UNIT III – PLANNING CONCEPTS

• Planning concepts and their relevance to Indian Planning practice

• Ebenezer Howard - Garden city concepts and contents
• Patrick Geddes
• Conservative surgery – case study
• C.A. Perry - Neighborhood concept
• Le Corbusier – concept and case studies

Planning concepts and their relevance to Indian Planning practice

Introduction to Planning Discipline :

All the daily activities of human beings are carried out on land. Proper organization of these
activities i.e. planning will help the human being in leading a richer and fuller life in liveable
surroundings or environment. "Planning" means the scientific, aesthetic, and orderly disposition of
land, resources, facilities and services with a view to securing the physical, economic and social
efficiency, health and well-being of urban and rural communities. Planning – a continuous, time-
oriented and cyclic process of identification and achievement of goals.

Cyclic Process of Planning :

It is a process that includes-
1. Identification of goals and objectives,
2. Assessment of problems, potential and priorities,
3. Preparation of alternative conceptual plans and their evaluation to select most appropriate
concept,
4. Preparation of plan based on related concept and its approval,
5. Implementation,
6. Feedback and
7. Review of the Plan

Fields of Planning :
1. Urban
2. Regional
3. Environmental
4. Transport
5. Infrastructure
Urban Planning : It is a technique and method of development that contributes to the organization,
development and evolution of urban areas and their urbanising environs, based on economic, social,
legal and aesthetic concepts and conditions in order to promote the welfare of public and quality of
environment.

Regional Planning : It is a specific type of planning, based on a specific planning structure (regional
system), for inducing public action aimed at societal well being. It implies that regional planning is
concerned fundamentally with the society in the context of space.
Environmental Planning : Environmental planning is a tool for environmental protection and
sustainable development of any area from environmental point of view.

Transport Planning : The process of analysis of travel demand in a city or region having regard to
socio-economic, land-use, and other factors and formulation of policies, programmes, plans and
projects for its efficient management.

Infrastructure :
The basic components of a human settlement that make it functional and improve its quality of life
and include network of water supply, sewerage, drainage, electricity, communication, transportation
and facilities and services.

Facility – in urban planning a premises where health-care, educational, socio-cultural and

recreational activities take place.

Services - include transportation by rail, road, air, waterways, telecommunication, police

protection, fire fighting, postal etc.

Utilities – basic public services like water supply, sewerage, drainage and electricity supply.

Relevance of Planning Concepts to Indian Planning Practice :

• Town planning law in India has been largely based on the British pattern as though the situation at
that time in the country was tabula rasa.

• The earliest laws empowered the local authority to control the use and development of land
through zoning and building regulations, acquire land for public purposes and recover betterment
contributions in respect of plots benefiting from improvements. Under these early Acts, schemes
could only be made for open suburban lands and not for built-up areas within the town.

• Ignoring the built-up areas within towns, and later dealing with them as exceptions to ‘norms’
identified ( as in the PWD Handbooks), demonstrates a warped perception of Indian urban reality
and was perhaps the most invidious legacy of these colonial laws.

• For eg: The Handbook of PWD Maharashtra, provides models for new development layouts.
Commending the concept of Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City for application in India, it reproduces
its plan.
 Only the plan, that is, its physical elements, was used to describe Howard’s ideas because
significantly, the social and economic content of Howard’s proposals were totally ignored.
Consequently, the concept, as understood by Indian town planners, translated into low-
density suburban dormitories.
 Instead of the self-contained town envisaged by Howard as an alternative to the soul-
destroying urban environments of his times, only the elements of zoning, ‘neighbourhood
units’ and ‘green belts’ were incorporated and absorbed into the local planning vocabulary.
 The physical elements of Howard’s complex ideas remain a powerful image for a desirable
urban environment in the minds of our town planners and the genesis of this image may well
have been Handbooks like these.

• Soon after Independence town planners realised that suburban developments were not solving
urban problems. To enable to tackle town growth and development in a comprehensive and well-
integrated manner, it was obligatory for every local authority to prepare a development plan for
the entire town after carrying out surveys and studies of its physical, social and economic
conditions.
• The basic concern of town planners is the spatial management of change. Other disciplines
influence their perception of such change; social scientists for instance see change as ‘progress’
and look upon the conditions in India as regressive of the European experience.

• There was the iconic power of geometric patterns in Edwin Lutyens’ plan for the Imperial city of
New Delhi (1930) based on baroque town patterns -wide, tree-lined avenues, monumental vistas,
parks, bungalows within large urban lots, and European archetypes like circuses, courts and
baronial mansions which may as well have been transplanted from the English countryside.

• The idea of Daniel Burnham’s City Beautiful movement that was picked up by the Indian town
planner in the Sixties and Seventies.

• Post independence Indian planners picked up the concept of the neighbourhood planning unit
right from where the pioneering planners left off. On the one hand, they continued to produce
adapted variations of the neighbourhood unit that were perceived as contextually sensitive; on
the other hand, they disseminated the concept widely in line with the new nation’s modernist
planning agenda. Later they translated the concept figuratively and linguistically – which was then
easy to internalise because it no longer appeared foreign and this paved the way for its spread
across Indian states and cities through the 1960s and 1970s.

• The technique of diagnostic survey, commonplace in planning practice today, is the somewhat
belated result of Patrick Geddes' work in India four decades ago.

• Le Corbusier’s plan for Chandigarh - the concept of the super-block and the continuous leisure-
valley, which became recurrent motifs in several Master Plans, made for other cities

• Master Plan for Delhi - the principles of poly-nodal development modules with segregated
functional-use zones, which also became stock-in-trade in the repertory of town planners all over
the country.

• Introduction of the ‘structure plan’ concept in Calcutta in the 1970’s - The ‘structure plan’
practice was adopted in Britain in the 1970’s, and even though it was introduced into the Calcutta
Master Plan soon thereafter, it did not take hold in India.

• The trends and patterns of urbanisation, the nature of economic activities, land management
practices, etc. vary across regions due to differences in physical, social, political and legal
situations.
Ebenezer Howard - Garden City concepts and contents :

Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928) :

Sir Ebenezer Howard came to America from England at the age of 21. He settled in
Nebraska, and soon discovered that he was not meant to be a farmer. He moved to
Chicago and worked as a reporter for the courts and newspapers. By 1876, he was
back in England, where he found a job with a firm, Hansard producing the official
Parliamentary reports, and he spent the rest of his life in this occupation. In 1899 he
founded the Garden Cities Association, known now as the Town and Country
Planning Association.

Howard read widely and thought deeply about social issues, and one result was his
book To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform(1898), reprinted in 1902 as Garden
Cities of To-Morrow. This book called for the creation of new suburban towns of
limited size, planned in advance, and surrounded by a permanent belt of agricultural
land. Many suburbs were modeled after Howard’s “Garden Cities.” He believed they
were the perfect blend of city and nature.
His ideas attracted enough attention and financial backing to begin Letchworth, a
garden city in suburban London. A second garden city, Welwyn, was started after
World War I. Their success led the British government to develop New Towns after
World War II. This movement produced more than 30 communities, most significantly perhaps Milton
Keynes. Howard’s ideas inspired other planners such as Frederick Law Olmsted II and Clarence Perry.

Garden City concepts and contents :

Background
• It is important to understand the context to which Howard’s work was a reaction.
• London (and other cities) in the 19th century were in the throws of industrialization, and the cities
were exerting massive forces on the labour markets of the time.
• Massive immigration from the countryside to the cities was taking place with London.
• This situation was unsustainable and political commentators of all parties sought “how best to
provide the proper antidote against the greatest danger of modern existence” (St. Jame’s Gazette,
1892)
• To Howard the cure was simple - to reintegrate people with the countryside.
• Howard was heavily influenced by the utopian visions of Edward Bellamy and his publication
Looking Backward (1888).
• The ideas put forth in To-morrow were a synthesis of his personal experiences and the works of
others.
• 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 City concepts :

• Most potent planning model in western urban planning
• Created by Ebenezer Howard in 1898 to solve urban and
rural problems
• Source of many key planning ideas during 20th century
• Garden Cities of To-morrow was based on ideas of social
and urban reform.
• Garden Cities were to avoid the downfalls of industrial cities of the time such as urban poverty,
overcrowding, low wages, dirty alleys with no drainage, poorly ventilated houses, toxic substances,
dust, carbon gases, infectious disease and lack of interaction with nature.
• He illustrated the idea with his famous Three
Magnets diagram (pictured), which addressed the
question 'Where will the people go?', the choices being
'Town', 'Country' or 'Town-Country'.
• Garden Cities of Tomorrow proposed that society be
re-organised with networks of garden cities that would
break the strong hold of capitalism and lead to
cooperative socialism.
• In trying to understand and represent the attraction of
the city he compared each city to a magnet, with
individuals represented as needles drawn to the city.
• He set about comparing the ‘town and country
magnets’ but decided that neither were suitable
attractors for his utopian vision. Instead he believed
that “Human society and the beauty of nature are
meant to be enjoyed together” – hence giving his
solution “the two magnets must be made one.”
• "Town and country must be united, and out of this joyous union, will spring a new hope, a new
life, a new civilization."
Town Country
Positive aspects Negative aspects Positive aspects Negative aspects
• Social opportunity. • Closing out of nature. • Beauty of nature. • Lack of society
• Land lying idle. • Hands out of work.
• Isolation of crowds. • High rents & prices.
• Wood, meadow, forest. • Trespassers beware.
• Places of • Foul air and Murky
amusement. sky. • Fresh air. • Low wages.
• Low rents. • Lack of drainage.
• Chances of • Slums & gin palaces.
employment. • Abundance of water. • Lack of amusement.
• Bright sunshine. • No public spirit.
• High money wages. • Costly drainage.
• Need for reform.
• Well-lit streets. • Crowded dwellings.
• Palatial edifices. • Deserted villages.

Data in Principle :
Town - Country Assumed data-
Combination of both aspects • A total of 6,000 acre estate
Beauty of nature- peace all-over the places. • 1,000 acres - purely for the central garden city
as a home for 30,000 people.
Social opportunity- cumulative growth. • Surrounding the central city 5,000 Acres of land
Fields and parks of easy access- equal chances. is retained for agriculture and home for 2,000
people, with cow pastures, farmlands, and
Low rents- high wages. welfare services.
Low rates- plenty to do. Conceptual Layout :
• Circular city growing in a radial manner or
Low prices- no sweating.
pattern.
Field for enterprise- flow of capital. • Divided into six equal wards, by six main
Pure air and water- good drainage. Boulevards that radiated from the central
park/garden.
Bright homes & gardens- no smoke, no slums. • Civic institutions (Town Hall, Library, Hospital,
Freedom- Co-operation. 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 .
• A 420 feet wide , 3 mile long, Grand avenue
which run in the center of concentric rings ,
houses the schools and churches and acts as
a continuous public park.
• All the industries, factories and warehouses
were placed at the periferal ring of the city.
• The municipal railway was placed in
another ring closer to the industrial ring , so
that the pressure of excess transport on the
city streets are reduced and the city is
connected to the rest of the nation.

‘A Garden City is a town designed for industry and healthy living; of a size that makes possible a full measure
of social life, but not larger; surrounded by a permanent belt of rural land; the whole of theland being in
public ownership or held in trust for the community.’ Formal definition adopted by the Garden Cities and
Town Planning Association in 1919.
Revenue and expenditure
Howard goes to great lengths to demonstrate how the revenue derived simply from rents could be
used to:
• Pay the interest with which the estate was purchased (providing a 4% return for the initial
investors)
• Provide a sinking fund for the purpose of paying off the principal.
Construct and maintain all the works typically undertaken by municipalities (including a detailed
breakdown of associated costs).
• Provide a large surplus for other purposes including old age pensions, medical services and
insurance.
Administration :
• Howard did not advocate the complete municipalisation of industry or the elimination of private
enterprise, instead he proposes a cautious and limited municipality that doesn’t attempt “too
much.”
• The activities are to be closely related to the rate-rent of the tenants and would “grow in
proportion as municipal work is done efficiently and honestly.”
• With this in mind the structure of the municipality and its administration is proposed with a
Board of Management composed of The Central Council and The Departments (Public Control,
Engineering, Social and Education).
City Growth :
• Assuming the Garden City model was implemented and found to be successful Howard begins to
describe how the City could grow and become part of an integrated network of Garden Cities.
• The principle of “always preserving a belt of country” around cities should always be
maintained, argues Howard, so once a city has reached capacity a new one must be founded
outside the agricultural belt (the influence of colonial-models prominent).
• Eventually there a central city (of perhaps 58,000 inhabitants) would be surrounded by a number
of smaller off-shoot cities, connected by railroad and canal infrastructure.
Garden City Principle in Practice :
• The first Garden City evolved out of Howard’s principles is Letchworth Garden City designed by
Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker in 1903.
• The second one to evolve was Welwyn Garden City designed by Louis de Soissons and Frederic
Osborn in 1920.
• Another example was Radburn City designed by Clarence Stein and Henry Wright in 1928.

Letchworth :
Letchworth is the world’s first Garden City, created as a solution to • Letchworth,
the squalor and poverty of urban life in Britain in the late 19th officially Letchworth Garden
Century, Based on the ideas of Ebenezer Howard as published in City, is a town
his book of 1898 “Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Reform”. in Hertfordshire, England,
Letchworth Garden City inspired town planning across the globe. with a population of 33,600
• It was designed by Raymond
Howard’s company First Garden City Ltd began construction in Unwin and Barry Parker.
1903. The company appointed architects Barry Parker and • Letch worth – 35 miles from
Raymond Unwin to design the masterplan for the new London
• Land of 3822 acres
community. Central to the Company’s ethos was a commitment to
• Reserved Green belt- 1300
repatriate all profits back into the Estate. acres
• Designed for a maximum of
In 1962, an Act of Parliament transferred the assets, role and 35000 population
responsibilities of First Garden City Ltd to a public sector • In 30 years – developed with
organisation - Letchworth Garden City Corporation. 33 years later, 15000 population & 150
a further Act of Parliament wound up the Corporation passing the shops, industries.
£56 million Estate to Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation.

Today, the community management of Letchworth still broadly follows Howard's principle of 'rate-
rent', where residents pay for their services (rates) and those who invested in the initial
development receive a return (rent), which is this case is reinvested back into the town.

This system has enabled the Heritage Foundation to develop a range of services and amenities
including a hospital, museum, parks, minibus and shop mobility service, whilst also operating a
number of businesses to supplement its income.

Recently, the town has reached its target population of 30 000 and has also paid off its debts. With
the system finally breaking-even, Letchworth has partly fulfilled Howard's original vision by
becoming economically self-sustaining.
Welwyn : • Welwyn Garden City is a
Welwyn Garden City was the second garden city in England town within the Borough of
(founded 1920) and one of the first new towns (designated Welwyn Hatfield in
1948). It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town Hertfordshire, England.
and exemplifies the physical, social and cultural planning ideals • It is located approximately 19
of the periods in which it was built. miles from Kings Cross and
• Streets are designed so as to give the concept of a 24 miles from London.
Neighborhood unit. • On 29 April 1920 a company,
• Separation of the pedestrian walkways from the main roads Welwyn Garden City Limited,
gives a sense of natural beauty. was formed to plan and build
• Open and green spaces are given on a large scale. the garden city, chaired by Sir
• Personalization of Homes in Welwyn with varying roofline, Theodore Chambers. Louis
texture and composition for each house. de Soissons was appointed as
architect and town planner
and Frederic Osborn as
secretary.
• Land of 2378 acres
• Designed for a maximum of
40000 population
• In 15 years – developed with
10000 population & 50
shops, industries.
• Welwyn Garden City had a
population of 46,619 in 2011.
Patrick Geddes:
Sir Patrick Geddes (1854 –1932) was a Scottish biologist, sociologist, geographer,
philanthropist and pioneering town planner. He was a biologist by training, a
pioneering town planner who influenced various generations of urban planners, a
sociologist and an educator throughout his life. He is widely regarded as the ‘father
of British Town Planning’. He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields
of urban planning and sociology. He saw the city as a series of common interlocking
patterns, "an inseparably interwoven structure", akin to a flower.

First to link sociological concepts into town planning. “Survey before plan” i.e. diagnosis before treatment.
An energetic Francophile, Geddes was the founder in 1890 of the Collège des Écossais (Scots College) an
international teaching establishment in Montpellier, France and in the 1920s he bought the
Château d'Assas to set up a centre for urban studies.

Geddes’ work was based on his fundamental principle of ‘Place, Work and People’ as he believed that
geography; economics and anthropology were related, yielding a single chord of social life. “Think globally,
act locally”, "it takes a whole region to make the city“. Geddes shared the belief with John Ruskin that
social processes and spatial form are related. Therefore, by changing the spatial form it was possible to
change the social structure as well. This was particularly important in the late 19th and early 20th century
when industrialization was dramatically altering the conditions of life.
Geddes had envisioned his city to be a flourishing and nourishing
space where people could live, work, love and be connected to
their environment. He had practically shaped the city of Edinburgh
in the 19th century. However, his pioneering work in urban planning
and education in Edinburgh also took him across the world to India,
Palestine and France. In India (his place of work) he spent a decade
trying to introduce holistic principles of urban planning and
education and set up the sociology department at the University of
Bombay. He gave his expert advice for the improvement of about
18 major towns in India. Geddes revived the Old Town of Edinburgh
using his ground breaking concepts of ‘diagnostic surveys’ and
‘conservative surgery’, which he went on to implement in town
planning projects across Scotland, India and the Middle East. In fact,
>>Tel Aviv is a city whose core was entirely built around Geddes’
plan. He also introduced the concept of ‘region’ to architecture and
planning and coined the term ‘conurbation’.

Social Experiments in Edinburgh:

His most celebrated social experiments – reviving the Old Town in Edinburgh, setting up student
halls of residence and developing the Outlook Tower.

Based on the principle of work, he galvanised the folk – the local resident community, local
architects and artists to bring about the Old Town’s regeneration and preserve their locality, without
waiting for government action.
Geddes purchased a row of slum tenements in James Court, in the Old Town, making it into a single
dwelling. In terms of ‘Place’, he advocated ‘Conservative Surgery’ which meant weeding out the
worst of the houses that surrounded them, widening the narrow closes (lanes) into courtyards and
thus improving sunlight and airflow. The best of the houses were kept and restored. Geddes
believed that this approach was both more economical and more humane.

In 1884, Geddes established the Environment Society (later the Edinburgh Social Union) to
encourage local residents to survey, plan, and improve the local environment.
Conurbation:
• The term "conurbation" was coined in 1915 by Patrick Geddes in his book Cities In Evolution.
Internationally, the term "urban agglomeration" is often used to convey a similar meaning to
"conurbation".
• He drew attention to the ability of the (then) new technology of electric power and motorised
transport to allow cities to spread and agglomerate together, and gave as examples "Midland ton"
in England, the Ruhr in Germany, Ramstad in the Netherlands, New York-Boston in the United
States, the Greater Tokyo Area and Taiheiyō Belt in Japan and NCR of Delhi in India.
• A conurbation is a region comprising a number of cities, large towns, and other urban areas that,
through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban
and industrially developed area.
• In most cases, a conurbation is a polycentric urban agglomeration, in which transportation has
developed to link areas to create a single urban labour market or travel to work area.
• The term is used in North America, a metropolitan area can be defined by the Census Bureau or it
may consist of a central city and its suburbs, while a conurbation consists of adjacent metropolitan
areas that are connected with one another by urbanization.

Examples of Conurbation :
New York
The expansive concept of the New York metropolitan area (the Tri-State Region) centred on New York City,
including 30 counties spread between New York State, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, with an
estimated population of 21,961,994 in 2007. Approximately one-fifteenth of all U.S. residents live in the
Greater New York City area. This conurbation is the result of several central cities whose urban areas have
merged.

United Kingdom
Industrial and housing growth in the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries produced
many conurbations. Greater London is by far the largest urban area and is usually counted as a conurbation in
statistical terms, but differs from the others in the degree to which it is focused on a single central area. In
the mid-1950s the Green Belt was introduced to stem the further urbanisation of the countryside in UK.

The National Capital Region (NCR)

NCR is a name for the conurbation or metropolitan area which encompasses the entire National Capital
Territory of Delhi as well as urban areas ringing it in neighbouring states of UP, Haryana and Rajasthan. With a
total area of about 33,578 km2 (12,965 sq mi) it had an estimated population of 21,961,994 in 2007.

Constellation Theory :
Constellation theory was also coined by Sir Patrick Geddes , “4 or more cities, which are not
economically, politically, socially equal come together in developing a whole region”. This theory is
mostly used for administrative purpose in all countries worldwide. Such theory is most prominently
used because planning cities in a particular shape pattern is not possible in Today’s times.

Case study : Maharashtra Prominent cities

• Mumbai- Economic and Capital city in Maharashtra
• Nasik- Religious city are shown to be
connected
• Aurangabad- Administrative city
forming a
• Nagpur- Political city
“Constellation”
• Pune-Educational importance city shape
Since, all the five factors necessary for development of a
region are divided with five different place , the
administration of that region has a gradual progressing
path, because a certain region doesn’t have all these.
The Maharashtra state has gained prime importance for the country in the last few decade in spite of being
formed in early 60’s, contributing 15% to country's industrial output and 13.3% GDP.
Production, Manufacturing, automobile, Thermal Electricity projects have been an active part in the growth
of the state.
The distance between the cities in Maharashtra, ranges mostly in 100km-300km making transportation,
connectivity, inter-dependency prosper within the state.
Maharashtra is divided into 6 revenue divisions, which are further divided into 35 districts.
These 35 districts are further divided into 109 sub-divisions of the districts and 357 Talukas in Maharashtra.
The six administrative divisions in Maharashtra state are Amravati Division, Aurangabad Division, Konkan
Division, Nagpur Division, Nashik Division, and Pune Division.
The Admistrational aspect of Maharashtra is quite a unique factor since six divisions are set up as a network
working together to form a well efficient an d working governance.

Conservative Surgery – Case Study :

The idea of conservative surgery is put forth as a critique of
industrial order.

The conservative surgery, demonstrates that violent

imposition of gridiron pattern in the old parts of the city is
destructive and not necessary.

It suggests removing as few building as possible as a means

of Urban Renewal.

It is more or less a renewal process than a removal from

places. It brings out different and encouraging results with
a far less financial outlay.

While preparing general design for the improvement of areas it may be done with or without
reference to the old town but should be either regular and formal or individual and informal and
the latter is to be encouraged especially for old towns.

Geddes repeatedly shows that such forced interventions are “spurious methods of reliving
congestion” in old towns.

Geddes uses examples from Tanjore, Balrampur and Madurai to illustrate this idea.

In his plan for the city of Madurai in India, he

advised against demolitions and against
reconfiguring and sanitizing neighborhoods,
advocating instead for "conservative surgery" to
improve housing conditions with minimal
interventions and expense. On the left, you can see
the colonial government's plan for wiping out most
of this residential neighborhood in order to improve
its housing and reform its street plan into a 'modern‘
grid (overlaid on map). Geddes showed how the
government's objectives could be achieved with far
less time and money by careful attention to detail—a
close look at the actual situation on the street.
 Clarence Arthur Perry :
• Clarence Arthur Perry (1872 – 1944) was an American planner, sociologist,
author, and educator. He was born in Truxton, New York.

• He later worked in the New York City planning department where he became
a strong advocate of the Neighborhood unit.

• He was an early promoter of neighborhood community and recreation

centers.

• As a staff member of the New York Regional Plan and the City Recreation
Committee, Perry formulated his early ideas about the neighborhood unit
and community life.

• His ideas were realized in neighborhoods like Radburn through the work of Clarence Stein. He
produced several books, many pamphlets and articles though is best remembered for his “The
Neighborhood Unit,” Monograph One. Vol. 7, Regional Survey of New York and Its Environs,
Neighborhood and Community Planning. New York: New York Regional Plan, 1929. and Housing
for the Machine Age New York,NY

Neighbourhood Unit Concept :

• Neighbourhood Unit Conept is an early
diagrammatic planning model for residential
development in metropolitan areas.

• The ‘neighborhood unit’ as a planning concept

evolved in response to the degenerated
environmental and social conditions fostered as a
consequence of industrial revolution in the early
1900s.

• It was designed by Perry to act as a framework for

urban planners attempting to design functional,
self-contained and desirable neighbourhoods in the
early 20th century in industrialising cities.

• Perry’s neighborhood unit concept began as a

means of insulating the community from the ill-
effects of burgeoning sea of vehicular traffic.
A diagram of Clarence Perry's neighbourhood
unit, illustrating the spatiality of the core
• However, it evolved to serve a much broader principles of the concept, from the New York
purpose of providing a discernible identity for the Regional Survey, Vol 7. 1929
concept of the neighborhood, and of offering to
designers a framework for disseminating the city
into smaller subareas.
Clarence A. Perry’s Conception of the Neighborhood Unit :
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.
Original Neighborhood Unit Concept Clarence Perry, Regional Plan Association, 1929 :

• The 5-minute walking radius is the standard indicator for informing the configuration of and
distribution of land uses in a walkable neighbourhood. Ideally, most daily needs of the
neighbourhood residents are available within this area.
• Commercial and community uses are located at important junctions within and on the edges of
the neighborhood.

The core principles of Perry's Neighbourhood Unit were organised around several institutional,
social and physical design ideals:

1. The population of the neighborhood should be that which is required to support its elementary
school. Size the neighbourhood to sufficiently support a school, between 5,000 to 9,000
residents, approximately 160 acres at a density of ten units per acre.

2. The neighborhood focal point should be the elementary school, centrally located on a common
or green, along with other institutions that have service areas coincident with the neighborhood
boundaries; Center the school in the neighbourhood so that a child's walk to school was only
about 1 ¼ of a mile and no more than 1 ½ mile and could be achieved without crossing a major
arterial street. (The radius of the neighborhood should be a maximum of one quarter mile)
Implement a wider use of the school facilities for neighbourhood meetings and activities,
constructing a large play area around the building for use by the entire community.

3. Place arterial streets along the perimeter so that they define and distinguish the "place" of the
neighborhood and by design eliminate unwanted through-traffic from the neighborhood. In this
way, major arterials define the neighborhood, rather than divide it through its heart.

4. Design internal streets using a hierarchy that easily distinguishes local streets from arterial
streets, using curvilinear street design for both safety and aesthetic purposes. The patterns
should be designed and constructed through use of cul-de-sacs, curved layout and light duty
surfacing so as to encourage a quiet, safe and low volume traffic movement, preservation of the
residential atmosphere and enhance the safety of pedestrians.

5. Restrict local shopping areas to the perimeter preferably at major street intersections. or
perhaps to the main entrance of the neighborhood, thus excluding nonlocal traffic destined for
these commercial uses that might intrude on the neighborhood.

6. Dedicate at least 10 percent of the neighborhood land area to parks and open space, creating
places for play and community interaction

Impact of neighborhood concept across the globe :

• The principles identified by Perry were endorsed by most planning and design organizations in
planning and designing neighborhoods.
• The neighborhood unit has formed the basis of planning and building of most of the first
generation British New Towns (1946-1950).
• The British New Towns Committee in 1946 stated that the neighborhood is a natural and useful
conception, but it should not be thought of as a self-contained community of which the
inhabitants are more conscious than they are of the town as whole (Gallion, 1984).
• Perry’s principles have been the building blocks of many neighborhoods such as Radburn, New
Jersey; Greenbelt, Maryland; Kentlad; Maryland, Greenhills;Ohio, McKenzie Towne; Calgary,
Mahogany;Calgary, Hidden Springs, Boise, Idaho; USA, Prairie Crossing, Grayslake, IL; USA,
Northwest Crossing, Oregon;USA, The Woodlands, Texas;USA
Northwest Crossing, Bend, Oregon, USA – a case study of Neighbourhood Unit
Concept :
• NorthWest Crossing is a new 487-acre
(197-hectare) residential and
commercial community adjoining the
city of Bend, Oregon.
• It is laid out according to new urbanist
principles, with an average density of
five dwelling units per acre (12.6 units
per hectare).
• It will have 1,350 single- and
multifamily homes at buildout,
expected in 2012.
• A total of 26.4 acres (10.7 hectares) of
neighborhood and community parks
are dispersed throughout, and there
are 6.9 acres (2.8 hectares) of natural
open space at the edge of the
development, complemented by
specially zoned lots that preserve
existing rimrock and natural high
desert vegetation.
• It exemplifies the concept of a healthy and livable neighbourhood.
• Contains a variety of housing types, a mix of architectural styles, complete streets, community-
scaled businesses, two schools, and an employment area intended to provide jobs within the
community.
• Amenities are provided throughout the neighborhood.
• Areas of preserved open space, mature trees and scenic views are connected by a network of
paved trails.
• Thoughtful planning and design, and preservation of natural features, lends to the feel of an older
and well-established neighborhood that appeals to a broad demographic.
• Pedestrian-friendly streetscapes invite neighbors out of their homes, resulting in less reliance on
vehicles.
• North West Crossing is a mixed-use community on Bend’s west side which has won several
national awards for its green building practices, as well as being a 2011 recipient of the
Environmental Center’s Sustainability Award and 2010 Building a Better Central Oregon Award.

Note : Neighbourhood unit concept was also put forth by : Clarence Stein in Radburn, NJ
 Le-Corbusier:
Charles - Édouard Jeanneret - Gris - better known by his pseudonym Le
Corbusier (1887 - 1965) - is widely regarded as the most important architect of the
20th century. He was a Swiss-born French architect who belonged to the first
generation of the so-called International school of architecture and was a founding
member of the Congrès international d'architecture moderne (CIAM). His career
spanned five decades, with his buildings constructed throughout Europe, India, and
the Americas. As a gifted architect, provocative writer, divisive urban planner,
talented painter, and unparalleled polemicist, Le Corbusier was able to influence
some of the world’s most powerful figures, leaving an indelible mark on architecture
that can be seen in almost any city worldwide.
In his architecture, he chiefly built with steel and reinforced concrete and worked with elemental
geometric forms. Le Corbusier's painting emphasized clear forms and structures, which corresponded to
his architecture. He made three major architectural discoveries. In various settings, he witnessed and
absorbed the importance of (1) the contrast between large collective spaces and individual
compartmentalized spaces, an observation that formed the basis for his vision of residential buildings and
later became vastly influential; (2) classical proportion via Renaissance architecture; and (3) geometric
forms and the use of landscape as an architectural tool.

In 1923, Le Corbusier published his seminal book Vers une architecture, commonly translated into English
as “Towards a New Architecture.” In this book he elucidated his vision for architecture inspired by the
emerging modern era, applying the principles of cars, planes and ships to buildings. It was here that he
proclaimed the house as a “machine for living in,” summarizing his early approach to design and defining
the fundamental attitude of Modernist architecture.

Planning Concepts :
For a number of years, French officials had been unsuccessful in dealing with the squalor of the
growing Parisian slums, and Le Corbusier sought efficient ways to house large numbers of people in
response to the urban housing crisis. He believed that his new, modern architectural forms would
provide an organizational solution that would raise the quality of life for the lower classes.

Le Corbusier organized in CIAM, Assembly of Constructors for an Architectural Renewal (ASCORAL)

which systematically studied the problems of construction, architecture and city planning. It
affirmed that town planning is the organizations of functions of collective life – this applies to both
rural and urban settlements. Four functions of any settlement (1)dwelling (2) work (3) recreation
(4)transportation, which connects the first three with one another.

It resulted in the publication of ‘The Three Human Establishments’. The examination of working
conditions in a mechanistic society led to the recognition of the utility and necessity of three unit
establishments indispensable for human activity :
1. The Farming unit – the cooperative village : a unit for agricultural production
2. The linear industrial city
3. The radio concentric city - same as Radiant city (Ville Radieuse) for the exchange of goods and
services.

In 1922 he presented his scheme for a "Contemporary City" for three million inhabitants (Ville
Contemporaine).
 It was based on four 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
  Three Zones - Central City, Protected Green Belt, Factories & Satellite Towns
 Rectangle containing two cross axial highway - At its heart was a huge transportation hub - 6level
transport interchange - Centre for motor, rail lines (underground and main-line railways) ,
highway intersections, and at the top, an airport. Le Corbusier had the fanciful notion that
commercial airliners would land between the huge skyscrapers.
 24 cruciform skyscrapers - 60 storeyed steel-framed office buildings encased in huge curtain
walls of glass - with density 1200 ppa and covers 5% of the ground. Referred to as towers in
park, these skyscrapers were set within large, rectangular, park-like green spaces.
 Surrounding skyscrapers was apartment district that housed the inhabitants. – 8 storey buildings
arranged in zigzag rows blocks (set far back from the street amid green space) with broad open
spaces with density of 120 ppa
 He segregated pedestrian circulation paths from the roadways and glorified the automobile as a
means of transportation.

Plan Voisin 1925

 18 double cruciform 60 – storey skyscrapers, placed in an orthogonal street grid and park-like
 Le corbusier reworked green space certain elements of the Ville Contemporaine & applied to a
section paris
 3 clusters of of luxury apartments
 Street system :
• Heavy traffic would proceed at basement level
• lighter traffic at ground level
• fast traffic should flow along limited-access arterial roads that supplied rapid and unobstructed
cross- city movement
• pedestrianised streets, wholly separate from vehicular traffic and placed at a raised level.
• The number of existing streets would be diminished by two-thirds due to the new
arrangements of housing, leisure facilities and workplaces, with same-level crossing points
eliminated wherever possible.
 Critics attacked its focus on the central city, where land values were highest and dislocations
most difficult - the creation of vast empty spaces in place of close-knit streets with their varied
civic life

Linear Industrial City :

 Leaving the ‘evils of the sprawling town’, the new industrial communities are located along the
main arteries of transportation – water, rail and highway connecting the existing cities.
 Factories are placed along the main arteries, separated from the residential section by the
highway and a green strip.
 The residential areas include the ‘horizontal garden town’ of single houses and vertical
apartment buildings with civic center.
 Sports, entertainments, shopping and office facilities are distributed in this district and all
community facilities are placed within ample open space.

In the 1930s, Le Corbusier expanded and reformulated his ideas on urbanism, eventually publishing
them in La Ville radieuse (The Radiant City) in 1935.
Perhaps the most significant difference between the Contemporary City and the Radiant City is
that the latter abandoned the class-based stratification of the former; housing was now assigned
according to family size, not economic position.
The basic ideas of free circulation and greenery were still present, but the juxtaposition of
different land-uses had changed. For example, the central area was now residential instead of a
skyscraper office core.
He imagined a radiant city, "made for people, made on a human scale, using the robustness of
modern techniques, demonstrating the splendor of raw concrete.“
 The architect overturned urban planning principles to design the city on a human scale. To do
this he created the "Modulor", a standardized human silhouette which determines a golden
number used to design the structure and size of housing units.
 Elements of Le Corbusier’s Plan
1) Very high density
1,200 people per acre in skyscrapers
• Overcrowded sectors of Paris & London ranged from 169-213 pers./acre at the time
• Manhattan has only 81 pers./acre
 120 people per acre in luxury houses
• 6 to 10 times denser than current luxury housing in the U.S.
2) Multi-level traffic system to manage the intensity of traffic
 Analogy of the city with the abstract image of a man
• The skyscrapers (business area) of the Ville Contemporaine were rearranged away from the
city center at the ‘head’…[The] ‘body’ was made up of acres of housing strips laid out in a
stepping plan to generate semi-courts and harbours of greenery containing tennis courts,
playing fields and paths.
• Traffic pattern – an orthogonal system with super imposed diagonals & the civic center is on
the main axis
• Light manufacturing, freight yards and heavy industries at the bottom
 The Cité Radieuse (Radiant City) in Marseille (France) is the first housing unit he constructed
using this principle. He designed concrete buildings on stilts to liberate the whole space from the
ground, in favor of pedestrians, and mixed housing with services (schools, medical services,
grocery stores, etc.).

Chandigarh, India : A Case Study

 Le Corbusier went on to apply his urban and architectural principles to an entire city.
 This created the new city of Chandigarh in India, whose urban planning became a well-known
model around the world.
 Chandigarh, the new capital for the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana and India's first planned
city. American architects Albert Mayer and Mathew Novicki were the first architects to be
appointed for the project. After the death of Novicki in 1950, Le Corbusier was commissioned.
 Le Corbusier designed its plans and traffic system, ensuring it has the least congestion in the
country even today.
 Le Corbusier designed many administration buildings, including a courthouse, parliament
building, and a university.
 He also designed the general layout of the city, dividing it into sectors.
 The architect also made good use of concrete in the construction of administrative buildings and
insisted on the material as vital in the construction of cities.
 Chandigarh was planned as an Administrative Town for a population of 5 lakhs and built in two
phases: Sectors 1 to 30 which formed the First Phase, and Sectors 31 to 47 constituting the
Second Phase of its development.
 The City was planned on the principles of CIAM (Congress Internationaux d’ Architecture
Moderne) Theories defining four major city-functions i.e. Living, Working, Care of Body & Spirit,
and Circulation.
 The four major functions based on CIAM theories :
1. Working Areas – The Capitol Complex Sector 17, commercial belts along Jan Marg, Madhya
Marg, Himalaya Marg , Udyog Path, Dakshin Marg.
2. Living - the Sectors
3. Care of body and spirit – Leisure Valley, Sukhna Lake, parks, green belts, cultural belts and
the educational belts
4. Circulation – the 7v network of roads on a modular grid iron pattern
 Le Corbusier conceived the Master Plan of Chandigarh as
analogous to Human Body in terms of
• Head (the Capitol Complex, Sector 1)
• Heart (the City Centre, Sector 17)
• Lungs (the Leisure Valley, innumerable open spaces, and
sector-greens)
• The Intellect (the cultural and educational institutions)
• The Circulatory System (the network of roads, the 7Vs)
• Viscera (the Industrial Area)
 The function of Living occupies primary place and has been
organised into a cellular system of Sectors based on the
concept of a neighbourhood unit of size 800 meters x 1200
meters.(with the exception of sectors 1 to 6, 12, 14, 17, and
26)
 Each Sector is a self-sufficient unit having shops, school,
health centers and places of recreations and worship within a
10-minute walking distance of the residents.
 The population of a sector varies between 3000 and 20,000 depending upon the sizes of plots
,the topography of the area and the urban- design considerations.
 Every sector is introvert in character (with sealing walls along
main roads so as not to be disturbed by the fast vehicular traffic
outside) and permits only four vehicular entries into its interior to
provide a tranquil and serene environment conducive to the
enrichment of life.
 Emphasis on family life and community living
 Schools along green belts safe for children, dispensaries,
shopping, community centres, centrally located in 10 minutes
walk and bus stops on main road within walking distance.
 Parks within 300m
 Meandering profile of the V4/V5 to enable slow carriageways
 Comfortable vehicular and pedestrian access right to the
doorstep of the house
 Inter-sectoral connectivity along NS green belts.

Concept of 7vs : Green City Concept :

V1- Fast roads connecting Planned as a Green City with
Chandigarh to other towns abundance of open spaces,
V2- Arterial roads Chandigarh ensures that every
V3- Fast vehicular roads dwelling has its adequate share of
around the sectors three elements of Sun, Space and
V4- Meandering shopping Verdure. Location of green belt was
streets in north south direction to link all
V5- Sector circulation roads sectors with the Shivalik range of
V6- Access roads to houses
hills / mountains.
V7- Footpaths, cycle tracks
Buses will ply only on V1,
V2, V3 and V4 roads.
A wall shall seal the V3
roads from the sectors

Hierarchy of Green Areas :

A Hierarchy of Green
Spaces can be observed in A view of the jan marg looking towards the
shivalik hills: the seven-storey blocks add a
the layout ranging from touch of urban habitat to an otherwise
Public Greens at City Level pastoral setting.
to Semi-Private to Private
Green Areas.
1) City Level Public Green Space with Artificial
Water Body
2) Free- Flowing Green Space, connecting the
entire site
3) Semi-Private Green Areas for neighborhood
pockets
4) Private Green Areas for Residential Units

The Leisure Valley is a green sprawling

space extending North-East to South-
West along a seasonal riverlet gradient
and was conceived by Le Corbusier as
the lungs of the city. Apart from large
Public Parks and special Botanical
Gardens, it houses series of Fitness
Trails, amphitheatres and spaces for
open-air exhibitions.
 Low-rise Development :
Planned as a low-rise city, it has developed on the stated
principles and, even after sixty years of its inception still retains
the original concept to a large extent.
A city, as A Social Organism And A Work Of Art, is the creation
of three disciplines: Town Plan; Architecture; and Landscape.
When they come alive as an organic whole they give birth to
Urban Design: the Architecture of the City, with its distinct urban
form and psycho-social imageability. Thus Chandigarh stands
apart from other cities by virtue of its order, and harmony of the
Built-Environment with rich Landscape, Design and carefully-
planned arboriculture or roadside tree- plantation, along with
following other factors:
Hierarchical Distribution Of Population
Hierarchical distribution of population with the density lowest in
the northern sectors and gradually increasing towards the
southern sectors.

Pure Landuse Planning :

While detailing out the landuse distribution, the underlined
principle adopted in the Master Plan was to allocate different
areas for living, working, trade and commerce, industry etc.
Accordingly, the sectors were designated for residential,
commercial and industrial, institutional uses.
Building Typologies :
The Basic Building Typology
is observed as extremely
>>The Central Sector of the city,
Rectilinear with similar
Sector 17, is the main Public
proportions. The smaller
Congregation area of the city. It
individual Residential Units
houses all major Shopping
are arranged around
Complexes, Sports Facilities and
central common Green
Congregation Spaces.
Spaces.