Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect known for his organic architecture and philosophy of designing structures in harmony with humanity and nature. He was interested in urban planning throughout his career. His most ambitious plan was Broadacre City, proposed in the 1930s, which envisioned decentralized, automobile-oriented communities where each American family would be given one acre of land. Broadacre City was meant to be the antithesis of dense cities and exemplify Wright's vision of suburban living, but it remained primarily a theoretical concept that highlighted some realities of future urban sprawl and independent living. While never fully realized, Broadacre City reflected Wright's belief that technological changes would make large cities obsolete.

1. PIONEERS OF
TOWN PLANNING
FRANK LLOYD
WRIGHT(BROADACRE CITY)
Ar.AyazAhmad Khan
Assistant Professor
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2. INTRODUCTION
•Frank Lloyd Wright (born Frank Lincoln
Wright, June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an
American architect, interior designer, writer,
planner and educator, who designed more than
1,000 structures, 532 of which were completed.
•Wright believed in designing structures that
were in harmony with humanity and its
environment, a philosophy he called organic
architecture.
•This philosophy was best exemplified
by Fallingwater (1935), which has been called
"the best all-time work of American
architecture".

3. PLANNING WORKS
Apart from his enormous
architectural works, he was
into community planning
also.
Frank Lloyd Wright was
interested in site and
community planning
throughout his career.
His commissions and
theories on urban design
began as early as 1900

4. PLANNING WORKS
The most ambitious designs of his community work was his entry into the City Club of
Chicago Land Development Competition in 1913.
The contest was for the development of a suburban quarter section.
This design expanded on the Quadruple Block Plan and included several social levels.
The design shows the placement of the upscale homes in the most desirable areas and
the blue collar homes and apartments separated by parks and common spaces.
The design also included all the amenities of a small city: schools, museums, markets,
etc.
This view of decentralization was later reinforced by theoretical Broadacre City design.
The philosophy behind his community planning was decentralization.
The new development must be away from the cities. In this decentralized America, all

5. BROADACRE CITY
Broadacre City was an urban or
suburban development concept
proposed by Frank Lloyd
Wright throughout most of his lifetime.
He presented the idea in his book The
Disappearing City in 1932. A few years
later he unveiled a very detailed twelve
by twelve foot (3.7 × 3.7 m) scale model
representing a hypothetical four square
mile (10 km²) community.
Sketches of broadacre city

6. BROADACRE CITY – KEY
POINTS
Broadacre City was the antithesis of a city and the apotheosis of the newly born suburbia,
shaped through Wright's particular vision.
It was both a planning statement and a socio-political scheme by which each U.S. family
would be given a one acre (4,046.86 m²) plot of land from the federal lands reserves, and
a Wright-conceived community would be built anew from this.
In a sense it was the exact opposite of transit-oriented development.
There is a train station and a few office and apartment buildings in Broadacre City, but the
apartment dwellers are expected to be a small minority.
All important transport is done by automobile and the pedestrian can exist safely only
within the confines of the one acre (4,046.86 m²) plots where most of the population
dwells.

7. BROADACRE CITY – KEY
POINTSEach family would be given one acre (4,000 sq.m. from the federal land reserves
Land would be taken into public ownership; then granted to families for as long as they
used it
productively.
12 x 12 ft. model that illustrated the Broadacre City concept as it might be applied to a
representative 4 sq. miles plot of land.

8. BROADACRE CITY

9. BROADACRE CITY

10. ORIGIN OF BROADACRE
CITY
Because of technological advancements, Wright came to believe that the large,
centralized city would soon become obsolete and people would return to their rural roots.
Wright despised the city, both physically and metaphorically.

11. ASPECTS OF
BROADACRE CITY THAT
BECAME REALITIES
Prevalence of urban sprawl
Modern suburbia may have many
differences with Broadacre, but there are
also many similarities.
 single-family homes on larger parcels of
land with smaller
roads connecting to larger roads
connecting to freeways.
Being able to own land, build a home, and
do what you please with it were important
in Broadacre City .
Wright believed that modern man had the
right to own a car and to burn as much
gasoline in driving it as he desired.

12. FAILURES AND LESSONS
TO LEARNT
Failures
Too real to be Utopian and too dreamlike to be of practical importance.
Demands motor transportation for even the most casual or ephemeral meetings
Lessons to be learnt
Urban sprawl has become a reality
Decentralization, both physically and economically; being more independent.

13. CONCLUSIONS
Although the Broadacre city was a utopian concept and never got built but the
idea of FLW was to create a city based on decentralization.
One more concept was his Usonian houses in which he cater the problem of low
income group people.

14. THANKYOU…