a U formation about short vehicular street

called a lane ,really a cul-de-sac court with access to individual
garages.
 Front of the house have the garden.

Enclave
Block
3 or more enclaves lined together to form a block.
The enclaves in the block are separated by pathways which
ran between front gardens.

Superblocks Blocks

The clustered 5 blocks to gether is termed as a superblock

which are linked with central parkways.

Neighbourhood
4 to 6 superblocks that are bounded by major roads or
natural features.
The road network is also in a hierarchical order that is major
traffic roads, to border the neighbourhoods,distributer
roads to surround superblocks,and culs-de-sac to each
individual property lots.

Superblock
SEPARATION OF PEDESTRIAN AND
VEHICULAR TRAFFIC:
 This was accomplished by doing away with the traditional
grid-iron street pattern and replacing it with an innovation
called the superblock.
 To maintain the separation of pedestrian and vehicular
traffic, a pedestrian underpass and an overpass, linking the
superblocks.
 The system was so devised that a pedestrian could start at
any given point and proceed on foot to school, stores or
church without crossing a street used by automobiles.

SUPERBLOCK :
 The superblock is a large block of land surrounded by main
roads. The houses are grouped around small cul-de-sacs,
each of which has an access road coming from the main
roads
.
PARK AS BACKBONE OF THE
NEIGHBORHOOD :
 The 2900 residents of Radburn share 23 acres of interior parks, which
yield 345 square feet / person.
 The Plaza Building is Radburn’s only neighborhood shopping center,
and its tall clock tower has been a neighborhood landmark since 1927.
 Badburn works as a garden city and a wonderful example of a well
designed community because every piece is integrated perfectly into
one body
 Another innovation of Radburn was that the parks were secured
without additional cost to the residents. The savings in expenditures
for roads and public utilities at Radburn, as contrasted with the normal
subdivision, paid for the parks

LAYOUT OF HOUSING UNIT :

 The houses were oriented in reverse of the conventional placement on
the lot.
 Kitchens and garages faced the road, living rooms
and bedrooms turned toward the garden.
 Pathways provided uninterrupted pedestrian access
to a continuous park strip, which led to large
common open spaces within the center of the
superblock.

Impact of the Redburn idea

As the country struggled out of the Depression, the
influence of the Redburn Idea was first reflected in
the various Greenbelt communities of the
Resettlement Administration later in Los
Angels,Kitmat.B.C etc…

The idea then showed in England and later in Sweden

It has spread since to Chandigarh India ; to Brazil ;

towns of Russia and sections of Osaka,Japan

Japanese community have exact duplicate of

Redburn.
 CONCLUSION

 Compared to contemporary developments

the garden city plan is more safer, orderly,
convenient, spacious and peaceful .
 The garden city introduced the use of
greenbelts that have served many uses
including the preservation of agricultural
and rural life,nature and heritage
conservation, recreation, pollution
minimization and growth management.
 Garden city tradition endowed urban
planning with a social and community
dimensions.
 The garden city idea however, showed how
both industrial estates and collective
retailing spaces could be used within a
comprehensive planning approach to serve
public purposes.
THANK YOU