Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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By the end of the 19th century, Utopia idealism took a more vigorous and elaborate
direction. In his influential 1898 work, To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform,
Ebenezer Howard launched a new critique to the twin evils of the society, the depopulation
of the countryside and overcrowding in the city. He introduced the Garden City, a place
that combined the positive aspects of both the city and the countryside. He defined the
Garden City as "a Town designed for healthy living and industry; of size that makes
possible a full measure of social life, but not larger; surrounded by a rural belt; the whole of
the land being in public ownership or held in trust for the community." 13 He envisioned
garden city communities of 32,000 people each. Each of the six garden cities would circle
a central comprehensively planned city of 58,000 residents. Howard's ideas resulted in the
building of two garden cities, Letchworth in 1903 and Welwyn in 1919 and in the U.S.,
France, Sweden, Japan and elsewhere.
Concurrently, the degradation of the industrial city aroused scientific research and
inquiry. The literature shows two contrasting approaches to solving the problems of urban
deprivation. The radical approach of Marx and Engels was revolutionary and proposed the
overthrow of the social and political systems which they blamed for turning the city into
dark enclaves of misery and exploitation of the working class. The conservative
alternative, essentially of middle class origin, opted for a greater role by the state. This
alternative perceived it to be the duty of the state to make up for the industrial era's worst
excesses. Planning developed along three trajectories: the 'hygienic type of planning which
gave birth to the Sanitary Reform movement and many national public health acts
incorporated into building requirements which sought to reduce levels of morbidity and
early mortality. 14
Another trajectory was the City Beautiful Movement, a response to laissezfaire,
which emphasized the city as one planned unit, as a work of art, set in a master plan which
specified land use, supplemented by comprehensive zoning ordinances to assure its
implementation. The third approach was the architectural tradition, it perceived the city as
an artifact, a product of sculptured built spaces and forms. It viewed the city more as a
product than as a process. Hausmann's reconstruction of Paris, and the restructuring of its
boulevards for purposes of crowd control belongs to this tradition, as does Burnham's
1909 Chicago Plan, Le Corbusier's monumental Radiant City designs, and the Italian
Futurist New City movement advocated by Marinetti in 1909, a comprehensive high rise,
elevated high speed urban habitat designed on a grand scale. These Utopian designs placed