You are on page 1of 2

THEORIES AND CONCEPTS OF TOWN PLANNING

The development and revitalization of cities during the 20th century ; by various concepts and
theories

Garden city concept given by ebenzer howard he analysed the reasons for people to
move to city or country side. this concept attempts to reduce and solve social
problems. the garden city consists for different zones,street types and green. the
core in centre is about 4 sq km. & contains central park, surrounded by a
commercial,cultural & adminstrative zone . to avoid problems which occurs in cituy
expainsion, the concept limits the city max. Population to 32,000 people. thus new city
has to be found in a reasonable distance of 7km., so the cities are well connected.
Geddian trio concept gave new approach to the development of existing towns & new
techniques of planning. a town is integration of folk, work & place. this means that in
preparing a plan we must take into consideration : - the no. And the kind of people. their needs for work. -& place (housing, education recreation & amenties). all data
must be analysed & then developed. his technique of planning were (a) survey before
plan. (b) plan before development. obseve to enderstand & understand to forsee.
City of tomorrow - concept by le corbusier he believed that people prefer to live in
suburb rather than a city. thus he concluded that the centre should be fopr commerce,
surrounded by 2 belts of residential area. his concepts suggested that the centre of a
great city should consist mainly of skyscrappers exclusively for commercial use & area
occupied by these should not be greater than 5%. the remaining 95% should be parks
with trees. surrounding the center there would be belt of residential buildings, in the
form of those zigizag blocks with set backs.
Broad acre city concept urban, suburban development concept. proposed by frank
lloyd wright. it was both a planning statement and a socio-political scheme. each
family would be given 1 acre (4000 sq m) of plot of land. it was exact opposite of
transit oriented development.
Neighbourhood unit concept this concept crystalized from the prevailing social
intellectual attitudes for residential development. this concept was developed by
clarence perry and observed by louis mumjord. following were the principles of
neighbourhood unit: a) centre the school, so that child can easily walk to school. B) size
of neighbourhood reduce to 5000 to 9000 resident to have 1 school among them. C)
place arterial streets along perimeter to define & distinguish place from neighbourhood.
D) design internal streets to distinguish between streets, use curvilinear design for
safety & aesthetics. E) restrict local shopping area to the perimeter. F) dedicete 10% of
neighbourhood land to parks & open spaces. in short have a community living within a
city.

Concept of human settlement. the concept termed as ekistics,meaning science of


human settlement this was coined by k.a. Doxiadis. this includes regional, city,
community planning &dwelling design. he organized 5 ekistic elements : nature,
anthropos, society,shells & nehoorks. ekistics aims to encompass all scales of human
habitation & seek to learn from archaeoslogical historic record, as much as possible, at
total settlement pattern. the key principles were: a) optimization of potential
contacts. B) minimize efforts to make contacts. C) try to make things easy & easy
accesiblity. D) optimization opf protective open space. E) waste balance with
benvironment. F) synthesis of all principles.
Mile high city conceptthis gave new direction to living.. Thiswas a concept based on
vertical living. this explains that a tower 1 mile highshall be built and all community
shall livein it . the idea of this living came so that theland could be utilized for
greeningpurposes.
Single nuclei theory this is a model of urban land use in which a city grows from central
point. centre being the nucleus is the major part of the city. the major complexes
formed the centre of the city and other parts of city originate from the centre of the
nucleus.
Multi nuclei theory this model is a model of urban land use in which a city grows from
several independent points rather than from one central business district. Each point
acts as a growth center from a particular kind of land use, such as industry, retail, or
high-quality housing. As these expand, they merge to form a single urban area. some
centers or nodes include: o ports, o universities, o airports, o parks, o neighborhood
business centers. criticisms about the multiple nuclei model 1) negligence of height of
buildings. 2) non-existence of abrupt divisions between zones. 3) each zone displays a
significant degree of internal heterogeneity and not homogeneity. 4) unawareness of
inertia forces. 5) no consideration of influence of physical relief and government policy.
6) the concepts may not be totally applicable to oriental cities with different cultural,
economic and political backgrounds.
Sector theory developed by homer hoyt. basic idea: once contrasts in land use had
arisen near the centre of a city, these differences were perpetuated as the city
expanded. distinctive sectors of land use were likely to grow out from the center often
focused on major routeways. it was a wedge like expansion, which was also an
improvement to previous theories.

You might also like