Urban Utopia
Matt Torres Dr. Cay Hehner Modern New York November 1, 2012
Research Paper The history of the urban utopia arose when theorists and city planners decided that a radical reconstruction of their cities (Venturi 4) was needed. There are problems that arose in cities of every generation and these problems have sparked the minds of the greatest thinkers, planner, architects, and theorists of the 19th century. These were the first attempts at correcting the problems that we deal with today. Problems such as dealing with growth, dealing with nature, and dealing with civilization. Throughout the history of the city, it seems as though some of these basic principles have been forgotten. However, we can look towards the work of Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Corbusier, who were some of the most dominant architectural thinkers who advanced the field of urban-conceptual thought into places it had never been before. The radical thinker, known as Sir Ebenezer Howard, is widely regarded by many to be one of the most influential urban planners of the 19th century. His work with the English Garden City Movement led to a worldwide response about how cities will deal with a rapid increase of people. His goal was to provide comfortable cities, which had an abundance of affordable housing; arranged in ways that would incorporate nature to its fullest. His work, unlike that of Robert Moses (another influential urban planner), Frank Lloyd Wright, or Le Corbusier,
focused on the people and their ability to live in cities, without sacrificing their valuable green space. Howard was born on Fore Street, in the city of London on January 29th, 1850. He was the son of a shopkeeper and was sent away to school at a young age. He was schooled in Suffolk, then Cheshunt in Hertforshire, and finally completed his education at the age of 15 at Stoke Hall, Ipswich (Letchworth, para. 2). Working odd jobs out of school, he was eventually persuaded to go to the US at the age of 21.
Research Paper The history of the urban utopia arose when theorists and city planners decided that a radical reconstruction of their cities (Venturi 4) was needed. There are problems that arose in cities of every generation and these problems have sparked the minds of the greatest thinkers, planner, architects, and theorists of the 19th century. These were the first attempts at correcting the problems that we deal with today. Problems such as dealing with growth, dealing with nature, and dealing with civilization. Throughout the history of the city, it seems as though some of these basic principles have been forgotten. However, we can look towards the work of Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Corbusier, who were some of the most dominant architectural thinkers who advanced the field of urban-conceptual thought into places it had never been before. The radical thinker, known as Sir Ebenezer Howard, is widely regarded by many to be one of the most influential urban planners of the 19th century. His work with the English Garden City Movement led to a worldwide response about how cities will deal with a rapid increase of people. His goal was to provide comfortable cities, which had an abundance of affordable housing; arranged in ways that would incorporate nature to its fullest. His work, unlike that of Robert Moses (another influential urban planner), Frank Lloyd Wright, or Le Corbusier,
focused on the people and their ability to live in cities, without sacrificing their valuable green space. Howard was born on Fore Street, in the city of London on January 29th, 1850. He was the son of a shopkeeper and was sent away to school at a young age. He was schooled in Suffolk, then Cheshunt in Hertforshire, and finally completed his education at the age of 15 at Stoke Hall, Ipswich (Letchworth, para. 2). Working odd jobs out of school, he was eventually persuaded to go to the US at the age of 21.
Bibliography: Venturi, Robert, Denise Scott Brown, Steve Izenour. Learning from Las Vegas, Rev. ed. Cambridge; MIT P, 1996 Rem Koolhaas, et. Al. Harvard Project on the City. Mutations. Actar, 2001. Peter Lang, William Menking, Superstudio: Life Without Objects, Skira, 2003 Unknown. Ebenezer Howard , Biography and the Beginnings of the Garden City, 21 Apr. 2007. Web. 07 Nov. 2012 .