Clarence Perry was an early 20th century American planner who developed the concept of the neighborhood unit. The neighborhood unit aimed to design self-contained residential areas that promoted community and protected residents from industrial areas and traffic. Key elements included centering the neighborhood around an elementary school, placing arterial streets on the perimeter, and dedicating 10% of land to parks and open space. The ideal neighborhood unit size was 5,000-6,000 people and 160 acres to allow children to walk half a mile to school and residents to access local services. Neighborhood planning principles focused on size, boundaries, internal streets, land use mix, and locating community facilities to encourage social interaction.

1. PIONEERS OF TOWN
PLANNING
CLARENCE PERRY
(NEIGHBOURHOOD UNIT)
Ar.AyazAhmad Khan
Assistant Professor
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2. INTRODUCTION
•Clarence Arthur Perry (1872 – Sept 6, 1944) was
an American planner, sociologist, author, and
•He was born in Truxton, New York.
•He worked in the New York City planning
where he became a strong advocate of
the Neighbourhood unit.
•He was an early promoter of neighbourhood
and recreation centres.
•As a staff member of the New York Regional Plan
the City Recreation Committee, Perry formulated

3. WHAT IS NEIGHBOURHOOD
UNIT?
•Neighbourhood “the area within which residents
may all share the common services, social
activities and facilities required in the vicinity of
dwellings”
•The concept of the neighbourhood unit,
crystallised from the prevailing social and
intellectual attitudes of the early 1900s
by Clarence Perry, is an early diagrammatic
planning model for residential development in
metropolitan areas.
•It was designed by Perry to act as a framework for

4. IDEA OF THIS NEED?
•Earlier idea of Perry was to provide a planning formula for the arrangement and
distribution of playgrounds in the NewYork region.
•The necessity thought was because of the rise of the auto-mobile in the early 20th
century.
•Road sense was not proper with the social conscious, thus street fatality rates were
increased.
•Idea was to generate islands locked amidst a wide sea of vehicular traffic, a dangerous
obstacle which prevented children (and adults) from safely walking to nearby playgrounds
and amenities.
•Ultimately, however, it evolved to serve a much broader purpose, of providing an identity

5. IDEA OF PERRY’S
NEIGHBOURHOOD
The neighbourhood unit was conceived of
as a comprehensive physical planning
tool, to be utilised for designing self-
contained residential neighbourhoods
which promoted a community centric
lifestyle, away from the "noise of the
trains, and out of sight of the smoke and
ugliness of industrial plants" emblematic
of an industrialising New York City in the
early 1900s.
A diagram of Clarence Perry's neighbourhood
unit, illustrating the spatiality of the core
principles of the concept.

6. IDEA OF PERRY’S
NEIGHBOURHOOD
The core principles of Perry's Neighbourhood Unit were around these design ideals :
•"Centre the school in the neighbourhood.
• Place arterial streets along the perimeter so that they define and distinguish the
the "place" of the neighbourhood.
• Design internal streets using a hierarchy that easily distinguishes local streets from
from arterial streets.
• Restrict local shopping areas to the perimeter.
• Dedicate at least 10 percent of the neighbourhood land area to parks and open
open space.

7. STATISTICS OF
NEIGHBOURHOOD UNIT
• Perry described the neighbourhood unit as area which require an elementary school
with 1,000 and 1,200 pupils.
• This would mean a population of between 5,000 and 6,000 people.
• Developed with Population Density of 10 families per acre, it would occupy about 160
acres.
• Any child have to walk a distance of around half mile to school.
• About 10 percent of the area would be allocated to recreation, and through traffic
arteries would be confined to the surrounding streets, internal streets being limited to
service access for residents of the neighbourhood.
• The unit would be served by shopping facilities, churches, library, and a community
centre.

8. ELEMENTS OF PERRY’S
NEIGHBOURHOOD
•Residential unit
•Schools
•Shopping centres
•Traffic roads
•Railway stations
•Open spaces

9. NEIGHBOURHOOD
PLANNING?
It is based on the simple principle that one is planning for society and not for aggregate
of houses.
The neighbours are not dependent on one another’s company and aid because city life
because city life gives a wide field of acquaintance and entertainment.
The neighbours may not have common modes and habits of living.
Thus…
• The neighbourhood planning is an attempt to form various physical units of
residential areas in which people belonging to a particular rank of life settles or
stay.
• It is the intention of a town planner to rejuvenate the valuable idea of
neighbourhood which have been lost in busy uncontrolled city life.

10. NEIGHBOURHOOD
PLANNING?
• All the residential units are now planned on
neighbourhood principle.
• It is a small unit which serves the local community
and encourages them to foster a neighbourhood
spirit or relationship which seems to have been lost
in the modern city life.
• It should possess the best qualities of small town to
facilitate the acquaintance and neighbourly relations
and also be broad enough to accommodate
sufficient people to enable each individual to come
in contact with people of different strata of society

11. PURPOSE OF
NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING
 Tomake the people socialize with oneand another.
 To enable the inhabitants to share the public amenities and recreational
facilities.
 To support a safe and healthyenvironment within the neighbourhood.
 To provide safety and efficiency to road users and pedestrians.
 To maintain, enhance, and improve area for recreational activities.
 To determine community’s prospects forthe future.

12. PRINCIPLES OF
NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING
1. Size
2. Boundaries
3. Protective Strips
4. Internal Streets
5. Layout of buildings
6. ShoppingCentres
7. CommunityCentres
8. Facilities

13. PRINCIPLES OF
NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING
1. Size
 The town is divided into self-contained units or sectors of
population.
 This is further divided into smaller units called neighbourhood
with 2,000 to 5,000 based on the requirement of one primary
 The size of the unit is therefore limited to about 1 to 1. 5 sq
within walkable distance of 10 to 15 minutes.

14. PRINCIPLES OF
NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING
2. Boundaries
 The unit should be bounded on all its sides by main road,
enough for traffic.
3. Protective Strips
 These are necessary to protect the neighbourhood from
traffic and to provide suitable facilities for developing parks,
playgrounds, and road widening scheme in future. These are
called Minor Green Belts.

15. PRINCIPLES OF
NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING
4. Internal Streets
 The internal streets are designed to ensure safety to the people
school going children in particular,
 The internal streets should circulate throughout the unit with easy
shops and community centres.
5. Layout of Buildings
 To encourage neighbourhood relation and secure social stability and
balance,
 The houses to suit the different income group should be provided
single family houses, double family houses, cottages , flats, etc.

16. PRINCIPLES OF
NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING
6. ShoppingCentres
 Each shop should be located on the circumference of the unit, preferably at
traffic junctions and adjacent to the neighbourhood units.
7. CommunityCentres
 Each community will have its centre with social, cultural and recreational
amenities.

17. PRINCIPLES OF
NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING
8. Facilities
 All public facilities required for the family for their comfort and
convenience should be within easy reach.
 These include the primary school, temple, club, retail shop, sport
 These should be located within 1km in the central place so as to
nucleus to develop social life of the unit.

18. CONCLUSION
 Neighbourhood planning is quickly becoming a high priority for the city
planning departments, and evenhuman service providers
 Neighbourhood planning is effective and provide inspire those creative strategies
that can increase the capacity ofresidents in charting out their sharedfuture.
 It’sa vision of a better future.

20. THANKYOU…