A new town is a specific type of a planned community, or planned city, that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are uncommon in new towns.
Fordlândia was built to be a part of Henry Ford's motor company. Originally intended to be a rubber plantation, it failed within several years and is now home to squatting farmers.[5]
In the late 1960s and the 1970s, another stage of new town developments was launched. Nine new towns have been developed so far. Land use is carefully planned and development provides plenty of room for public housing projects. Rail transport is usually available at a later stage. The first towns are Sha Tin, Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun and Tseung Kwan O. Tuen Mun was intended to be self-reliant, but was not successful and turned into a bedroom community like the other new towns. More recent developments are Tin Shui Wai and North Lantau (Tung Chung-Tai Ho). The government also plans to build such towns in Hung Shui Kiu and Kwu Tung North. At present, there are a total of nine new towns:
Other New Towns act as industrial/academic agglomerations (sangyo-shuseki) (Tsukuba Science City, Kashima Port Town). These areas attempt to create an all-inclusive environment for daily living, in accordance with Uzō Nishiyama's "life-spheres" principle.
Japan has also developed the concept of new towns to what Manuel Castells and Sir Peter Hall call technopolis. The technopolis program of the 1980s has precedents in the New Industrial Cities Act of the 60s. These cities are largely modeled after Tsukuba Academic New Town in that they attempt to agglomerate high-tech resources together in a campus-like environment.
In the past, the Japanese government had proposed relocating the capital to a planned city, but this plan was cancelled.
Overall, Japan's New Town program consists of many diverse projects, most of which focus on a primary function, but also aspire to create an all-inclusive urban environment. Japan's New Town program is heavily informed by the Anglo-American Garden City tradition, American neighborhood design, as well as Soviet strategies of industrial development.
In 2002 Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced the end of new town construction, although the new towns continue to receive government funding and redevelopment.
Sources:
Each new town is designed to be completely self-sustainable. Helmed by a hierarchy of commercial developments, ranging from a town centre to precinct-level outlets, there is no need to venture out of town to meet the most common needs of residences. Employment can be found in industrial estates located within several towns. Educational, health care, and recreational needs are also taken care of with the provision of schools, hospitals, parks, sports complexes, and so on.
Singapore's expertise in successful new town design was internationally recognised when the Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF) of the United Nations awarded the World Habitat Award to Tampines New Town, which was selected as a representative of Singapore's new towns, on 5 October 1992.[12]
Prague was extended by large housing estates - "new towns" in the 1970s and 1980s: Severní Město (Northern Town), Jižní Město (Southern Town), Jihozápadní Město (South-Western Town) were the largest, with population around 100.000 each. Their remote position to the city centre was compensated for by underground lines constructed usually a decade after the completion of the housing projects.
However, the last city in Finland that was ordered to be built on a previously completely uninhabited land was Raahe, founded by governor general Per Brahe the Younger in 1649.
Finland also has various "ekokyläs" or "ecological villages". For example, Tapiola is a post-war garden city on the edge of Espoo.
Cardinal Richelieu founded the small Baroque town of Richelieu, which remains largely unchanged.
A program of new towns (French ville nouvelle) was developed in the mid-1960s to try to control the expansion of cities. Nine villes nouvelles were created.
In 1961 the first new town of Shannon was commenced and a target of 6,000 inhabitants was set. This has since been exceeded. Shannon is of some regional importance today as an economic centre (with the Shannon Free Zone and Shannon International Airport), but until recently failed to expand in population as anticipated. Since the late 1990s, and particularly in the early 2000s, the population has been expanding at a much faster rate, with town rejuvenation, new retail and entertainment facilities and many new housing developments.
It was not until 1967 that the Wright Report planned four towns in County Dublin. These were Blanchardstown, Clondalkin, Lucan and Tallaght but in actuality this was reduced to Blanchardstown, Lucan-Clondalkin and Tallaght. Each of these towns has approximately 50,000 inhabitants today.
The most recent new town in Ireland is Adamstown in County Dublin. Building commenced in 2005 and it is anticipated that occupation will commence late in 2006 with the main development of 10,500 units being completed within a ten year timescale.
Another example of renaissance planned cities is the walled star city of Palmanova. It is a derivative of ideal circular cities, notable Filarete's imaginary Sforzinda.
In early 20th century, during the fascist government of Benito Mussolini, many new cities were founded, the most prominent being Littoria (renamed Latina after the fall of the Fascism). The city was inaugurated on December 18, 1932. Littoria was populated with immigrants coming from Northern Italy, mainly from Friuli and Veneto
The great Sicilian earthquake of 1693 forced the complete rebuilding on new plans of many towns.
Other well known new cities are located close to Milan in the metropolitan area. Crespi d'Adda, a few kilometres east of Milan along the Adda River, was settled by the Crespi family. It was the first Ideal Worker's City in Italy, built close to the cotton factory. Today Crespi d'Adda is part of the Unesco World Heritage List. Cusano Milanino was settled in the first years of the 20th century in the formerly small town of Cusano. It was built as a new green city, rich in parks, villas, large boulevards and called Milanino (Little Milan). In the 1970s in the eastern metropolitan area of Milan a new city was built by Silvio Berlusconi. It is called Milano Due. It is a garden city designed for families of the upper middle class, with peculiarity of having pedestrian paths completely free of traffic. In the 1980s another two similar cities were built by Berlusconi, Milano 3 and Milano Visconti. Each of them has around 12,000 inhabitants.
After a flood in 1916, it was decided that the Zuiderzee (Southern Sea), an inland sea within the Netherlands, would be closed and reclaimed. In 1932, a causeway (the Afsluitdijk) was completed, which closed off the sea completely. The Zuiderzee was subsequently called IJsselmeer (IJssel-lake) and its previously salty water became fresh.
The first part of the new lake that was reclaimed was the Noordoostpolder (Northeast polder). This new land included, among others, the former islands of Urk and Schokland and it was included with the province of Overijssel. After this, other parts were also reclaimed: the eastern part in 1957 (Oost-Flevoland) and the southern part (Zuid-Flevoland) in 1968. The municipalities on the three parts voted to become a separate province, which happened in 1986. The capital of Flevoland is Lelystad, but the biggest city is Almere (pop. 183,500 in February 2008). Apart from these two larger cities, several 'New Villages' were built. In the Noordoostpolder the central town of Emmeloord is surrounded by ten villages, all on cycling distance from Emmeloord since that was the most popular way of transport in the 1940s (and it's still very popular). Most noteworthy of these villages is Nagele which was designed by famous modern architects of the time, Gerrit Rietveld, Aldo van Eyck and Jaap Bakema among them. The other villages were built in a more traditional/vernacular style. In the more recent Flevolandpolders four more 'New Villages' were built. Initially more villages were planned, but the introduction of cars made fewer but larger villages possible.
Following World War II, some 28 projected towns were designated as New Towns under the 1946 Act, and were developed partly to house the large numbers of people whose homes had been destroyed by bombing during the war and partly to move parts of the population out of (mainly Victorian) urban slums. New Towns policy was also informed by a series of wartime commissions, including:
Following the building of Borehamwood, Middlesex, 12 miles north-west of central London, the first in a ring of major "first generation" New Towns around London (1946) were Stevenage, Hertfordshire, 27 miles to the north of London, and Basildon, Essex, 25 miles east of London along the River Thames. Hertfordshire built four other new towns, two in the vicinity of Stevenage (Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield), a third to the north called Letchworth, and Hemel Hempstead to the east. (Hall 1996: 133) New Towns in the North East were also planned such as Newton Aycliffe (which the social reformer and government adviser William Beveridge wanted to be the "ideal town to live in") and Peterlee. Two new towns were also planned in Scotland at East Kilbride (1947) and Glenrothes (1948). Bracknell in Berkshire, to the south-west of London, was designated a New Town in 1949 and is still expanding.
Later a scatter of "second-generation" towns were built to meet specific problems, such as the development of the Corby Steelworks.
Finally, five "third-generation" towns were launched in the late 1960s: these were larger, some of them based on substantial existing settlements such as Peterborough. The most famous (and to some, notorious) was probably Milton Keynes, roughly midway between London and the West Midlands, on account of its Brutalist architectural ambitions, reflecting the thinking of Alison and Peter Smithson and other British architectural idealists. Milton Keynes is known for its huge central park and shopping centre, designed from the outset as a new city – though in law it is a 'New Town'.
Other towns, such as Ashford, Kent, Basingstoke and Swindon, were designated "Expanded Towns" and share many characteristics with the new towns. Scotland also gained three more new towns: Cumbernauld in 1956, famous for its enclosed 'town centre', Livingston (1962) and Irvine (1966) (see Film- New Towns in Scotland).
In spite of the relative success of new towns in the London Metropolitan green belt, London continued to suffer from a chronic housing shortage, especially in the south-east. Another small New Town, Thamesmead, was developed adjacent to the Thames in the early 1960s but suffered from poor transport links. Some improvement in infrastructure has been seen subsequently.
All new towns featured a car-oriented layout, many of them with roundabouts and one in particular - Milton Keynes - with a grid-based road system. The earliest of the new towns were built quickly, with residents often being taken away from their established communities without ceremony. As a result, they acquired a poor reputation as the home of "new town blues". These issues were systematically addressed in the later towns, with the third generation towns in particular devoting substantial resources to cycle routes, buses and community facilities, as well as employing teams of officers for social development work.
The financing of the UK new towns was creative. Land within the designated area was acquired at agricultural-use value by the development corporation for each town, and infrastructure and building funds borrowed on 60-year terms from the UK Treasury. Interest on these loans was rolled up, in the expectation that the growth in land values caused by the development of the town would eventually allow the loans to be repaid in full. However, the high levels of retail price inflation experienced in the developed world in the 1970s and 1980s fed through into interest rates, frustrating this expectation, so that substantial parts of the loans had ultimately to be written off.[citation needed]
All New Towns designated under the New Towns Act of 1946 were serviced by a secretariat, the New Towns Association, a quango that reported to the New Towns Directorate of the Department of the Environment. It coordinated the work of the General Managers and technical officers, published a monthly information bulletin and provided information for visitors from around the world. As each New Town reached maturity, the town's assets were taken over by the Commission for New Towns. Set up in 1948, the New Towns Association was dissolved in 1998. All papers held by it and the Commission for New Towns are held in The National archives: [2]
From the 1970s the first generation towns began to reach their initial growth targets. As they did so, their development corporations were wound up and the assets disposed of: rented housing to the local authority, and other assets to the Commission for the New Towns (in England; but alternative arrangements were made in Scotland and Wales). The Thatcher Government, from 1979, saw the new towns as a socialist experiment to be discontinued, and all the development corporations were dissolved by 1992 (with the closure of Milton Keynes Development Corporation), even for the third generation towns whose growth targets were still far from being achieved. Ultimately the Commission for the New Towns was also dissolved and its assets - still including a lot of undeveloped land - passed to the English Industrial Estates Corporation (later known as English Partnerships).
Many of the New Towns attempted to incorporate public art and cultural programmes but with mixed methods and results. In Harlow the architect in charge of the design of the new town, Frederick Gibberd, founded the Harlow Art Trust[15] and used it to purchase works by leading sculptors, including Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. In Peterlee the abstract artist Victor Pasmore was appointed part of the design team, which led to the building of the Apollo Pavilion. Washington New Town was provided with a community theatre and art gallery. The public art in Milton Keynes includes the (in)famous Concrete Cows, which resulted from the work of an 'artist in residence' and have gone on to become a recognised landmark. Glenrothes led the way in Scotland being the first new town to appoint a town artist in 1968. A massive range of artworks (around 132 in total) ranging from concrete hippos to bronze statues, dancing children, giant flowers, a dinosaur, a horse and chariot and crocodiles, to name but a few, were created. Town artists appointed in Glenrothes include David Harding and Malcolm Roberston.
In the 1990s an experimental "new town" developed by the Prince of Wales to use very traditional or vernacular architectural styles was started at Poundbury in Dorset.
Derry was the first ever planned city in Ireland. Work began on building the new city across the River Foyle from the ancient town of Derry (Doire Cholm Chille or Doire) in 1613. The walls were actually completed five years later in 1618. The central diamond within a walled city with four gates was thought to be a good design for defence.[3] In 1963 under the Matthew Plan the new city of Craigavon was founded out of the original towns of Portadown and Lurgan. This town today lies mostly incomplete as the troubles halted construction. The plan initially was to construct a relief settlement to take people out of the crowded city of Belfast.
Prypiat is also another new city built in 1970. The city was abandoned on April 27, 1986 after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. On April 26 the city had 50.000 habitants, the majority workers at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Now the town is highly contaminated by radiation. Some of the former inhabitants of Prypiat now live in Slavutych.
Adelaide's planned town grids were surrounded by parkland and intersected by the River TorrensAdelaide was founded by British and German colonists in 1836 to test out Edward Gibbon Wakefield's theories of systematic colonisation. Convict labour was not employed and the colony in theory would be financially self-sufficient; in practice government assistance was used in the early stages. Land had been sold before anyone set foot in the largely unexplored territory and the city (the basis for the future central business district) was surveyed and planned in a remarkably short space of time. Adelaide's design has been praised for its four-square layout, choice of setting and ample parklands which have had minimal encroachment of developments. The town centre was in sufficient proximity to a water source - the River Torrens.
A reconstruction of Robert Hoddle's original plans for Melbourne's central grid which defined the early township and today's city centreMelbourne was planned as a free settlement in 1837 through the Hoddle Grid, drawn up by Robert Hoddle under instructions from George Gipps, the original plan for Melbourne as part of the first land sales (prior to the planning only a handful of existing settlements were built on the fringe of the grid). The grid featured wide parallel streets, spanning a gently sloping valley between hills (Batman's Hill, Flagstaff Hill and Eastern Hill) and roughly parallel to the course of the Yarra River. The deliberate exclusion of city squares or open space within the grid was a subject of future frustration for the municipality and residents. Elizabeth Street, Melbourne in the centre of the grid was built over a gully and has therefore been prone to flooding. Despite a later extension and later inclusion of planned suburbs, Melbourne's original plans were not as extensive as Adelaide's and the city rapidly outgrew its original boundaries. As such it is often not considered to be a planned city, though the grid continues to define much of the character of the Melbourne city centre.
Inner Canberra demonstrates some aspects of the Griffin plan, in particular the Parliamentary TriangleCanberra, established in 1908, was planned as the capital city of Australia and is Australia's most notable and ambitious example of civic planning. The city was designed to be the Federal Capital following the federation of the six Australian colonies which formed the Commonwealth of Australia. The new nation required a capital that was located away from other major settlements such as Melbourne and Sydney. Canberra is thus located in a Territory - the Australian Capital Territory - and not a State. Prior to this time the land that Canberra is found on was farming land, indigenous settlements, and forest. In 1912, after an extensive planning competition was completed, the vision of American Walter Burley Griffin was chosen as the winning design for the city. Extensive construction and public works were required to complete the city, this involved the flooding of a large parcel of land to form the center piece of the city, Lake Burley Griffin. Unlike some other Australian cities, the road network, suburbs, parks and other elements of the city were designed in context with each other, rather than haphazard planning as witnessed in much of Sydney. Notable buildings include the High Court, Federal Parliament, Government House, War Memorial, Anzac Parade and headquarters of the Department of Defence.
Africa
Botswana
The city of Gaborone was planned and constructed in the 1960s.[1]Nigeria
The capital, Abuja is a planned city, and was built mainly in the 1980s.[2]Americas
Brazil
Brasília was planned and developed in 1956 with Lúcio Costa as the principal urban planner and Oscar Niemeyer as the principal architect. On April 22 of 1960, it formally became Brazil's national capital. Viewed from above, the main portion of the city resembles an airplane or a butterfly.[3][4]Fordlândia was built to be a part of Henry Ford's motor company. Originally intended to be a rubber plantation, it failed within several years and is now home to squatting farmers.[5]
United States
Mountain House, California was built as a new town in the 2000s in order to fulfill the housing needs of the booming Silicon Valley.Asia
Palestine
Burma
Naypyidaw (Burmese: နေပြည်တော်; MLCTS: nepranytau, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw and Naypyitaw; pronounced: [nèpjìdɔ̀]) is the capital of Myanmar, also known as Burma. It is administered as the Naypyidaw Union Territory, as per the 2008 Constitution.[6] On 6 November 2005, the administrative capital of Burma was officially moved to a greenfield 3.2 km west of Pyinmana, and approximately 300 km north of Yangon (Rangoon), the previous capital. The capital's official name was announced on 27 March 2006, Burmese Armed Forces Day. Much of the city is still under construction, which is set to be completed by around 2012.[7] As of 2009, the population was 925,000,[8] which makes it Burma's third largest city, behind Yangon and Mandalay.Hong Kong
Main article: New towns of Hong Kong
The area of Hong Kong is very mountainous and many places in the New Territories have limited access to roads. Hong Kong started developing new towns in the 1950s, to accommodate booming populations. In the early days the term "satellite towns" was used. The very first new towns included Tsuen Wan and Kwun Tong. Wah Fu Estate was built in a remote corner on Hong Kong Island, with similar concepts in a smaller scale.In the late 1960s and the 1970s, another stage of new town developments was launched. Nine new towns have been developed so far. Land use is carefully planned and development provides plenty of room for public housing projects. Rail transport is usually available at a later stage. The first towns are Sha Tin, Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun and Tseung Kwan O. Tuen Mun was intended to be self-reliant, but was not successful and turned into a bedroom community like the other new towns. More recent developments are Tin Shui Wai and North Lantau (Tung Chung-Tai Ho). The government also plans to build such towns in Hung Shui Kiu and Kwu Tung North. At present, there are a total of nine new towns:
- Tsuen Wan New Town
- Sha Tin New Town
- Tuen Mun New Town
- Tai Po New Town
- Fanling-Sheung Shui New Town
- Yuen Long New Town
- Tseung Kwan O New Town
- Tin Shui Wai New Town
- North Lantau New Town
India
Israel
Japan
Borrowing from the New Town movement in the UK, some 30 new towns have been built all over Japan. Most of these constructions were initiated during the period of rapid economic growth in the 1960s, but construction continued into the 1980s. Most of them are located near Tokyo and the Kansai region. Some towns, (Senri New Town, Tama New Town) do not provide much employment, and many of the residents commute to the nearby city. These towns fostered the infamous congestion of commuter trains (although as the metropolitan areas have grown, this commute has become relatively short in comparison to commutes from the new urban fringe).Other New Towns act as industrial/academic agglomerations (sangyo-shuseki) (Tsukuba Science City, Kashima Port Town). These areas attempt to create an all-inclusive environment for daily living, in accordance with Uzō Nishiyama's "life-spheres" principle.
Japan has also developed the concept of new towns to what Manuel Castells and Sir Peter Hall call technopolis. The technopolis program of the 1980s has precedents in the New Industrial Cities Act of the 60s. These cities are largely modeled after Tsukuba Academic New Town in that they attempt to agglomerate high-tech resources together in a campus-like environment.
In the past, the Japanese government had proposed relocating the capital to a planned city, but this plan was cancelled.
Overall, Japan's New Town program consists of many diverse projects, most of which focus on a primary function, but also aspire to create an all-inclusive urban environment. Japan's New Town program is heavily informed by the Anglo-American Garden City tradition, American neighborhood design, as well as Soviet strategies of industrial development.
In 2002 Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced the end of new town construction, although the new towns continue to receive government funding and redevelopment.
Sources:
- Ministry of Construction, Japan International Cooperation Agency, City Bureau. 1975? City Planning in Japan.
- Hein, Carola. 2003. “Visionary Plans and Planners: Japanese Traditions and Western Influences” in Japanese Capitals in Historical
- Perspective, Nicholas Fiévé and Paul Waley, eds. New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 309-43.
Pakistan
- Islamabad capital of Pakistan. [9] [10]
- Jauharabad - a planned town situated in Khushab District, Punjab, Pakistan. [11]
Philippines
The planned city Pagcor City will be completed on 2012 and it will be part of Metro Manila's new city.- Century City where the Trump Tower will be built and several high-end residential skyscrapers like the Gramercy Residences, the Knightsbridge Residences
- Newport City where Resorts World Manila in Pasay is located.
Singapore
Main article: New Towns of Singapore
The new town planning concept was introduced into Singapore with the building of the first New Town, Queenstown, from July 1952 to 1973 by the country's public housing authority, the Housing and Development Board. Today, the vast majority of the approximately 11,000 public housing buildings are organised into 22 new towns across the country.Each new town is designed to be completely self-sustainable. Helmed by a hierarchy of commercial developments, ranging from a town centre to precinct-level outlets, there is no need to venture out of town to meet the most common needs of residences. Employment can be found in industrial estates located within several towns. Educational, health care, and recreational needs are also taken care of with the provision of schools, hospitals, parks, sports complexes, and so on.
Singapore's expertise in successful new town design was internationally recognised when the Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF) of the United Nations awarded the World Habitat Award to Tampines New Town, which was selected as a representative of Singapore's new towns, on 5 October 1992.[12]
Europe
Belgium
Louvain-la-Neuve, built for the Université Catholique de Louvain.Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Slobomir is a new town in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its name means: "the city of freedom and peace". It is located on the Drina river near Bijeljina. It was founded by Slobodan Pavlović, a Bosnian philanthropist. It aims to be one of the major cities of post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. In fact, the city will be located in two countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, although majority of it will be in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The city is named after its founder, Slobodan Pavlović, and his wife, Mira.
- Kamengrad is town under construction by the famous Serbian director Emir Kusturica, and will be located in Višegrad, Republika Srpska.[13]
Bulgaria
The cities of Stara Zagora and Kazanlak, in central Bulgaria, were rebuilt as planned cities after they were burnt to the ground in the 1877-1878 Russia-Turkey War. Also the city of Dimitrovgrad in south Bulgaria, that was planned as a key industrial and infrastructure center.Croatia
Červar-Porat is a resort town in western Croatia, located on the east coast of the Adriatic Sea on the Červar lagoon. It was built as planned town in the 1970s, although the area was inhabited in Roman times. During the War of Independence it was used as a camp for refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Vukovar. It was planned to house 6500 people.Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic
Poruba and Havířov were established in the 1950s as new satellite residential towns for workers of coal-mining, steel-mill and other heavy-industry complex in the Ostrava region.Prague was extended by large housing estates - "new towns" in the 1970s and 1980s: Severní Město (Northern Town), Jižní Město (Southern Town), Jihozápadní Město (South-Western Town) were the largest, with population around 100.000 each. Their remote position to the city centre was compensated for by underground lines constructed usually a decade after the completion of the housing projects.
Denmark
Fredericia was designed as a combination of town and military fortress following the devastation caused by the Thirty Years' War. A more recent example is Ørestaden; planned and built to strengthen development in the Copenhagen/Malmö region.Finland
The city of Helsinki, previously just a small village, was rebuilt on a rocky peninsula near the sea in 1812 by decree of Alexander I, Grand-duke of Finland. The new town was to become the capital for the new Grand Duchy of Finland. The planner of the new town was Carl Ludvig Engel.However, the last city in Finland that was ordered to be built on a previously completely uninhabited land was Raahe, founded by governor general Per Brahe the Younger in 1649.
Finland also has various "ekokyläs" or "ecological villages". For example, Tapiola is a post-war garden city on the edge of Espoo.
France
Many new cities, called bastides, were founded from the 12th to 14th centuries in southeastern France, where the Hundred Years War took place, in order to replace destroyed cities and organize defence and growth. Among those, Monpazier, Beaumont-de-Lomagne, Villeréal are good examples.Cardinal Richelieu founded the small Baroque town of Richelieu, which remains largely unchanged.
A program of new towns (French ville nouvelle) was developed in the mid-1960s to try to control the expansion of cities. Nine villes nouvelles were created.
- Near Paris: Cergy-Pontoise, Marne-la-Vallée, Sénart (former Melun-Sénart), Évry, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
- Near Lille: Villeneuve d'Ascq (Former Lille-Est)
- Near Grenoble: L'Isle-d'Abeau
- Near Marseille: Rives de l'Étang de Berre
- Near Rouen: Val-de-Reuil
Germany
Planned cities in Germany are:- Bayreuth: an example of a medieval new city
- Berlin - Friedrichstadt
- Eisenhüttenstadt: the "first socialist town" in Germany
- Freudenstadt: the roads follow the layout of the Nine Men's Morris game
- Halle-Neustadt: originally an independent town but now part of Halle, Saxony-Anhalt
- Karlsruhe: the roads follow the layout of a hand-held fan with the castle being at the juncture
- Ludwigsburg: planned new capital for the Duke of Württemberg
- Mannheim Quadratestadt: squares named like ranks and files on a chessboard
- Munich Maxvorstadt: the first planned city expansion of Munich was realized from 1805 to 1810 according to a raster
- Neustrelitz: founded in 1733 with streets spreading from an octagonal market place
- Putbus: built around a circular centre with radially aligned streets
- Wolfsburg: founded in 1938 to host the factories for the newly built Volkswagen
Hungary
All Hungarian planned cities were built in the second half of the 20th century when a program of rapid industrialization was implemented by the communist government.- Dunaújváros, built next to the existing village Dunapentele to provide housing for workers of a large steel factory complex. Once named after Stalin, the city maintains its importance in heavy industry even after the recession following the end of Communist era.
- Tiszaújváros, built next to the existing village Tiszaszederkény and was named after Lenin for decades. A significant chemical factory was built simultaneously.
- Kazincbarcika, created from the villages Sajókazinc, Barcika and Berente (the latter has become independent since then) in a mining area. The city and its population grew fast after the founding of a factory.
- Tatabánya, created from four already existing villages was developed into a mining town and industrial centre and shortly after its elevation to town status became the county seat of its county, a status it still maintains despite the presence of historically more significant towns in the area.
- Beloiannisz (although not a town, only a village) was planned and built in the 1950s to provide home for Greek refugees of the Civil War.
Ireland
In the Republic of Ireland, as in the United Kingdom, the term "new town" is often used to refer to planned towns built after World War II which were discussed as early as 1941. The term "new town" in Ireland was also used for some earlier developments, notably during the Georgian era. Part of Limerick city was built in a planned fashion as "Newtown Pery".In 1961 the first new town of Shannon was commenced and a target of 6,000 inhabitants was set. This has since been exceeded. Shannon is of some regional importance today as an economic centre (with the Shannon Free Zone and Shannon International Airport), but until recently failed to expand in population as anticipated. Since the late 1990s, and particularly in the early 2000s, the population has been expanding at a much faster rate, with town rejuvenation, new retail and entertainment facilities and many new housing developments.
It was not until 1967 that the Wright Report planned four towns in County Dublin. These were Blanchardstown, Clondalkin, Lucan and Tallaght but in actuality this was reduced to Blanchardstown, Lucan-Clondalkin and Tallaght. Each of these towns has approximately 50,000 inhabitants today.
The most recent new town in Ireland is Adamstown in County Dublin. Building commenced in 2005 and it is anticipated that occupation will commence late in 2006 with the main development of 10,500 units being completed within a ten year timescale.
Italy
In the past centuries several new towns have been planned in Italy. One of the most famous is Pienza, close to Siena, a Renaissance city, also called The Ideal Town or Utopia Town. Between 1459 and 1462 the most famous architects of Italy worked there for the Pope Pius II and built the city centre of the small town.Another example of renaissance planned cities is the walled star city of Palmanova. It is a derivative of ideal circular cities, notable Filarete's imaginary Sforzinda.
In early 20th century, during the fascist government of Benito Mussolini, many new cities were founded, the most prominent being Littoria (renamed Latina after the fall of the Fascism). The city was inaugurated on December 18, 1932. Littoria was populated with immigrants coming from Northern Italy, mainly from Friuli and Veneto
The great Sicilian earthquake of 1693 forced the complete rebuilding on new plans of many towns.
Other well known new cities are located close to Milan in the metropolitan area. Crespi d'Adda, a few kilometres east of Milan along the Adda River, was settled by the Crespi family. It was the first Ideal Worker's City in Italy, built close to the cotton factory. Today Crespi d'Adda is part of the Unesco World Heritage List. Cusano Milanino was settled in the first years of the 20th century in the formerly small town of Cusano. It was built as a new green city, rich in parks, villas, large boulevards and called Milanino (Little Milan). In the 1970s in the eastern metropolitan area of Milan a new city was built by Silvio Berlusconi. It is called Milano Due. It is a garden city designed for families of the upper middle class, with peculiarity of having pedestrian paths completely free of traffic. In the 1980s another two similar cities were built by Berlusconi, Milano 3 and Milano Visconti. Each of them has around 12,000 inhabitants.
Malta
- The fortified cities of Senglea and Valletta were both built on a grid plan by the Knights of Malta in the 16th century.
- The town of Paola, Malta, also known as Rahal Gdid (New Town), is built on a grid plan by the Grand Master Antoine de Paule.
Netherlands
One province of the Netherlands, Flevoland (pop. 370,000 (2006)), was reclaimed from IJsselmeer.After a flood in 1916, it was decided that the Zuiderzee (Southern Sea), an inland sea within the Netherlands, would be closed and reclaimed. In 1932, a causeway (the Afsluitdijk) was completed, which closed off the sea completely. The Zuiderzee was subsequently called IJsselmeer (IJssel-lake) and its previously salty water became fresh.
The first part of the new lake that was reclaimed was the Noordoostpolder (Northeast polder). This new land included, among others, the former islands of Urk and Schokland and it was included with the province of Overijssel. After this, other parts were also reclaimed: the eastern part in 1957 (Oost-Flevoland) and the southern part (Zuid-Flevoland) in 1968. The municipalities on the three parts voted to become a separate province, which happened in 1986. The capital of Flevoland is Lelystad, but the biggest city is Almere (pop. 183,500 in February 2008). Apart from these two larger cities, several 'New Villages' were built. In the Noordoostpolder the central town of Emmeloord is surrounded by ten villages, all on cycling distance from Emmeloord since that was the most popular way of transport in the 1940s (and it's still very popular). Most noteworthy of these villages is Nagele which was designed by famous modern architects of the time, Gerrit Rietveld, Aldo van Eyck and Jaap Bakema among them. The other villages were built in a more traditional/vernacular style. In the more recent Flevolandpolders four more 'New Villages' were built. Initially more villages were planned, but the introduction of cars made fewer but larger villages possible.
- New towns outside Flevoland are Hoofddorp and IJmuiden near Amsterdam, Hellevoetsluis and Spijkenisse near Rotterdam and the navy port Den Helder.
- The cities of Almere, Capelle aan den IJssel, Haarlemmermeer (also a reclaimed polder, 19th century), Nieuwegein, Purmerend and Zoetermeer are members of the European New Town Platform.
Norway
- Oslo: After a great fire in 1624, it was decided by the then King Christian IV that the city would be moved behind the Akershus fortress. The new town, named Christiania, was laid out in a grid and is now the downtown area known as "Kvadraturen". The original town of Oslo was later incorporated into Christiania, and is now a neighborhood in eastern Oslo; Gamlebyen or "The Old City".
- The city of Kristiansand was formally founded in 1641 by King Christian IV. The city was granted all trade privileges on the southern coast of Norway, denying all other towns to trade with foreign states. As Oslo/Christiania before it, the city was behind a fortress, with a grid system allowing cannons to fire towards the two ports of the city and the river on the eastern end.
Poland
The very diverse layouts in Poland's planned cities is the result of the different aesthetics that were held as ideal during the development of these planned communities. Planned cities in Poland have a long history and fall primarily into three time periods during which planned towns developed in Poland. These are the Nobleman's Republic (16th-18th c.), the interwar period (1918–1939) and Socialist Realism (1944–1956).Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
See also: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The extreme opulence that Poland's nobility enjoyed during the Renaissance left Poland's elites with not only very large amounts of money to spend, but also motivated them to find new ways to invest their hefty fortunes beyond the grasp of the Royal Treasury. Jan Zamoyski founded the city of Zamość in order to circumvent royal tariffs and duties while also serving as the capital for his mini-state. Zamość was planned by the renowned Paduan architect Bernardo Morando and modelled on Renaissance theories of the ideal city. Realizing the importance of trade, Zamoyski issued special location charters for representatives of peoples traditionally engaged in trade, e.g. to Greeks, Armenians and Sephardic Jews and secured exemptions on taxes, customs duties and tolls, which contributed to its fast development. Zamoyski's success with Zamość spawned numerous other Polish nobles to found their own "private" cities, such as Białystok. Many of these towns survive today, and Zamość was made a World Heritage Site in 1992 and is still considered one of the most precious urban complexes worldwide.Interwar period
See also: History of Poland (1918-1939)
The preeminent example of a planned community in interwar Poland is Gdynia. After World War I when Poland regained its independence it lacked a commercial seaport (De iure Poles could use Gdańsk, which was the main port of the country before the War and is again today, but in practice the Germans residing in the city made it almost impossible), making it necessary to build one from scratch. The extensive and modern seaport facilities in Gdynia, the most modern and extensive port facilities in Europe at the time, became Poland's central port on the Baltic Sea. In the shadow of the port, the city took shape mirroring in its scope the rapid development of 19th century Chicago, growing from a small fishing village of 1,300 in 1921 into a full blown city with a population over 126,000 less than 20 years later. The Central Business District that Gdynia developed is a showcase of Art Deco and Modernist architectural styles and predominate much of the cityscape. There are also villas, particularly in the city's villa districts such as Kamienna Góra where Historicism inspired Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque architecture.Socialist realism
See also: History of Poland (1945–1989)
After the destruction of most Polish cities in World War II, the Communist regime that took power in Poland sought to bring about architecture that was in line with its vision of society. Thus urban complexes arose that reflected the ideals of socialist realism. This can be seen in districts of Polish cities such as Warsaw's MDM. The City of Nowa Huta (now a district of Kraków) and Tychy were built as the epitome of the proletarian future of Poland.Portugal
Vila Real de Santo António was built after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, on the same model that was used for rebuilding Lisbon, Portugal's capital city (also destroyed in the earthquake), and on a similar orthogonal plan.Romania
The city of Victoria, located in the Braşov County, was built by the communist government in the beginning of the second half of the 20th century.Roman Empire
Although Rome itself is not a planned settlement, the Romans built a large number of towns throughout their empire, often as colonies for the settlement of citizens or veterans. These were generally characterised by a grid of streets and a planned water-supply; and many modern European towns of originally Roman foundation still retain part of the original street-grid. The most impressive Roman planned town was the city of Constantinople from around the 4th century. Roman Emperor Constantine the Great chose the site for the new metropolis and began construction. His plans quickly fell into place. The modern city (now known as Istanbul) has changed much since then.Russia
- Saint Petersburg was built by Peter the Great as a planned capital city starting in 1703.
- Magnitogorsk is an example of a planned industrial city based on Stalin's 1930s five-year plans.
- The Avtozavodsky district of Tolyatti is a planned industrial city of Soviet post-war modernism.
Slovakia
- Partizánske was established in 1938–1939, when Jan Antonín Baťa of Zlín, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) and his powerful network of companies built a shoe factory in the cadastral area of Šimonovany municipality. The newly created settlement for workers carried the name of Baťovany and was part of Šimonovany. With the growth of the factory, so grew the settlement. The whole municipality was renamed to Baťovany in 1948 and given town status. As a sign of recognition of local inhabitants fighting in the Slovak National Uprising, the town was renamed Partizánske on 9 February 1949.[14]
- Svit was established in 1934 by business industrialist Jan Antonín Baťa of Zlín, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) in accordance with his policy of setting up villages around the country for his workers.
Slovenia
Nova Gorica, built after 1947 immediately to the east of the new border with Italy, in which the town of Gorizia remained.Spain
During the 16th and 17th centuries the population of Spain declined due to emigration to the Americas and later kings and governments made efforts to repopulate the country. In the second half of the 18th century, king Charles III implemented the so-called New Settlements (Nuevas Poblaciones) plan which would bring 10,000 immigrants from central Europe to the region of Sierra Morena. Pablo de Olavide was appointed superintendent and about forty new settlements were established of which the most notable was La Carolina, which has a perfectly rectangular grid design. [1]- Later kings and repopulation efforts led to the creation of more settlements, also with rectangular grid plans. One of them was the town of La Isabela (40.4295 N, 2.6876 W) which disappeared in the 1950s submerged under the waters of the newly created artificial lake of Buendía but is still visible just under the water in satellite imagery. PDF
- Tres Cantos, near Madrid, is a good example of a successful new town design in Spain.
- Newer additional sections of large cities are often newly planned as is the case of the Salamanca district or Ciudad Lineal in Madrid or the Eixample in Barcelona.
Serbia
Drvengrad, meaning Wooden Town in Serbian is a mock-traditional village that the Serbian film director Emir Kusturica had built for his film Life Is a Miracle. It is located in the Zlatibor District near the city of Užice, two hundred kilometers southwest of Serbia's capital, Belgrade. It is located near Mokra Gora and Višegrad.Sweden
- Gothenburg was planned and built as a major fortified city from nothing in the 17th century.
- Karlskrona was also planned and built as a major city and naval base from nothing in the 17th century.
- Vällingby, a suburb, is an example of a new town in Sweden from after 1950.
- Kiruna was built because of the large mine.
United Kingdom
Main articles: New towns in the United Kingdom, New towns movement, and Town and country planning in the United Kingdom
England
The term "new town" often refers in the UK to towns built after World War II under the New Towns Act 1946. These were influenced by the garden city movement, launched around 1900 by Ebenezer Howard and Sir Patrick Geddes and the work of Raymond Unwin, and manifested at Letchworth Garden City and Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire.Following World War II, some 28 projected towns were designated as New Towns under the 1946 Act, and were developed partly to house the large numbers of people whose homes had been destroyed by bombing during the war and partly to move parts of the population out of (mainly Victorian) urban slums. New Towns policy was also informed by a series of wartime commissions, including:
- the Barlow Commission (1940) into the distribution of industrial population
- the Scott Committee into rural land use (1941)
- the Uthwatt Committee into compensation and betterment (1942)
- (later) the Reith Report into New Towns (1947)
Following the building of Borehamwood, Middlesex, 12 miles north-west of central London, the first in a ring of major "first generation" New Towns around London (1946) were Stevenage, Hertfordshire, 27 miles to the north of London, and Basildon, Essex, 25 miles east of London along the River Thames. Hertfordshire built four other new towns, two in the vicinity of Stevenage (Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield), a third to the north called Letchworth, and Hemel Hempstead to the east. (Hall 1996: 133) New Towns in the North East were also planned such as Newton Aycliffe (which the social reformer and government adviser William Beveridge wanted to be the "ideal town to live in") and Peterlee. Two new towns were also planned in Scotland at East Kilbride (1947) and Glenrothes (1948). Bracknell in Berkshire, to the south-west of London, was designated a New Town in 1949 and is still expanding.
Later a scatter of "second-generation" towns were built to meet specific problems, such as the development of the Corby Steelworks.
Finally, five "third-generation" towns were launched in the late 1960s: these were larger, some of them based on substantial existing settlements such as Peterborough. The most famous (and to some, notorious) was probably Milton Keynes, roughly midway between London and the West Midlands, on account of its Brutalist architectural ambitions, reflecting the thinking of Alison and Peter Smithson and other British architectural idealists. Milton Keynes is known for its huge central park and shopping centre, designed from the outset as a new city – though in law it is a 'New Town'.
Other towns, such as Ashford, Kent, Basingstoke and Swindon, were designated "Expanded Towns" and share many characteristics with the new towns. Scotland also gained three more new towns: Cumbernauld in 1956, famous for its enclosed 'town centre', Livingston (1962) and Irvine (1966) (see Film- New Towns in Scotland).
In spite of the relative success of new towns in the London Metropolitan green belt, London continued to suffer from a chronic housing shortage, especially in the south-east. Another small New Town, Thamesmead, was developed adjacent to the Thames in the early 1960s but suffered from poor transport links. Some improvement in infrastructure has been seen subsequently.
All new towns featured a car-oriented layout, many of them with roundabouts and one in particular - Milton Keynes - with a grid-based road system. The earliest of the new towns were built quickly, with residents often being taken away from their established communities without ceremony. As a result, they acquired a poor reputation as the home of "new town blues". These issues were systematically addressed in the later towns, with the third generation towns in particular devoting substantial resources to cycle routes, buses and community facilities, as well as employing teams of officers for social development work.
The financing of the UK new towns was creative. Land within the designated area was acquired at agricultural-use value by the development corporation for each town, and infrastructure and building funds borrowed on 60-year terms from the UK Treasury. Interest on these loans was rolled up, in the expectation that the growth in land values caused by the development of the town would eventually allow the loans to be repaid in full. However, the high levels of retail price inflation experienced in the developed world in the 1970s and 1980s fed through into interest rates, frustrating this expectation, so that substantial parts of the loans had ultimately to be written off.[citation needed]
All New Towns designated under the New Towns Act of 1946 were serviced by a secretariat, the New Towns Association, a quango that reported to the New Towns Directorate of the Department of the Environment. It coordinated the work of the General Managers and technical officers, published a monthly information bulletin and provided information for visitors from around the world. As each New Town reached maturity, the town's assets were taken over by the Commission for New Towns. Set up in 1948, the New Towns Association was dissolved in 1998. All papers held by it and the Commission for New Towns are held in The National archives: [2]
From the 1970s the first generation towns began to reach their initial growth targets. As they did so, their development corporations were wound up and the assets disposed of: rented housing to the local authority, and other assets to the Commission for the New Towns (in England; but alternative arrangements were made in Scotland and Wales). The Thatcher Government, from 1979, saw the new towns as a socialist experiment to be discontinued, and all the development corporations were dissolved by 1992 (with the closure of Milton Keynes Development Corporation), even for the third generation towns whose growth targets were still far from being achieved. Ultimately the Commission for the New Towns was also dissolved and its assets - still including a lot of undeveloped land - passed to the English Industrial Estates Corporation (later known as English Partnerships).
Many of the New Towns attempted to incorporate public art and cultural programmes but with mixed methods and results. In Harlow the architect in charge of the design of the new town, Frederick Gibberd, founded the Harlow Art Trust[15] and used it to purchase works by leading sculptors, including Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. In Peterlee the abstract artist Victor Pasmore was appointed part of the design team, which led to the building of the Apollo Pavilion. Washington New Town was provided with a community theatre and art gallery. The public art in Milton Keynes includes the (in)famous Concrete Cows, which resulted from the work of an 'artist in residence' and have gone on to become a recognised landmark. Glenrothes led the way in Scotland being the first new town to appoint a town artist in 1968. A massive range of artworks (around 132 in total) ranging from concrete hippos to bronze statues, dancing children, giant flowers, a dinosaur, a horse and chariot and crocodiles, to name but a few, were created. Town artists appointed in Glenrothes include David Harding and Malcolm Roberston.
In the 1990s an experimental "new town" developed by the Prince of Wales to use very traditional or vernacular architectural styles was started at Poundbury in Dorset.
Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland, building of Craigavon in County Armagh commenced in 1966 between Lurgan and Portadown, although entire blocks of flats and shops lay empty, and later derelict, before eventually being bulldozed. The area, which now has a population exceeding 80,000 is mostly a dormitory town for Belfast.Derry was the first ever planned city in Ireland. Work began on building the new city across the River Foyle from the ancient town of Derry (Doire Cholm Chille or Doire) in 1613. The walls were actually completed five years later in 1618. The central diamond within a walled city with four gates was thought to be a good design for defence.[3] In 1963 under the Matthew Plan the new city of Craigavon was founded out of the original towns of Portadown and Lurgan. This town today lies mostly incomplete as the troubles halted construction. The plan initially was to construct a relief settlement to take people out of the crowded city of Belfast.
Scotland
In the late 1950s and early 1960s Scotland saw a creation of several "post-war new towns". These were; Cumbernauld, East Kilbride, Glenrothes, Irvine and Livingston. Each of these towns are in Scotland's list of 20 most populated towns and cities. East Kilbride is the second largest town in Scotland, or the 6th largest settlement with a population of over 73,000 and Livingston with a population of 76,000. The other three towns are not as big with populations between 30,000 and 50,000. Livingston is seen by some[weasel words] as "Scotland's town of the future". This is due to its large, increasing population and its healthy economic status[citation needed].Wales
The only new towns in Wales have been Newtown and Cwmbran. Cwmbran was established to provide new employment in the south eastern portion of the South Wales Coalfield. The town is perhaps most widely known now for its international sports stadium and shopping centre.Ukraine
The city of Slavutych in northern Ukraine was purpose-built after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster to host personnel of the nuclear power plant and their families, evacuated from the abandoned city of Pripyat.Prypiat is also another new city built in 1970. The city was abandoned on April 27, 1986 after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. On April 26 the city had 50.000 habitants, the majority workers at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Now the town is highly contaminated by radiation. Some of the former inhabitants of Prypiat now live in Slavutych.
Oceania
Australia
Australia's most prominent fully planned city is Canberra designed by American architect Walter Burley Griffin. The early central areas of two other major capital cities -- Adelaide and Melbourne -- were also planned by surveyors. Walter Burley Griffin was Australia's most notable city planner having also designed smaller cities and towns including Leeton and Griffith in New South Wales.Adelaide
Melbourne
Canberra
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