Chapter 11. Urbanisation
11.1 Loudon, in 1829, said we should plan for the continued expansion of London 'in alternate zones of buildings, with half mile zones of country of gardens, till one of the zones touched the sea' (Loudon 1829:687). His foresight was commendable, though his plan was simplistic.
11.2 Abercrombie's diagrams for the growth of London. Expansion has continued since 1929, as he expected, and it behoves us to make contingency plans for the future expansion of cities.
11.3 Thomas Mawson's view of Civic Design (above). Planning land uses and roads can be conceived, mistakenly, as similar to planning rooms and corridors in a building (below). + [rooms]
11.4 The six-lobed flower of life [flower1]
11.5 If villages keep growing (above), they will become large towns. Their boundaries should be related to landscape considerations (below). This not done for 'village envelopes' in the UK. [Vilag1 and Vilag2]
11.6 A McHargian set of sieve maps can reveal sites which are suitable for new settlements. [mcharg3]
11.7 Patrick Geddes prepared numerous plans for Indian cities between 1914 and 1922. Like this plan for Balrampur, they were founded on studies of the existing site and of local climatic conditions.
11.8 Three traditional arrangements for the relationship between landform and builtform: a valley town, a hill town and a plains town [newt1].
11.9 In imitation of Italian hill-towns, Cumbernauld was planned on an exposed ridge (above), with roads on the ridge top (below) in one of the windiest urban regions in the world. This decision caused Ian McHarg to emigrate.
11.10 This diagram, drawn by Peter Shepherd working as an assistant to Patrick Abercrombie, made it standard practice for the British New Towns to have a park system based on stream valleys.
11.11 Howard was interested in the recreational potential of urban fringe land.
11.12 At each scale, there should be overlaps between land use zones. Overlaps invigorate each land use and produce good public open spaces. Often, Public Open Spaces (POS) should be areas of overlap [newtown]
11.13 The Water Garden in Hemel Hempsted New Town, designed by Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, expresses the spirit of the New Towns.
11.14 The lake in Redditch New Town was obtained 'free' as a by-product of road construction.
11.15 The earthmoving policy for Milton Keynes New Town (left) resulted in a fragmented landscape. The earthmoving policy for Redditch New Town (right) saved a hill and created a lake. [miltonk]
11.16 Bracknell had a dendritic stream pattern in 1949, though a number of watercourses had been culverted (left). By 1977, urbanisation had resulted in most of the streams being culverted (right). They should be reclaimed
11.17 The retained stream in Redditch New Town is popular with children.
11.18 The lake in Peterborough could have been a focus for town development.
11.19 Settlements can expand into woodland. [newplant]
11.20 The Gilbey's Gin building at Harlow was designed after the footpath.
11.21 In the Seafar estate, Cumbernauld, more effort went into designing the footpaths than into the roads. A landscape architect (Wm. Gillespie) worked on site, designing the path as it was built .
11.22 Streets are most successful when they are designed before the buildings (The Mound in Edinburgh).
11.23 The under-capacity of medieval streets (York), by our standards, gives them an intimacy and charm which modern streets lack.
11.24 There is so much surplus pathspace and vergespace in the new towns that Nan Fairbrother believed a second at new town could be superimposed (East Kilbride).
11.25 In Britain, the history of housing layout has been a story of 'problems' and 'panaceas'.
11.26 Edge cities are characterised by 'fried egg' site planning. [egg1]
11.27 In the twenty-first century, city development should be preceded by the designation of various types of greenway, as shown in the lower left diagram. [cities]
