Research Project: Garden City 21 – a new model for urban development in densely structured conurbations – vision or utopia?

Project briefing

• Status Completed
• Project duration November 2015 – July 2017
• Programme ExWoSt

The current challenges of urban development in conurbations are diverse and increasingly linked with the desire for new forms of urban living, which display parallels to the the garden city movement of the early 20th century. This gives rise to the proposition that the ideas of that time have gained a new significance today. The extent to which the concept of the garden city is applicable to urban development in today's conurbations was examined and visualised in a future laboratory. The objective here was to think beyond the limits of what’s possible today to enable new conceptual approaches and solutions.

Background

In growing urban regions, the increasing need for living space, in addition to the increasing awareness of the necessity for sustainable land usage, lead to conflicts concerning space as a finite resource. The necessity of securing for the population space for relaxation and adapting to climate change, stand in opposition to the creation of additional developed areas. Such conflicts should in part be countered with a significant portion of green space in new developments areas. Simultaneously, proven approaches to land development by private commercial developers are complemented by cooperative models.

These developments suggest that the reformist ideas of the garden city from the early 20th century (urban expansion and further development with measured population densities, nuanced open spaces and organised transport facilities, in addition to the importance placed on design and visual connections between spaces, under consideration of affordability or rather communal property and the connection between city and country) are enjoying renewed significance today.

Objective

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the extent to which the socio-political, functional, socio-economic and urban development concepts of the the original notion of the garden city by Ebenezer Howard, in addition to individual examples from urban development based on these considerations, are still applicable today as an answer to current challenges.

On this basis, different visions for the model of a 21st century garden city (abbreviated as Garden City 21) were drafted, as the foundation for a broad discourse on a possible development in densely structured conurbations. The development of urban green spaces also played a central role here, which was intended to be emphasised by adding "green-urban-networked" to the title.

The project was supervised by BPW baumgart+partner, Bremen (Dipl.-Ing. [graduate engineer] Claudia Dappen, Dipl.-Ing. Frank Schlegelmilch, Charlotte Herbst M.Sc.).