Town Planning Concepts

SRM SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

Town planning

CT. Lakshmanan Asst. Professor (Selection Grade) SRM University

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TOWN PLANNING & HUMAN SETTLEMENTS Prerequisite

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Nil PURPOSE To develop an appreciati reciation on of the planning issues involved invol ved at the scale of a town or or a city. city. INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES To expose the students to the history and development of planning, its relevance & application to modern day principles of tow t own n planning. UNIT 1 INTRODUCTION TO TOWN PLA PLANNING NNING AND PLA NNING CONCEPTS 22 Definit Definitions ions of town planning, planning, levels of planning and steps for preparation of a town plan, plan, survey survey techniques in planning, concepts, functi functions, ons, components components and preparation preparation of a development plan. Planning concepts related to garden city, geddesian triad, neighbourhood planning, radburn layout, ekistics, satellite towns and ribbon development. UNIT 2 ANCIENT SYSTEM OF TOWN PLANNING IN INDIA 9 Indus valley civilization - Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Extracts from Chanakya’s Arthasastra, manasara’s Vastushastra, planning thought behind Fatehpur sikhri, sikhri, Shahjahanabad, Jaipur and Delhi Delhi UNIT 3 LE CORBUSIER’S CONTRIBUTION TO TOWN PLANNING Selected examples to include concentric city, radiant city, CIAM, linear industrial city and Chandigarh

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UNIT 4 ZONING AND DEVELOPMENT DEVEL OPMENT CONTROL 4 Concep Concepts ts in Regional and Me Metr tropo opolit litan an planning, land subdivision regulations and zoning, nature of regu r egulati lations ons and control, the comprehensive role of urban design in town planning process. process. UNIT 5 INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN SETTLEMENTS SETTL EMENTS 4 Introduction to human human settlem settlements, ents, growth and decay of human human settlements, influence influence of socio-econ socio-econom omic ic fac f actors tors in the the development of human settlements

TOTAL 45 TEXT BOOK 1. Text book of Town of Town Planning, Planning, A.Bandopadhyay, Books and Allied, Calcutta 2000 REFERENCE BOOKS 1. John Radcliff Radcliffe, e, An An Introduction to Town Town and Country Country Planning, Planning, Hutchinson Hutchinson 1981 2. Art Arth hur B. B. Gallio lion and Simon Eisn isner, Th The Urba rban Patte ttern – City planning and Design, Design, Van Nostrand Reinhold company 3. Rangwala, Town Planning, Planning, Charotar publishing house 4. G.K.Hiraskar, Town Planning 5. Rame Gowda, Urban and Regional planning 6. S.K.Khanna, Highway Engineering, Engineering, C.E.G. Jhusto, Nemchand & Bros. Bros. Roor Roorkee 1997 7. N.V.Modak, V.N.Ambedkar, Town and country planning and Housing, orient longman, 1971

Notes on Town Town planning and Human settlements settlements

Compiled by CT.LAKSH CT.LAKSHMANAN MANANb.arch., b.arch., m.c.p.

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What What i s Town planning? 

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The art and science of ordering the use of land and siting of buildings and communication routes so as to secure the maximum practicable degree of economy, convenience, and beauty. An An atte ttempt to form formulate late the the pri prin nciple iples s tha that sh should guide ide us us in in crea reating ting a civil iviliz ize ed ph physica ical background for human life whose main impetus is thus … foreseeing and guiding change. An An art art of shaping ing and guidin iding g the the phy physica ical grow rowth of of the the tow town cre creatin ting bu build ilding ings and environments to meet the various needs such as social, cultural, economic and recreational etc. and to provide healthy conditions for both rich and poor to live, to work, and to play or relax, thus bringing about the social and economic well-being for the majority of mankind. Planning is a process of helping a community, identify its problems and its central values, formulating goals and alternative approaches to achieving community objectives, and avoiding undesired consequences of change. This process of planning results in frameworks for coping with change. Some are physical elements such as streets, roads, and sewer lines. Some are concepts that serve as guides to action, such as the goal of becoming a major distribution center or of encouraging investment in the core of the city. Some are regulatory, reflecting the desires of the community to encourage good development and discourage bad development.

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“A city should be built to give its inhabitants security and happiness” – Aristotle

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“A place where men men had a comm common life life for for a noble end” – Pl Plato ato

What What do pl anners do? 

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Planners deal with tthe he fact that that human commu communit nities ies are always in the the process process of chan changing. ging. The consequences of this change can be chaotic and destructive, or enhancing. It is the planner's task to help communities cope with this steady growth, change, and renewal in ways that will maintain-and improve-the community's quality of life. Planners recognize the complexity of communities. As with natural environments, human commu communit nities ies are streng strengtthened hened by diversit diversity. One task is to to help help com communit munitiies become become even even more diverse, broadening the variety of employment, educational, cultural, entertainment, shopping, and housing opportunities and promoting a broad range of land uses, income levels, and types of people. Another task is to help communities deal with the clashes of interest produced b by y such variety variety and and turn these differences differences into a posit positiive force for constructive change. Planners share a concern about the future, a belief that something can be done about bettering our human-made and natural environments, and the recognition that planning, with relevant implementing tools, is the best method available for communities to achieve this.

Notes on Town Town planning and Human settlements settlements

Compiled by CT.LAKSH CT.LAKSHMANAN MANANb.arch., b.arch., m.c.p.

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Ai ms an d obj ecti ves o f to wn p lanning The main objectives of the town planning may be summarised in three words viz. Health, Convenience and Beauty 1. Health : 

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To create and promote healthy conditions and environments for all the people – rich and poor, to live, to work, to play or relax To make right use of the land for the right purpose by proper division of land called zoning such as residential, commercial industrial, institutional and recreational etc. in order to avoid the encroachment of one zone upon other for smooth and orderly development of the town or city without causing future conflicts.

2. Convenience : 

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The object of convenience is meant in the form of various needs of the community such as social, economic, cultural and recreational amenities etc. Public amenities required for the proper upkeep of the citizens include water supply, sanitation, electricity, post, telegraph, gas etc., proper sites for industrial, commercial, business enterprises to encourage them in trade with cheap power, transport services, drainage etc. Recreational amenities include open spaces, parks, gardens and playgrounds, for children and town halls stadiums, community centers, cinema houses, and theatres for adults.

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To preserve the individuality of the town by developing it on its most suited natural conditions To preserve the aesthetics in the design of all elements of town or city plan, which includes preservation of trees, natural greenery, improved types of domestic buildings and buildings of civic dignity and beauty, architectural control on public as well as semipublic buildings, ancient architectural buildings, temples, churches, mosques and buildings of cultural and historical importance.

PLANNING PROCESS: All stages of actions from defining the objectives till implementation and review of any planning project in the planning process. In plan preparation, the physical planning should associate with the socio-economical, geographical, political factors, for achieving the objective in desired direction. The various stages of planning process are as follows: 1. Identification and definition of problems 2. Defining the objectives 3. Studies and survey 4. Analysis of data and preparation of study maps 5. Fore-casting 6. Design 7. Fixation of priorities 8. Implementation 9. Review, evaluation and feedback Notes on Town planning and Human settlements

Compiled by CT.LAKSHMANANb.arch., m.c.p.

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1. Identification and definition of problems : Various problems with reference to the results obtained by studies and surveys and with reference to the objectives are identified

2. Defining the objectives : Here the objectives of the planning are identified. The general objectives of any planning of urban area is  To regulate growth to nullify the bad effects of past growth   to improve the transportation facilities to optimize the resources utilization  to balance population and economic activities  to promote social integration among different categories  to promote a convenient comfortable, beautiful and healthy environment.  3. Studies and survey : The following studies and surveys are taken up for plan preparation. Identification of growth (physical, economical, social, cultural, institutional, administrative and political) Identification of trend and direction of growth  Traffic survey  Study on demography  Climate  Resources and other potentials  Certain surveys and studies have to be made directly where as for study of demography etc. the secondary sources of information have to be depended upon. 4. An alysis of data and prep arati on of stu dy maps : The data obtained is analysed – observations and conclusions have to be derived out of the studies and surveys. The short-term objectives and long-term objectives are identified – various study maps, charts and graphs are prepared 5. Fore-casting : Period of demographic projection is prescribed. Forecasting of about migration, employment, industrialization and other rapid urbanization possibilities are to be made. 6. Design : This is an important aspect in the planning process. Need to relate existing pattern, interactions and trends is to be examined. Preparation of development plans, formulation of zones, alteration to the existing zoning regulations, widening of roads etc. are made in detail here. Alternatives are also made for effective and quick implementation of plan. The plan should also be able to cope with sudden and unexpected events. Possibility of changing from one strategy to another should be designed at the same time keeping in view its practicability and the total expenditure involved. 7. Fixation of p riorities : Since all the proposals cannot be taken up at one time due to financial and administrative difficulties, priorities should be fixed for taking up the implementation depending upon the importance and urgency.

Notes on Town planning and Human settlements


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8. Implementation : Implementation is the most important stage where all the earlier efforts to prepare plan is to be put into practice to achieve the objectives. The authority, which takes up the implementation, is to fulfill all the required legal obligations in time – zoning regulations, land acquisition for road widening and for other purposes is taken-up. 9. Review, evaluation and feedback : The work of implementation has to be monitored by taking – up periodical inspections and obtaining review reports. Feedback is essential periodically. The plan should be flexible for modifications depending upon the necessities. WHAT IS URBAN AND RURAL IN INDIA? Census of Indi a defines an Urban Area as (i) all places with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee; (ii) all other places which has features as (1) a minimum population of 5000; (2) at least 75% of the male working population engaged in non- agricultural pursuits and (3) a density of population of at least 400 persons per sq. km. and predominantly urban way of life (urbanism) Apart from urban area & urban agglomeration rest is considered as Rural Area. Census Classificatio n of Cities and Towns Class of Cities/Towns

Range of Population

Class I

100,000 and above

Class II

50,000 to 99,999

Class III

20,000 to 49,999

Class I

10,000 to 19,999

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5,000 to 9,999

Class VI

Below 5,000

Source: Report of National Commissio n on Urbanization, vol. One

Energy consumption of settlements leads to harnessing thermal and hydel power from large distances at times causing degradation in sensitive areas.

Energy Consumption Pattern in different Era Source: Solar Architecture - an Indo-German initiative, Proceedings of the international worship, 1995



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TYPES OF SURVEYS Surveys can broadly be divided into two categories depending on the area upon which they are to be conducted. They are: REGIONAL SURVEYS They are those surveys, which are done over a region dealing with PHYSICAL FACTORS like topography, physically difficult land, geology, landscape etc. PHYSICAL ECONOMIC FACTORS like agricultural value of the land, mineral resources and water gathering lands, areas with public services, transportation linkages etc. SOCIAL ECONOMIC FACTORS like areas of influence of towns and villages, employment, population changes etc.  

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TOWN SURVEYS They are done at much small scale and apart from the above data collected from the regional surveys it also includes LANDUSE SURVEYS DENSITY SURVEYS SURVEYSFOR THE AGE AND CONDITION OF THE BUILDINGS TRAFFIC SURVEYS OTHER SOCIAL SURVEYS For conducting proper survey, primarily relevant enquiries should be framed in the form of questionnaires for presentation, when required.     

TECHNIQUES OF SURVEYS Of the various techniques of surveys that are followed, the four listed below are most prominent 1. self surveys (i.e. mailing questionnaires to the persons to be surveyed ) 2. interviews (i.e. by asking questions to the people to be surveyed ) 3. direct inspection (i.e. when the surveyor himself inspects the situations concerned ) 4. observers participation(i.e. when the observer himself participate in acquiring the data required ) SCALES FOR STRUCTURING QUESTIONNAIRES The questions that are asked in the questionnaires formed for doing the surveys can be of various types. Some of them ask for general things, some asks for some order of preferences or some give stress to the time interval between two incidents. Thus the scales of the questionnaires are fixed, which can be described as follows NOMINAL where there is no ordering, like asking of sex, age, employment in any particular service etc. ORDINAL where there is a specific order of choices like asking of priorities, housing conditions, climate etc. INTERVAL where an interval of time is given importance like time taken to shift from LIG housing to MIG housing, time interval to change from two wheelers to four wheelers etc. this provides an yardstick of measurements SELECTION OF SAMPLES For conducting surveys, it is not always possible to ask each and every person about his or her opinion. Hence, certain numbers of persons are selected for conducting the surveys and these selected persons are known as ‘samples’ of surveying. The selection of the number of samples is of utmost importance. The basic rules for selection of sample size are as follows:



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1. MORE DISASTROUS THE RESULTS OF POOR INFORMATION, LARGER SAMPLE SIZE IS REQUIRED. That is if the information got are poor (both qualitatively and quantitatively) the analysis done from them will be wrong. Thus, if getting incorrect results have a very disastrous effect on the framing up of the policies of planning; more number of people is to be surveyed. 2. THE MORE VARIED THE EXPECTED RESPONSES, LARGER SAMPLE SIZE IS REQUIRED. That is, if it is expected that there will be various kinds of responses to a particular question, more number of persons are to be asked, as more varied answers will help in getting different ideas of the people through the cross section of the people surveyed 3. LARGER THE TOTAL POPULATION, SMALLER THE PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATION ARE REQUIRED TO BE SURVEYED. That is, if the total population to be surveyed is very large then, even a small percentage of it will amount to quite a large number of samples. Depending on the time available, the money involved and many other things, the number of samples could be restricted by selecting a small percent of the total population. The samples could be selected in various ways depending on the type of information required and the importance of the accuracy of the particular information in the survey process. The various types of selection of samples are 1. SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLING ( selecting samples at random without any criteria to select the samples whatsoever ) 2. SYSTEMATIC SAMPLING (selection of the Kth element along a particular street, where k can be any number ) 3. STRATIFIED SAMPLING ( making of a homogenous listing of the different sects of the population and collecting a certain percentage at random from each sect) 4. CLUSTERED SAMPLING (when samples are selected from clusters and not from a homogeneous listing ) ERRORS IN SURVEYING Getting biased, having errors in measurements, not getting any direct answer are the major errors done in surveys. Thus questionnaires should be framed in such a way so that all the answers received are properly checked. Pilot surveys should also be conducted to check forgery and bias. DIFFERENT TYPES OF PLANS STRUCTURE PLAN: A structure plan is one that singles out for attention of certain aspect of the environment usually the land-uses, the main movement systems and the location of critical facilities and buildings. Such a plan aims to influence certain key vocational decisions while recognizing that there are many other things that can’t and perhaps should not be decided at the outset. COMPREHENSIVE PLAN: The comprehensive plan seeks to combine in one document the prescriptions for all aspects of city development. It includes an analysis of the city’s economy, its demographic characteristics, and the history of its spatial development as a preface to plan for how the city should evolve over 20 year period DEVELOPMENT PLAN means a plan for the development or re-development or improvement of the area within the jurisdiction of a planning authority and includes a regional plan, master plan, detailed development plan and a new town development plan Notes on Town planning and Human settlements


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SIR EBENEZER HOWARD (1850-1928) A well-known sociologist, who after studying the industrialist evils in Britain gave the concept of ‘Garden City’; it soon became the landmark in the history of town planning. He had an idea which he set forth in little book entitled ‘To-morrow’, published in 1898 which later republished under the title of ‘Garden City of To-morrow. He explained his idea of ‘Garden City’ by an impressive diagram of The Three Magnets namely the town magnet, country magnet with their advantages and disadvantages and the third magnet with attractive features of both town and country life. Naturally people preferred the third one namely Garden City. It made a deep impression in the field of town planning. GARDEN CITY A town designed for healthy living and industry. Town of a size that makes possible a full measure of social life, but not larger 

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Land will remain in a single ownership of the community or held in trust for the community. Not a colony, but a complete working city of population about 30,000. A large central park containing public buildings. Central park surrounded by a shopping street. Central park and shopping street are surrounded by dwellings in all directions – at density of 12 families / acre. The outer circle of factories and industries. The whole is surrounded by a permanent green belt of 5000 acres. The town area is of about 1000 acres In 1899, the garden city association was formed. In 1903 – Letch worth started, 35 miles from London, town area: about 500 acres, designed for 35,000 persons, 3,000 acres of green belt. By 1947 it had about 16,000 populations and about 100 factories. In 1920 – Welwyn started 2400 acres, 40000 persons design capacity. By 1947, it had about 18,000 population and 70 factories. By keeping the land in single ownership, the possibility of speculation and overcrowding would be eliminated and the increment of value created by the community in the industrial and commercial (shops) sets would be preserved for it-self. It was a thorough going experiment based on middle-class consumers cooperation Howard’s general principles, including the communal ownership of the land and the permanent green belt have been carried through on both cases, and the garden cities have been a testing ground for technical and planning improvements which have later influenced all English, American, Canadian and Australian planning, particularly in housing.



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SOME APPLICATIONS TO TOWN/CITIES Many of the Howard’s idea were put in practice. For instance, Letch worth is located thirty-five miles from London with a total of land 3,822 acres. A total of 1,300 acres of land has been reserved as a major component of greenbelt for the uses of residences. It was designed for a maximum of 35,000 populations. In thirty years, the town had successfully developed into a garden city with the total of population of 15,000, with more than 150 shops and industries. The second garden city that successfully developed was Welwyn. The site is located 24 miles form London. The site was 2,378 acres and it was designed for a population of 40,000. In fifteen years it had a population of 10,000 with fifty industries. Meanwhile, Howard’s concept for the garden city was a means of controlling the growth of cities through the building series of new towns physically separated from each other and from the parent city. The garden cities were to be self-contained for the needs of the people. The garden city concept has influenced many planners or the first group of new towns built in Britain after the Second World War. For instance, Cumbernauld is the British new town to be built. Such idea of sustainable development is applied in Singapore beginning at the year of 1968. The initial step is to plant as much as greenery as possible to improve the quality of the environment. The concept of Garden City becomes more defined and clearer only in the 1980’s. In Singapore, Garden City is defined as a green, shady city filled with fruits and flowers, a city worthy of industrious people whose quest for progress is matched by their appreciation for the beauty of nature. Trees, flowers and birds within typical garden can soften the harshness of tarmac and concrete.



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PATRICK GEDDES 

A Scot who has been called the father of modern town planning, Geddes did much of his pioneering work in the Old Town of Edinburgh, having made his married home there in 1886. Geddes’ name and spirit are imperishably associated with Ramsay Garden and the Outlook Tower, both in Castle hill.

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Geddes was concerned with the relationship between people and cities and how they affect one another. He emphasized that people do not merely needed shelter, but also food and work, the recreation and social life. This makes the house an inseparable part of the neighbourhood, the city and the surrounding open country and the region. The town planning primarily meant establishing organic relationship among ‘Folk place and work’, which corresponds to triad (Geddesian triad) of organism, function and environment. FOLK i.e. org anism (Soci al aspect) 

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WORK i.e. funct ion (Economi cal aspect)

PLACE i.e. environ ment (Physical aspect)

“Cities in Evolution’ – published in 1915 – essence of the book – city beautiful movement and too many small schemes here and there like garden cities were only poor examples of town planning. In this book he coined the term “Conurbation” to describe the waves of population inflow to large cities, followed by overcrowding and slum formation, and then the wave of backflow – the whole process resulting in amorphous sprawl, waste, and unnecessary obsolescence. True rural development, true urban planning, true city design have little in common and repeating the same over all the three was disastrous and economically wasteful Each valid scheme should and must embody the full utilization of its local and regional conditions Geddes was the originator of the idea and technique of Regional survey and city survey. The sequence of planning is to be: Regional survey o Rural development o Town planning o City design o

These are to be kept constantly up to-date

In 1911 he created a milestone exhibition, Cities and Town Planning, which was studied appreciatively not only throughout Britain but also abroad. From 1920-23 he was Professor of Civics and Sociology at the University of Bombay and in 1924 he settled at Montpellier, in France. He died there in 1932, having been knighted that year.



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The Outlook Tower

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Interpr eter’s House - Index Museum - Sociol ogi cal Labor atory  Patrick Geddes took over the building formerly known as ‘Short’s Observatory’ in 1892.  From the Prospect Roof of the Outlook Tower are spectacular views across the Firth of Forth and the surrounding city region.  Positioned at the top of the Edinburgh’s High Street, it still holds the camera obscura, which refracts an image onto a white table within, for study and survey. A mirror at the top of the dome picks up images and reflects then through a lens which in turn focuses the picture onto a white surface as on a film in a camera.  The tower was conceived as a tool for regional analysis, index-museum and the ‘world’s first sociological laboratory’. It represents the essence of Geddes’s thought - his holism, visual thinking, and commitment to understanding the city in the region.  He said of it: ‘Our greatest need today is to conceive life as a whole, to see its many sides in their proper relations, but we must have a practical as well as a philosophic interest in such an integrated view of life. Hence the first contribution of this Tower towards understanding life is purely visual, for from here everyone can make a start towards seeing completely that portion of the world he can survey. He can also grasp what a natural region actually is and how a great city is linked to such a region.’ Now the tower is home to the Patrick Geddes Centre for Planning Studies, where an archive and exhibition are housed.

PATRICK GEDDES IN INDIA  He came to India in 1915 at the invitation of Lord Pent land, the then Governor of Madras. He gave his expert advice for the improvement of about eighteen major towns in India.  He laid emphasis on “Survey before plan” i.e. diagnosis before treatment to make a correct diagnosis of various ills from which the town suffers and then prescribe the correct remedies for its cure. These are the physical and social economic surveys.  He was the first man who introduced the sociological concept in the town planning. Before coming to India, he had successfully overcome the horrors of Edinborough slums.



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CONCEPT OF NEIGHBOURHOOD UNIT The concept of neighbourhood unit was evolved due to the advent of industrial revolution and degradation of the city environment caused due to high congestion, heavy traffic movement through the city, insecurity to school going children, distant location of shopping and recreation activities; etc. Hence to create a safely healthy physical environment in which children will have no traffic streets to cross on their way to school, schools which are within walking distance from home; an environment in which women may have an easy walk to a shopping centre where they may get the daily households goods, employed people may find convenient transportation to and from work. It is an environment in which a well equipped playground is located near the house where children may play in safety with their friends for healthy development of their mind and spirit. With consideration to all the above physical factor's the Neighborhood concept was evolved. CLARENCE A. PERRY CONCEPTION OF NEIGHBOUHOOD UNIT C.A. PERRY was the first one to specify the physical form of the neighbourhood unit (1872-1944). C.A. Perry described the neighbourhood unit as that populated area which would require and support an elementary school with an enrollment of between 1000 to 1200 pupils. This would mean a population of between 5,000 and 6,000 people. The neighbourhood unit is bounded by arterial roads or other boundaries, with open spaces, school, community centre and local shops, the latter being on the circumference. Most importantly there was no through traffic within the Neighbourhood unit. C.A. PERRY wrote that these principles, if complied with, "will result in a neighbourhood community in which the fundamental needs of family life will be met more completely. The Settlement House movement which began in London about 1885 was the first conscious recognition of the Neighbourhood as a basic unit in the urban structure or planning. Population criteria may vary from place to place but it depends mainly upon the size of the neighborhood unit. In 1972, the American Institute of Architects adopted the neighborhood unit as the recommended "GROWTH UNIT" for future urban growth. The growth unit would range in size from 500 to 3,000 dwelling units (population of between 1,700 and 10,000).

PRINCIPLES OF NEIGHBOURHOOD THEORY 1) UNIT OF URBAN PLANNING It is a unit of urban planning considering population as a criterion to decide the size of a neighbourhood unit, in relation to convenient walking distance to most essential social services as schools for children up to twelve years of age and local shopping centres. 2) STREET SYSTEM Major arterial roads and through traffic route should not pass through residential neighbourhood. Instead these streets should provide the boundaries of the neighbourhood. Interior street pattern should be designed and constructed through use of cul-de-sacs, curved layout and light duty surfacing, so as to encourage a quiet, safe, low volume traffic movement and preservation of the residential atmosphere. The minor streets or development roads, being the means of connecting the dwelling unit in a housing group, cannot be properly defined until the actual building group is designed. They are the integral parts of the design of the dwelling and should not be shown on the neighbourhood plan.



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3) FACILITIES Neighbourhood unit should consist of orderly arrangement of all those facilities which are to be shared in common by the residents. The facilities primarily include primary school, shopping centre, shopping adjacent to main road, spaces for outdoor recreation; community centre, sports centre etc. 4) POPULATION The population of neighbourhood should be that which is optimal to support its elementary school. When Perry formulated his theory the population was estimated about 5,000 persons for enrollment of between 1000 to 1200 pupils. Current elementary school size standard probably would higher the figure to 3000 to 4000 persons. In general, it may range from 3000 to 12000 people. For Chicago, in 1942 the range was from 4000 to 12,000. In the Greater London plan, 1944 by Abercrombie and Forshaw, the unit size was 6000 to 10,000 people. The American Institute of Architects adopted the unit range between 1700 to 10000 people. Despite the variation the principle of the neighbourhood unit run's through all considerations for social, physical and political organizations of the city. It represents a unit of the population with basic common needs for educational, recreational and other services. It is the standard for their facilities from which the size and design of the neighbourhood emerge. 5) SECTOR Sector is a combination of two or more neighbourhood units. It is considered because the facilities which are not covered in the neighbourhood unit should have to be covered in a sector, like secondary school, entertainment centres, big markets, major parks and large site recreation spaces. The size of the population equivalent to the number of neighbourhood units is equal to twelve to fifteen thousand persons suitable for a sector. 6) SIZE A ND DENSITY The size of the unit decides upon the maximum walking distance from the extreme dwelling unit to the elementary school and shopping centres. This walking distance considered by C.A. Perry is ¼ mile. Hence the physical form of the neighbourhood unit considered by C.A. Perry is ¼ mile radius which suggests that the maximum radius for walking distance from home to the community centre should be ¼ mile. Density should be 10 families per acre. 7) NEIGHBOURHOOD WALKWAYS It is stressed to have an independent system of footway complimenting the vehicular system. Such a system will run through the inner heart of the neighbourhood, linking together school sites, play areas and shopping centres. Neighbourhood walkway's emerged as a primary element of the plan. 8) PROTECTIVE STRIPS These are necessary to protect the units from annoyance of the traffic and to provide suitable facilities for developing parks, playgrounds and road widening in future.



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CLARENCE STEIN'S CONCEPTION OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD UNIT The figure shows grouping of three neighbourhood units is served by a high school and one or two commercial centres. Walking distance radius is one mile. In the figure A, elementary school is the centre of the unit and within a one half mile radius of all residents in the neighbourhood, local shopping centres located near the school. Residential streets are suggested as CUL-DE-SACS to eliminate through traffic and park space flows into the neighbourhood as applied in the Radburn plan.



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RADBURN – THE TOWN FOR THE MOTOR AGE

The industrialization of the United States after World War I led to migration from the rural areas and a dramatic growth of the cities during the 1920's. This population shift led to a severe housing shortage. The automobile, which was becoming a mainstay in American life, added a new problem to urban living. Drastic changes in urban design were necessary to provide more housing and to protect people from the horseless carriage. In answer to the needs of "modern society", Radburn, the "Town for the Motor Age" was created in 1929. How Radburn was going to meet the problems of "modern society" is best illustrated in architect Henry Wright's "Six Planks for a Housing Platform". These ideas formed the basic philosophy that he followed in designing Radburn. His planks were: 

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Plan simply, but comprehensively. Don't stop at the individual property line. Adjust paving, sidewalks, sewers and the like to the particular needs of the property dealt with - not to a conventional pattern. Arrange buildings and grounds so as to give sunlight, air and a tolerable outlook to even the smallest and cheapest house. Provide ample sites in the right places for community use: i.e., playgrounds, school gardens, schools, theatres, churches, public buildings and stores. Put factories and other industrial buildings where they can be used without wasteful transportation of goods or people. Cars must be parked and stored, deliveries made, waste collected - plan for such services with a minimum of danger, noise and confusion. Bring private and public land into relationship and plan buildings and groups of buildings with relation to each other. Develop collectively such services as will add to the comfort of the individual, at lower cost than is possible under individual operation. Arrange for the occupancy of houses on a fair basis of cost and service, including the cost of what needs to be done in organizing, building and maintaining the community.

The main thrust in the planning of Radburn can be summarized by the quote from architect Clarence Stein, who said, “We did our best to follow Aristotle's recommendation that a city should be built to give its inhabitants security and happiness".



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The primary innovation of Radburn was the 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. 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. The remaining land inside the superblock is park area, the backbone of the neighborhood. The living and sleeping sections of the houses face toward the garden and park areas, while the service rooms face the access road. The walks that surround the cul-de-sacs on the garden side of the houses divide the cu-de-sacs from each other and from the central park area. These paths cross the park when necessary. Finally, to further maintain the separation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, a pedestrian underpass and an overpass, linking the superblocks, were provided. The system was so devised that a pedestrian could start at any given point and proceeds on foot to school, stores or church without crossing a street used by automobiles. 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. The Radburn type of plan requires less area of street to secure the same amount of frontage. In addition, for direct access to most houses, it used narrower roads of less expensive construction, as well as smaller utility lines. In fact, the area in streets and length of utilities is 25% less than in the typical American street. The savings in cost not only paid for 12 - 14% of the total area that went into internal parks, but also covered the cost of grading and landscaping the play spaces and green links connecting the central block commons. The genius of the Radburn Plan is shown in the use of the small property lots and cul-de-sac construction to finance part of the land, as well as the grading and the landscaping which is the most costly part of park building. The cost of living in such a community was therefore set at a minimum for the homeowner, and the cost to the builder was small enough to make the venture profitable. Radburn had been conceived by Stein and Wright to house 25,000 people. The boundaries of this community were to be the Saddle River on the east (Radburn means Saddle River in Old English), the Erie Railroad on the west, and the Glen Rock border on the north, and Saddle Brook Township on the south. The Old Mill, now part of the Bergen County Park System, was to be the entrance of this new city. The Depression pushed the builder, City Housing Corporation, into bankruptcy. For this reason, Radburn could not expand beyond its present size of 149 acres which includes 430 single family homes, 90 row houses, 54 semi-attached houses and a 93 apartment unit, as well as a shopping center, parks and amenities. Although the physical plan of Radburn has been an inspiration to planners and architects here in the United States and abroad for almost 60 years, equally important in the development of Radburn is The Radburn Association. The Association is a non-profit corporation charged with fixing, collecting and disbursing charges; maintaining services, parks and facilities; and interpreting and applying the Declaration of Restrictions, which restrictive covenants are running with the land. Each property within the Association boundaries is governed by these Restrictions. The Association manages a park network of 23 acres, two swimming pools, four tennis courts, four baseball fields, three playground areas, five outdoor basketball courts, an archery plaza, two summer houses, and a community center called the Grange, which includes offices, a library, clubroom, kitchen, maintenance shop and garage, a recreation room and a gymnasium equipped with a stage. On this stage, the Radburn Players, the oldest active amateur theatre group in the Notes on Town planning and Human settlements


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state, produce several shows each year. The physical properties allow the Association to provide a comprehensive recreation program for its residents all year long. The affairs of the Association are handled much like the council-manager form of government. In the field of planning and architecture, Radburn has been called by Anthony Bailey, "the most significant notion in 20th Century urban development". Lewis Mumford considered it "the first major advance in city planning since Venice". Radburn is unique because it was envisioned as a town for better living, and it was the first example of city planning which recognized the importance of the automobile in modern life without permitting it to dominate the environment. It was the first time in the United States that a housing development was attempted on such a large scale, proceeding from a definite architectural plan resulting in a complete town. Radburn is also important to builders because of the unique way that the parks and grading were funded. From a sociological point of view, Radburn not only exemplifies an ideally planned place to live, but it establishes a real mode or plan of living. The planned use of the land and the establishment of the Association create a lifestyle that is unheard of in most of modern society. It is a lifestyle of community concern, action and participation. James Dahir saw in Radburn a new hope for a humanistic society through planning which took into account the social, as well as the physical needs of the residents. He writes that Radburn is: "social planning of an advanced order. It is manipulation of physical elements to induce and encourage a social and human goal. It is a kind of planning which recognizes that the growing edge of civilization is in the human and not the mechanical direction, though the mechanical factors must be carefully aligned and allocated to support and advance the communal achievements and the social inventions of a free people of autonomous family life." As the country struggled out of the Depression, the influence of the Radburn Idea was first reflected in the various Greenbelt communities of the Resettlement Administration and later, in Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles and Kitimat. B. C. The Idea then showed up in England and later in Sweden at Vallingly, the huge Stockholm suburb; at the Baronbackavna Estate, Orebro and at the Beskopsgaden Estate, Goteborg. It was in post World War II England that Radburn achieved generic status. The "Radburn Plan", the "Radburn Idea", the "Radburn Layout" appeared first at Coventry and later at Stevenage, Bracknell and Cumbernauld. It has since spread to Chandigarh, India; to Brazil; to several towns in Russia and to a section of Osaka, Japan. The Japanese community is almost an exact duplicate of Radburn. The "Idea" finally returned to the United States at Reston, Virginia and Columbia, Maryland. Several towns since have been modeled after the "Radburn Plan". Brasilia and the capital of New Zealand are current projects which are consciously implementing Radburn-based concepts. The importance of Radburn is clearly seen in its influence on the planning of many towns throughout the world. Its sociological impact through its planning has made the style of life noteworthy and right for modern living. Hundreds come each year from all around the world to see and study the Radburn Idea. New towns are being built each year modeled after the Radburn Idea, using both its planning ideas and covenants in designing their urban development. Radburn, planned as a "Town for the Motor Age" is truly a "Town for Tomorrow"



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CITY BEAUTIFUL MOVEMENT To understand Chicago of the early 1900s, consider this observation from Truesdale Marshall, the protagonist of Henry Blake Fuller's novel, "With the Procession:" "[Chicago is a] hideous monster … so pitifully grotesque, gruesome, appalling." Many people, foreigners and Americans alike, felt the same way about most cities in America. By 1910, many cities contained one million residents, but few planned properly for such a population explosion. As a result, cities developed in an ad hoc fashion. This made them shapeless, inefficient and, in many cases, dangerous. Daniel Hudson Burnham, a Chicago architect, began to address these issues in an approach to urban planning that would become known as the City Beautiful movement. City Beautiful was characterized by the belief that if you improved form, function would follow. In other words, an attractive city would perform better than an unattractive one. Beauty came from what Burnham called "municipal art" -- magnificent parks, highly designed buildings, wide boulevards, and public gathering places adorned with fountains and monuments. Such beautiful additions to the cityscape could not directly address perceived social ills, but they could, at least in Burnham's thinking, indirectly improve social problems by enhancing the urban environment. Burnham first displayed the City Beautiful principles at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. His dream city, known as White City, featured large-scale monuments, electric lights and state-of-the-art transport systems. It also removed all visible signs of poverty so that the roughly 27 million visitors who streamed through the exhibition witnessed a true urban utopia.

Stock Montage/Hulton Archive/Getty Images The Administration B uilding at the 1893 World' s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where Daniel Hudson Burnham's City Beautiful movement made its debut. Burnham then applied City Beautiful ideas to several city designs between 1902 and 1905. He directed plans for Washington, D.C.; Cleveland, Ohio; Manila; and San Francisco, Calif., but the culmination of the movement came in 1906 when Burnham teamed up with Edward Bennett to prepare the Plan of Chicago, the first comprehensive plan for controlled growth of an American city. The Plan encompassed the development of Chicago within a 60-mile radius and called for a doubledecker boulevard to better accommodate commercial and regular traffic, straightening of the Chicago River, consolidation of competing rail lines and an integrated park system that encompassed a 20-mile park area along Lake Michigan. Some of these features, such as the twinlevel roadway, were firsts in any city, anywhere in the world. Although the City Beautiful movement was revolutionary in America, it drew upon urban planning ideas used for many years in Europe. In particular, Burnham used Paris as a successful model of Notes on Town planning and Human settlements


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urban planning. Planning of Paris began in earnest in the 1600s during the reign of Louis XIV when architects used great foresight to build squares, parks and avenues in areas that were barely settled. As Paris increased its population, it was able to grow into its design. Then, in another era of notable development beginning in the 1850s, Georges Eugéne Haussmann, appointed by Napoleon Bonaparte, began reworking the city, making it more suitable and attractive for the vast numbers of visitors, merchants, manufacturers and residents who filled the city. Burnham also recognized the contribution of the ancient planners responsible for Athens and Rome, as well as the planning tradition that went back for centuries. In the next section, we'll look at how this tradition manifests itself today in the hands of modern planners.



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BROADACRE CITY, 1932-1959 FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT 

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The idea of Broad acre City, or as Wright often referred to it – Broad acres, was developed at the pinnacle of Wright’s professional career and late in his life. Wright’s discontent with the city arose in the years of the Great Depression which occurred some years after the Great War (1914-1918) as a result of the Stock Market Crash of 1929. He viewed the centralization of cities as “overbuilt”. He mocked the idea that a man in his right mind would leave the opportunities granted in the countryside to live in the confines of the overcrowded city. As one author is quick to point out, Wright is the product of an agrarian society, his interest in architecture possibly fuelled by an early interest in geometry. He felt city as it was, centralized, was demoralizing the individual by the pressure created from the concept of rent – rent for land, rent for money and traffic in invention. He further surmises that the Great Depression is a direct result of the government and private enterprises controlling profits and giving the wageslave a false sense of prosperity, thus inverting disrupting the equilibrium of a capitalism base – apex at the ground and base in the air. It would fall for the same reason th at masonry or monarchy f alls, as all d espotism surely falls: the law of gravitation and the law of diminishing returns (a law of nature).

In it, the individual is forced to conform to the speed and the business of the city, keeping up appearances eventually leading to the deterioration of his individuality: He, the wage-slave in some form, puts his own li fe into bond age, or is busy managing to g et the lives of others th ere just in order to keep up the superficial privi leges to which he has consciously, fatuously, subscribed and which are often described to him as great, beneficent “free enterpri se”. 

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He believed that a man’s true success lay in a greater freedom of movement which he suggested would be possible with the improvements in technology which brought about the automobile, electrification and improvements in communication. True democracy would be achieved by reclaiming one’s individuality and engaging in “natural architecture” rather than communal living of the cities. His aim was to develop a truly Ameri can, and or as he l ater renamed Usonian, way of life which was not an imitation of European counterparts to foster creation. He was not entirely against the facets of the existing city, such as the skyscraper, but shunned the notion of large masses of them interspersed by the concrete jungle. Rather, he anticipated fewer of such structures within an open, beautifully landscaped terrain. There was a time when centralization was necessary, but with electrification, mechanical mobilization, and organic architecture there is no longer any difference between a few blocks and a few miles. Broad acres was to accommodate at least one acre per individual (adult or child) since at that time there was fifty-seven green acres available per person in the United States. This would eventually lead to a density of about 500 persons per square mile, which Zygas notes as “scandalously low”. In this landscape, each entity was enveloped in some kind of “green space”. Entities included factories, skyscrapers, schools, places of worship and places of recreation.



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The area was fed by super-highways (at least 6 lanes) which feeds into progressively smaller roadways, the size of which was determined by the use of the associated entities (that is, main roads had at least 4 lanes and residential streets were the most narrow often ending in cul-desacs). Railways and truck right-of-ways were to remain separate and out of sight from main thoroughfares. Wright also despised the city’s “wires on poles” and proposed the placing of utility lines underground. Other aesthetic contributions included no open drainage along roadways, largescale landscaping over the entire site (including broad views of native vegetation), and all terminal buildings and warehouses were restricted to ports of entry or under tracks (this is the only area for which concentration is permitted). Other elements include fueling and service stations, and county seats would be located at various important intersections; underground refuges (for times of war) would be kept as storage units during times of peace along or under railways; highways would be built with the terrain at safe grades; road construction would be done by the regional governing agency but supervised by architects, landscape architects and structural engineers; and minor flight stations would be installed for the safe landing, takeoff and storage of private flight vehicles. With the various elements working together, Wright supposed that employment was no longer done on a need-to-pay-rent basis. The individual will now work based on what he wanted to do or liked to do because he was no longer absolutely dependent on the operations of others for his success. This is what he determined to be true democracy and true individualism. This is further encouraged by the fact that professional offices (clinics, small shops, studios, art galleries, etc.) were expected to be located in close relation to home or be minor features of the landscape, but “professionalism” would be diminished. Financial services, public services and other commercial enterprises would operate close to county seats (close to important intersections) or public functions (such as police or fire stations).

The 1934 Bro ad acre City Mod el 

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In his 1934 model, Wright became more specific in his designation of the various elements. In a model representing four square miles, he proposed a main arterial adjoined to rectangular field used for agricultural purposes (vineyards and orchards). There was a meandering stream in the southern portion. Zoning was done by activity and function, and single-family home was the predominant building type. Large thoroughfares were intersected by large street at half-mile intervals. Architecturally, buildings would be designed by “organic architecture”, to reflect the individuality of the population, one of the objectives Wright hoped to achieve. This would eliminate the imitations which he felt were reflected in the World Expositions in Chicago (1893) and New York (1939-40). He further advocated the use of more modern material such as glass and steel which keeps the elements (of weather) out, but allows the outdoors in, putting man less separate from nature and eliminating what he likens to a fortification. Additionally, each of buildings regardless of function was not to be monstrosities, but rather groups of smaller units in a beautifully landscaped setting. He advocated the concept of mobile hotels and houseboats which promoted the freedom of movement aforementioned – the freedom to stay or the freedom to go.



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The idea of Broad acres was to let go of traditional form – of the city as a whole, and of individual pieces such as the hospital (sunlit clinics), the church, the universities (institutions for creative expression and deep thought – the settings for becoming more universal), public schools (no longer to resemble factories, but set in “the choicest part of the whole countryside” as a conglomeration of smaller schools hosting 25 students each with common outdoor/activity areas, flower beds and gardens giving the student the opportunity to work with the ground).



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MILE HIGH TOWER The Mile High Illinois, Illinois Sky-City, or simply The Illinois was a proposed mile-high (1,609 meters/5,280 feet) skyscraper, envisioned by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1956. The design, intended to be built in Chicago, would have included 528 stories, with a gross area of 18.46 million square feet (1.71 million square meters/171 hectares). Had it been built, it would be the tallest building in the world. This is arguably the most famous of the semi-serious visionary buildings meant to be an alternative to the increasing urban sprawl occurring in most cities. None of these have ever been viewed as financially feasible. The design of the Burj Khalifa tower is said to have been inspired by that of The Illinois. In keeping with his belief that architecture ought to be organic, Wright likened this system to a tree trunk with branches. He planned to use gold-tinted metal on the facade to highlight angular surfaces along balconies and parapets and specified Plexiglas for window glazing. Technical feasibi lity Wright believed that it would have been technically possible to construct such a building even at the time it was proposed. At the time, the tallest skyscraper in the world was New York's Empire State Building, at less than a quarter the height suggested for the Illinois. It probably would have been possible to erect a self-supporting steel structure of the required height, but there are a number of problems which occur when a building is that tall. The material used for towers at the time, steel, is quite flexible. This causes the tower to sway substantially in the wind, causing discomfort for occupants of the higher floors. Though Wright acknowledged this problem in his original proposal, he claimed the tripod design of this tower (similar to that of the CN Tower, which was not designed until a decade after Wright's death) combined with its tensioned steel frame and the integral character of its structural components would counteract any oscillation. It is also possible this could have been solved by placing a counterweight somewhere within the tower as was done in the Citigroup Center. Also, the late 1990s and early 2000s have seen substantial increases in the load-bearing strength of concrete, making it a possibility to build entirely in this less flexible material. The space needed to service the elevators (needed to reach the higher levels) would occupy all of the space available on the upper floors, thus defeating the purpose of the building's height. This was complicated by Wright's slender design. This problem has also been addressed in smaller buildings, such as in the Taipei 101, by using double-deck elevators. In the World Trade Center, the building was divided into three sectors, each with its own sky-lobby, where occupants changed between large express elevators and smaller local elevators. However, even with both of these measures implemented, the problem would still exist. Wright's solution was five-story elevators, running on ratchet interfaces located on the outside of the building (presumably on the unseen side in his painting) to conserve building space. Another concern is fire safety. The need for emergency stairwells would bind much of the available space in the upper floors in a similar fashion. This could be overcome by designing elevators to remain operational during a fire.



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Albeit at a smaller scale, the same problem as with the elevators is encountered with water and sewage. A possible solution would be to recycle the water used in the upper floors; this is easier today than it would have been in the 1950s.



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SATELLITE TOWN A satellite town or satellite cit y is a concept in urban planning that refers essentially to miniature metropolitan areas on the fringe of larger ones. Characteristics Satellite cities are small or medium-sized cities near a large metropolis, that:   

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Predate that metropolis' suburban expansion; Are at least partially independent from that metropolis economically and socially; Are physically separated from the metropolis by rural territory; satellite cities should have their own independent urbanized area, or equivalent; Have their own bedroom communities; Have a traditional downtown surrounded by traditional "inner city" neighborhoods; May or may not be counted as part of the large metropolis' Combined Statistical Area

Vision 2020 -- Why satell ite town s remain di stant dr eams b y P.V. Indiresan Published in Business line - Monday, Jan 14, 2002 LAST WEEK, when I gave a talk at IIM Calcutta, local journalists asked me what my solution was to the problems of Kolkata. High cost of real-estate is the main problem of Kolkata (and all other cities in the country). The problem is man-made. As many cities round the world have demonstrated, a cure is not impossible. It is strange but true: World over, land prices are low wherever habitat quality is high; land prices skyrocket only when the environment becomes bad! This phenomenon is the result of overcrowding that feeds on itself to overcrowd even more. Urban congestion may be tackled in three ways: The most popular one is to go vertical. That generally makes matters worse because it increases congestion, escalates land prices and hurts the poor more and more. This option is for shortsighted megalomaniacs. Expanding horizontally is another option. That increases commuting distances, worsens the congestion at the centre, and is no better than vertical expansion from the social point of view: children and parents get separated for long hours. This option is for lazy administrators who prefer to let matters drift. The third (and so far the least successful) solution is the satellite town. Kalyani near Kolkata and Maraimalainagar near Chennai are standing examples of their limited appeal. Yet, in the final analysis, the satellite town is the best option. It leads to lowest land prices, and hence offers the poor the best chance for proper housing. In every way — financial, ecological, ethical, and social — satellite towns are the best cure for Kolkata and other cities but it is difficult to get them going. For instance, people prefer to live in Delhi and to commute everyday to work in the neighbouring industrial town of Faridabad. This practice sharply contrasts with the US experience where the fashion is to work in the city but live in far away rural counties. In India, the old city is the dormitory, the satellite town the work place. In the US, it is the other way round. That happens because American satellite towns offer high quality services of the type that may be described as teleNotes on Town planning and Human settlements


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ineffective — the kind of services that have to be close to the home and are of no use if they are far away. Indian satellite towns are poorly designed in this respect. Tele-ineffective services are mainly three — schools, general hospitals and retail stores. People do not expect colleges to be nearby, but kindergarten and elementary schools have to be close at hand. They would be willing to go even a thousand miles for open-heart surgery, but maternity hospitals must be accessible at short notice. The same is true for retail shopping too. In all three cases, satellite towns of the US offer first-rate facilities. In India, the situation is quite the opposite. It is the city that offers the best schools, medical facilities and shopping, not satellite towns. Maraimalainagar lay dormant for decades because it offered no schools or hospitals of repute. Kalyani started with a university but no schools worthy of note. That is why Kalyani too did not succeed. Basically, satellite towns will take off when two conditions are satisfied: One, when they offer superior quality schools, hospitals and departmental stores. Two, the cost of commuting to the city is low — to access tele- effective services such as universities and airports that only the parent city can offer. These are not onerous conditions but require ingenuity and a new paradigm in habitat management. Therefore, this option is only for the competent and for those with the courage to experiment with new ideas. By world standards, prestigious satellite towns such as Salt Lake City, near Kolkata, and Gurgaon, near Delhi, are over-crowded. So, they do not relieve the parent city as well as they should. Suppose we limit the population density of our satellite towns to that of New York. As New York is one of the most crowded cities of the West that is a modest target indeed. In that case, our satellite town should offer, on an average, a minimum of 200 square metre of residential space per dwelling plus another 200 square metres for non-residential uses. That is ten times more than what Kolkata offers. With 200 square metres as the average, even the poor can hope to have 70-100 square metres — enough to live with dignity. Our satellite towns should offer that much space as the barest minimum for civilised urban development. They do not. They do not do so because of a false notion that cities must be congested. In truth, allocation of urban space on the lines of New York will need only one per cent of the country's land area to accommodate the entire urban population of India. So, the problem is not physical but political and cultural. Overcoming the inhibition against allocating adequate space, and designing habitats with a minimum average of 200 square metres of residential space, plus an equal area per dwelling for non- residential use, is Step One in the development and promotion of satellite towns. Only then, will satellite towns be better than cities like Kolkata. The space should be evenly distributed. New York has hotspots of high congestion As a thumb rule, in every locality, minimum allocation per dwelling should be: 80 square metres of roads, 20 square metres of commercial space, another 20 square metres of parking space in commercial centres, 40 square metres of gardens and parks, 10 square metres for schools and hospitals with another 40 square metres for industries, etc. Uniform distribution of space on these lines is Step Two in satellite town development. If land allocation is ten times that in Kolkata, to limit costs, land price should be at least ten times less that in Kolkata. That will be possible if the satellite town is located far enough from the city, preferably on marginal land. Choosing such a location is Step Three. These three steps require high administrative competence to implement. The urban problem is not merely administrative; it is cultural and political too. As a political ploy, State governments in India offer a tax holiday to attract entrepreneurs. That is of limited use. To make satellite towns truly attractive, there must be a holiday for over-restrictive labour laws, the Rent Control Act and



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extortionate stamp duty too. That requires political courage. Fortunately, not much of that may be needed if these holidays are restricted to satellite towns. These holidays are Step Four. State governments can help much more. They should take active steps to promote high quality schools, hospitals, and shopping malls in satellite towns. For instance, they may minimise entry costs for investors by leasing land rather than selling it outright. In a matching fashion, the government may acquire land from farmers for the satellite town not by outright purchase but on an annual lease. I have found that farmers are happy to accept an annual fee equal to twice the prevailing price of what they grow at present. It would be an added bonus if they are offered also, say, ten square metres of shopping space in the new town for each acre of farmland they surrender. That way they will have guaranteed, inflation protected income some three-four times their present net earnings. Leasing of land from farmers for a fee that is indexed to grain prices instead of buying their land outright and sub-leasing the same to investors is Step Five. All these are pull factors. To complete the mechanism, we need some push factors too. I suggest two: One, let it be made the statutory duty of every employer to offer a minimum 100 square metres of living space to every employee (half the average dwelling space proposed above). Those employers who fail to do so may be asked to make a refundable deposit equal to the cost of that much space in the vicinity of their business. As a concession to small firms, only those with large number of employees may be so charged. Typically, that will be Rs 10-20 lakh per employee — sufficient to move employers away unless they have no alternative. When they do move, they get back their deposit, and meanwhile the State government enjoys the credit. Instituting a compelling force of this nature is Step Six. As a second push-force, employers in the city may be asked to reimburse in full the commuting costs of their employees from their homes to the work place. That will make commuting from satellite towns as affordable as it is in the US. To make investment in satellite towns attractive, they may be given a holiday from this impost too. Enforcing such a selective impost is Step Seven. This composite process for reversing rural-urban migration by making satellite towns attractive is my solution for cities like Kolkata.



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RIBBON DEVELOPMENT Ribbon d evelopment means building houses along the routes of communications radiating from a human settlement. Such development generated great concern in the UK during the 1920s and 30s, as well as in numerous other countries. Increasing motor car ownership meant that houses would be sellable even though they might be remote from shops and other services. It was attractive to developers because they did not have to waste money or plot space constructing roads. The practice became seen as antithetical to efficient use of resources and as a precursor to urban sprawl, meaning that a key aim for the United Kingdom's post-War planning system was to halt ribbon development. It led to the introduction of green belt policies. Following the Industrial revolution, ribbon development became prevalent along railway lines predominantly in the UK, Russia, and United States. A good example of this was the deliberate promotion of Metro land along London's Metropolitan railway. Similar evidence can be found from Long Island (where Frederick W Dunton bought much real estate to encourage New Yorkers to settle along the Long Island Railroad lines), Boston and across the American mid-west. Such expansion of human settlement is now seen as positively helpful in the fight against environmental destruction caused by building along roads. It can also occur along ridge lines, canals and coastlines, the latter especially occurring as people seeking sea change lifestyles build their houses where they can get the best view. The resulting towns and cities are often difficult to service efficiently. Often the first problems noticed by residents is traffic congestion as people compete to move along the narrow urban corridor while ever more people join the ribbon further along the corridor. Urban consolidation is often a solution to encourage growth towards a more compact urban form. Ribbon development can also be compared with a linear village which is a village that grew along a transportation route, not as part of a city's expansion.



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Ekistics The attempt to arrive at a proper conception and implementation of the facts, concepts and ideas related to human settlements, and the attempt to re-examine all principles and theories and to readjust the disciplines and professions connected with settlements, led to the need for a special discipline of human settlements, the discipline of Ekistics . Ekistics is the study of human settlement, which examines not only built forms, but also the interface of time, movements and systems in the built environment. It is an integrative body of knowledge organized into a cohesive system. Doxiadis saw ekistics as an intellectual approach to balance the convergence of the past, present, and future in human settlements as well as a system for creatively coping with the growth of population, rapid change and the pressures of large-scale, high-density housing. Doxiadis said “It is only the beginning since the problems we are facing are not only multiple, but also acutely urgent, characteristic of the critical situation which human settlements have now entered. If we wait for the proper development of a science of human settlements, we may find ourselves overwhelmed by the rising tide of the problems. We may even lose the battle for such a science since humanity may find no use of systematic theoretical thinking in a period of panic tension.” Since one of the major problems faced was the merging of settlements into much larger and complicated organisms, Doxiadis at the Athens center of Ekistics was working on an attempt to foresee where human settlements are going in the future. It seems that they will merge into everlarger groupings, which will become a continuous universal settlement, the universal city or Ecumenopolis . Ekistic units The recognition that the wide range of human settlements can contain units as small as a room or as large as major parts of the Earth forces us to look into the problem of dimensions. Since settlements consist of several elements, we can define their dimensions by defining the dimensions of their elements. If we consider the two elements, Man and Society, we can define the size of the settlement by the number of people living in it. Thus, we may have settlements ranging from the one-man settlement, which may be either part of a major settlement or an isolated one (for example, a light-house with one operator or a remote railway station with one employee) to settlements of tens, hundreds, thousands, millions and, lately, even tens of millions of people. If we turn to the element of Nature, we can define the size of the settlement by the extent of the space, which is covered, either by the whole settlement, or by the intensely developed part of it, or by its built-up part only. This distinction may also serve in the case of networks. Finally, if we turn to the element of the shells we can study physical dimensions, which can be expressed either in areas or in volume. So, in the case of all the elements, we have touched upon the space covered by settlements. If we now turn to the activity and the functions of a settlement we can also define it by way of its dimensions. For example, a settlement can show a small or large degree of economic activity – it can be the center of a certain degree of productive activity, or an administrative center of a certain degree of administrative importance, etc. In this study we are dealing with terrestrial space in connection with human settlements, although we may soon have to deal with extra-terrestrial space as well. The terrestrial space use by man is three-dimensional space in which height and depth add the third dimension, not as an auxiliary, but as an indispensable component of the space. If however we limited the dimensions of human Notes on Town planning and Human settlements


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settlements to three, we would be making a great mistake, for their space is not simply threedimensional. Since human settlements cannot be said to exist without their functions and without people, they cannot be separated from the fourth dimension, that of time. Deprived of this, they lack the dynamic element of motion and evolution. In the absence of time, we are incapable of understanding the nature of human settlements. It is easy to explain why this fourth dimension is indispensable to the study of human settlements. When we spoke of man’s functions as an essential aspect of human settlements, recognizing that they are the aspect relating man (the content) to the shells (the container), we necessarily introduced the concept of time, for man needs time in order to live, and his functions require time in order to take place. Therefore, human settlements consist of and require four dimensions to be properly understood. Doxiadis said “When we try to classify the settlements according to their dimensions, we will soon realise that they do not belong to easily definable categories of sizes but spread over the whole spectrum of possible sizes. Any such division will, therefore, have to be somewhat arbitrary, but it must also be an inherently satisfying and reasonable one. Such a division has been worked out on the basis of empirical experience and is presented in a logarithmic scale. The smallest unit of measurement is Man. He does not form a settlement in himself since he is one of its elements, but he does have a shell (his clothing is the smallest possible human shell and personal furniture plays the same role) and he is the Basic and indispensable unit of measurement. The second smallest unit is a normal room. From this we go to a dwelling, a group of several dwellings, a small neighbourhood, a neighbourhood, a small town, a town, a city, a metropolis, a conurbation, a megalopolis, an urban region, an urbanized continent, until, finally, we reach the largest conceivable space for a settlement, which is the whole Earth. This Ekistics Logarithmic Scale (ELS) can be presented graphically in several ways. One way is on the basis of the areas covered by the different units (area ELS), another way is on the basis of the number of people corresponding to each unit (population ELS). The ELS consist of 15 Ekistics units ranging from Man to Ecumenopolis and these units in turn belong to four basic groups  Minor shells, or elementary units (man, room, house)  Micro-settlements, the units smaller than, or as small as, the traditional town where people used to and still do achieve interconnection by walking  Meso-settlements, between the traditional town and the conurbation within which one can commute daily  Macro-settlements, whose largest possible expression is the Ecumenopolis, Ekistic elements Man is visual animal and is apt to give greater consideration to what he can see clearly. This is one of the reasons why although many people understand that settlements consist of five elements, they are eager to speak only about what can be clearly seen - the physical aspects of the settlements. There can be no question of the importance of nature and the shells, nor of the need to handle many phenomena of the human settlements by designing their physical elements. However, this is no reason to confine our interest and attention to the shells. We must keep I mind that the shells are only the outward manifestation of the other elements of the settlement. Once Rodin was asked how he managed to handle the surface of his statues so well and he answered, ‘the surface? I do not know; I always work inside the marble’. This is how we must look at the form, shape and appearance of human settlements. We must recognize the shells as the membrane that covers the real life of the settlement, the life of the people, their society and their functions. We must Notes on Town planning and Human settlements


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understand that we have to deal with phenomena consisting of five elements, although we can see only one of them. Each of these elements can be subdivided once more – a) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Nature Geological resources Topographical resources Soil resources Water resources Plant life Animal life Climate

b) Man 1. Biological needs (space, air, temperature, etc.,) 2. Sensation and perception (the ‘five senses') 3. Emotional needs (human relations, security, beauty, etc.) 4. Moral values c) Society 1. Population composition and density 2. Social stratification 3. Cultural patterns 4. Economic development 5. Education 6. Health and welfare 7. Law and administration d) Shells 1. Housing 2. Community services (schools, hospitals, etc.) 3. Shopping centers and markets 4. Recreational facilities (theatre, museum, stadium, etc.) 5. Civic and business centers (town hall, law-courts, etc.) 6. Industry 7. Transportation centers e) Netwo rks 1. Water supply systems 2. Power supply systems 3. Transportation systems (water, road, rail, air) 4. Communication systems (telephone, radio, TV etc.) 5. Sewerage and drainage 6. Physical layout (Ekistic plan)



Town Planning Concepts

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