Urban planning has its origins in ancient civilizations like Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro which had deliberately planned cities. In classical times, Greek philosophers like Hippodamus laid out cities in orthogonal grids. During medieval times, many new towns were built in Europe to gain power. In the 19th century, overcrowded industrial cities led to new ideas like Ebenezer Howard's Garden Cities which proposed self-sufficient towns surrounded by greenbelts. In the 20th century, planners like Le Corbusier proposed concepts like the Radiant City with high density apartment blocks separated by open spaces. Chandigarh was influenced by these ideas and became a model new town in post-colonial India

1. ORIGIN OF URBAN PLANNING
Priyanshu Kumar
Jadab Munda
Krishna Barman

2.  INTRODUCTION:
Urban planning is a technical and political process concerned with the development and design of land use and
the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as
transportation, communications, and distribution networks.
 NEED FOR URBAN PLANNING:
 Facing new socio-economic and climatic challenges
 Urban security
 Public Health and Safety
 Financial crises
 Global Warming and climate change
 Social changes

3. ORIGIN OF URBAN PLANNING
 PRE-CLASICAL URBAN PLANNING:
 The pre-Classical and Classical periods saw a number of cities laid out according to fixed plans, though
many tended to develop organically.
 Designed cities were characteristic of the Minoan, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian civilizations of the
third millennium BC.
 Urban planning from remains of the cities of Harappa, Lothal, Dholavira, and Mohenjo-Daro in
the Indus Valley Civilization (in modern-day northwestern India and Pakistan) lead archeologists to
interpret them as the earliest known examples of deliberately planned and managed cities.
 Many Central American civilizations also planned their cities, including sewage systems and running
water. In Mexico, Tenochtitlan, built on an island in Lake Texcoco in the present-day Mexico City in
central Mexico, served as the capital of the Aztec empire. At its height, Tenochtitlan was one of the
largest cities in the world, with over 200,000 inhabitants.

4.  CONT…
 The Greek philosopher Hippodamus (5th century BC) is regarded as the first
town planner and ‘inventor’ of the orthogonal urban layout.
 The ancient Romans also employed regular orthogonal structures on which
they molded their colonies. They probably were inspired by Greek and
Hellenic examples, as well as by regularly planned cities that were built by
the Etruscans in Italy.
 Each insula was about 80 yards (73 m) square. As the city developed, it could
eventually be filled with buildings of various shapes and sizes and criss-
crossed with back roads and alleys.

5.  MEDIEVAL PERIOD URBAN PLANNING:
 After the gradual disintegration and fall of the West-Roman empire in the 5th century
and the devastation by the invasions of Huns, Germanic peoples, Byzantines, Moors,
Magyars, and Normans in the next five centuries, little remained of urban culture in
western and central Europe.
 In the 10th and 11th centuries, though, there appears to have been a general
improvement in the political stability and economy. This made it possible for trade and
craft to grow and for the monetary economy and urban culture to revive.
 In the 9th to 14th centuries, many hundreds of new towns were built in Europe, and
many others were enlarged with newly planned extensions. These new towns and town
extensions have played a very important role in the shaping of Europe’s geographical
structures as they in modern times.
 All kinds of landlords, from the highest to the lowest rank, tried to found new towns on
their estates, in order to gain economical, political or military power.

6.  CONT..
 Florence was an early model of the new urban planning, which took on a star-shaped layout
adapted from the new star fort, designed to resist cannon fire. This model was widely imitated,
reflecting the enormous cultural power of Florence in this age.
 After the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, King Joseph I of Portugal and his ministers immediately
launched efforts to rebuild the city. The architect Manuel da Maia boldly proposed razing entire
sections of the city and "laying out new streets without restraint".
 In 1852 Haussmann's project encompassed all aspects of urban planning, both in the center of
Paris and in the surrounding districts, with regulations imposed on building facades, public parks,
sewers and water works, city facilities, and public monuments.

7. MODERN URBAN PLANNING:
Planning and architecture went through a paradigm shift at the turn of the 20th century. The industrialized cities of the
19th century had grown at a tremendous rate, with the pace and style of building largely dictated by private business
concerns
GARDEN CITY BY EBENEZER HOWARD:
DEFINITION: A garden city is town designed for healthy living and industry: of a size that make possible a full
measure of social life, but not larger, surrounded by rural belt, each a self sufficient entity of 30000 population, ringed
by an agriculture belt.
 Sir Ebenezer Howard is known for his publication Garden Cities of To-morrow (1898), the description of a utopian
city in which people live harmoniously together with nature.
 The publication resulted in the founding of the garden city movement, that realized several Garden Cities in Great
Britain at the beginning of the 20th century.
GARDEN CITIES OF TOMORROW:
 This book offered a vision of towns free of slums and enjoying the benefits of both town (such as opportunity,
amusement and good wages) and country (such as beauty, fresh air and low rents).
 He illustrated the idea with his famous Three Magnets diagram which addressed 'Town', 'Country' or 'Town-
Country'.
 It proposed the creation of new suburban towns of limited size, planned in advance, and surrounded by a permanent
belt of agricultural land.

8. THREE MAGNETS OF GARDEN CITY:
The Three Magnets Diagram (below) makes three points:
Town life
Country life
Town-Country.
The original Garden City concept by Ebenezer Howard, 1902
 Assumed data-
 A total of 6000 acre estate
 1000 acres, purely for the central garden city as a home for 30000 people.
 Surrounding the central city 5000 Acres of land is retained for agriculture and home for 2000 people, with cow
pastures, farmlands, and welfare services.
 GARDEN CITY DATAS
Central City:
Area: 12000 acres.
Population : 58000 people
Agglomeration Cities:
Area: 9000 acres
Population: 32000 people
Distance between central main city and the agglomeration: ~10km

9. CONCEPTUAL LAYOUT:
 Circular city growing in a radial manner or pattern.
 Divided into six equal wards, by six main Boulevards that radiated from the central park/garden.
 Civic institutions (Town Hall, Library, Hospital, Theatre, Museum etc. ) are placed around the central garden.
 The central park enclosed by a crystal palace acts as an arcade for indoor shops and winter gardens.
 The streets for houses are formed by a series of concentric ringed tree lined avenues.
 Distance between each ring vary between 3-5km .
GARDEN CITY PRINCIPLE IN PRACTICE
LETCHWORTH, UNITED KINGDOM
The first Garden City evolved out of Howard’s principles is Letchworth Garden City designed by Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker in 1903.
Letchworth, officially Letchworth Garden City, is a town in Hertfordshire, England, with a population of 33,600
It was designed by Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker.
Letch worth – 35 miles from London
Land of 3822 acres
Reserved Green belt- 1300 acres
Designed for a maximum of 35000 population
In 30 years – developed with 15000 population & 150 shops, industries.
WELWYN, UNITED KIMGDOM

10. RADIANT CITY BY LE CORBUSIER'S:
City for 3 million people was proposed by Le corbusier in 1922,
principles :
Decongestion of the centre of the cities
Augmentation of the density
Enlargement of the means of circulation
Increase in the number of parks and open spaces
 Rectangle containing two cross axial highways
 At its heart was a six-level transport interchange – centre for motor, rail lines (underground and main-line railways)
and roof of which is air-field.
 24 cruciform skyscrapers - 60 storeyed office building with density 1200 ppa and covers 5% of the ground.
 Surrounding skyscrapers was apartment district – 8 storey buildings arranged in zigzag rows with broad
openspaces with density of 120 ppa.
 The buildings in the central area were raised on stilts (pilotis) so as to leave panoramas of unbroken greenery at
ground level
 The general impression was more of a city in a park than of a parkland in the city.
 The city espoused space, speed, mass production and efficient organisation, but also offered combination of natural
and urban environments.

11. RADIANT CITY IN PRACTICE IN INDIA:
CHANDIGARH – CITY OF DREAM

12.  The New Towns Act 1946 resulted in many New Towns being constructed in Britain over the
following decades.
 New towns were built in the United States from the 1960s – examples include Reston,
Virginia Columbia, Maryland Jonathan, Minnesota and Riverside Plaza.
 Other European countries such as France, Germany, Italy and Sweden also had some
successes with new towns.

13. CONCLUSION:
 From the above discussion we can conclude that the urban planning play an important role for the
development of any large urban areas.
 The importance of the urban planning is increasing in the 21st century, as modern society begins to face
issues of increased population growth, climate change and unsustainable development.
 Some researchers suggest that urban planning around the world work in different "planning cultures",
adapted to their local cities and cultures.
 professionals have identified skills, abilities and basic knowledge sets that are common to urban planners
across national and regional boundaries.

14. References:
I. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_planning
II. Ghosh Sumita.(1998) Introduction to Settlement Geography. Orient Blackswan private limited.
Kolkata. Chapter-6, pp77-83.
III. HELSINKI — ASPECTS OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING, Bernhard
BUTZIN, Geo Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1, Urban Development (1978), pp.11-26.
IV. Ramachandran. R.(1989) Urbanization and Urban systems in India. Oxford university press.
Delhi.chapter-2, pp.22-74.