Central City The Town Centre example essay topic

Sir Ebenezer Howard's garden city concept has without doubt influences the mind of today town planners. Ever since its birth in the nineteen century, it has spread widely and has been used as a basis from which existing ideas were revised and reformulated. This fundamental ideas remain as an important basic urban planning idea even in the world today. In Singapore, for instance, traces of the garden city concept could be observed from the way the nation was structured. In my essay, I shall first discuss on the urban hierarchy order seen in Singapore as a whole and then within the Housing and Development Board (HDB) new towns with reference to Sir Ebenezer Howard's garden city concept. Sir Ebenezer Howard and The Garden City In 1898, Sir Ebenezer Howard wrote a book entitled Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform.

During then, he was concerned with the depopulation in the countryside and the poor quality of life found in congested and dirty cities. The Industrial Revolution has encouraged a great deal of migration from the rural areas into the cities areas. This is because many of the rural residents sought to seek employment and a better life in the urban areas. However, life turns out to be even harsher. The congested cities create an unhealthy living conditions and migrants face a lot of difficulties while looking for a job. As a result of this, it eventually prompted Sir Ebenezer Howard to come up with the idea of a "garden city" as the solution to these problems.

The garden city was seen as a mean to fuse the best quality of both the country and the city. As seen in his book, the garden city concept outlined a utopian vision of a self-sustaining town that would combine town conveniences and industries with the advantages of an agricultural location. This is believed to thus provide a healthy and beautiful place for everyone (regardless whether you are rich or poor) to work and live in. This idea of garden city have proved to be effective in some ways that from then on, Sir Ebenezer Howard's new work had initiated the planning and development of the first new towns in Great Britain and then subsequently in other countries during the twentieth century.

The Garden City Concept 'A Garden City is a Town designed for healthy living and industry; of a size that makes possible a full measure of social life but not larger; surrounded by a rural belt; the whole of the land being in public ownership or held in trust for the community. ' When Sir Ebenezer Howard first wrote the book, his central idea was to plan and built new towns. His's solution involved a system whereby a central city was surrounded by a number of independent garden cities, which in turn is surrounded with greenbelts. The combined system is then link up by means of an efficient rail transit system. This concept of a utopian township is formed from the basis of four fundamental principles. Firstly, there is the decentralized idea.

This idea of decentralization refers to the outward movement from crowded, metropolis to open countryside. Secondly, there is the garden, which implies a low-density layout and a well planted urban landscape. Thirdly, there is the communal landownership whereby land was controlled based on the interest of the public. Fourthly, there is the self containment idea. Self containment was not a phrase that was being used by Sir Ebenezer Howard. However, it still remain as one of his ideas.

It was believes that the combination of all these would transform existing concentrated cities into a decentralized but closely related network of garden cities, collectively known as the social city. The social city is believed to provide a socially and economically balanced city. It serves to accommodate people from different social classes and to create a wide range of employment in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. In addition, in order to disperse the people from the town centre, Sir Ebenezer Howard adopted a zoning technique that arranges the town according to its different land use. This helps to create a healthier living environment. This is because through this zoning technique, the population is spread out evenly such that the town centre would be free from being overpopulated.

From Figure 2, we could see that services and public buildings such as town hall, museums, hospitals, concert hall, theatres and library are located within the centre of the town. This services and public buildings serve to act as a focal centre for the people. Surrounding this town centre would be a series of a smaller planned neighbourhoods. Within this neighbourhood, facilities such as schools, churches and gardens will be located.

Hence, by doing this, it is hope that this would provide a strong sense of community within individual neighbourhood. A system of radiating transport routes can also be observed. They serve to provide accessibility to the town centre from these neighbourhoods and vice versa. Located at the outer edge of the garden city would then be facilities such as factories, markets and railway.

A greenbelt then surrounds each garden city. It acts as a boundary to limit the growth of individual garden city and hence prevent the risk of urban sprawling. Facilities such as farms, hospitals, convalescent homes and agricultural schools are also located within this greenbelt. In event where the population of a city expanded beyond the targeted number, a new garden city would then be built. These garden cities are in organic relation to each other, and thus there was a functional limit to the growth of any one element, as to growth of the whole.

Figure 1: The Social City. A network of garden Figure 2: Section of the garden city cities around a larger central city The Garden City Concept in Singapore As mention earlier, the garden city evolved a series of many revised concepts that has additional influences to the development of present new towns. Since its development during the nineteenth century, basic conceptual elements from garden city concept have been revised and restated. The social reformism of the garden city idea was thus reformulated into an environmental reformism which was in turn technical ized and dissembled to form part of the emergent professional practice of town planning. As a collection of technical-environmental planning concepts it was added to, adjusted and reassembled in different guises. The garden village, garden suburb, satellite town, neighbourhood unit and new town were international variants that were built on the conceptual foundations of the garden city.

Hence, together with these revised concepts, the garden city concept influences urban planning to this day. It forms the basis for urban planning in many developed countries. I shall now look into Singapore to identify evidences of such garden city influences. Figure 3: HDB new towns Singapore is made up of one main island surrounded with about 60 smaller ones. The main island measured over 42 kilometres from east to west and over 23 kilometres from north to south. Due to her small size, Singapore is seen as a city-state without any provincial division.

However, Singapore does have an urban center and smaller suburban neighbourhoods. This urban area centers around the Singapore River at the southern tip of the island. Beyond this urban centre lie the HDB new towns. At present, Singapore has a number of 26 new towns with more than seven virtually complete, and with the others at varying stages of development. This urban planning whereby an urban center is surrounded with HDB new towns is similar to that of the garden city. Here, the urban center forms the central city of Sir Ebenezer Howard's Social City.

Within it, neighbourhood divisions such as the Chinatown, Tanjung Pagan, the Orchard Road area, the CBD district, Little India and Kampong Glam are located. It is within this urban center that major commercial buildings, parliament buildings, public buildings and historical buildings are located. Such buildings include Takashi maya, the Esplanade, National Reference Library, The Supreme Court, The Raffles Hospital and Sun tec Singapore International Conventional and Exhibition Hall. Also, like the rail transit system seen in the Social City, the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and expressways allow people to travel with ease from the HDB new towns to the urban centre and vice versa. Similarly, the HDB new towns are planned in such a way that they are independent of the city and the major urban center. This is achieved by providing facilities that would support its own community.

Each HDB new town is a clusters of public housing units, with their own network of supporting businesses such as provision shops, restaurants, health care facilities, and shopping malls. In the west especially, these HDB new towns are in turn surrounded by greenbelts and offshore islands where factories and industries are located. This, however, has environmental and safety implications. It should be noted that Singapore has always been renowned as a Garden City. Plants have been used extensively throughout the country in order to transform the city that is crowded with buildings and infrastructure into one that is greener and cleaner. This not only improves the people mental and health, it serves to liven up the spirit of the nation too.

The Garden City model that the local governments has adopted responded to Sir Ebenezer Howard's vision of a healthy city surrounded with green belts. Hence, we can see that Singapore's ways of urban planning shown influences of the garden city concept. In a larger context, it can be seen that the urban center and the HDB new towns are arranged in such a way that they bear similarities to that of Sir Ebenezer Howard's Social City. Here, the HDB new towns act as individual smaller garden city. However, if we were to take these new towns as a whole social city by itself, it is observed that the garden city concept can also be extended into smaller scale within the neighbourhoods and precincts.

HDB New Towns The physical structure of a HDB new town consists of a town centre, several neighbourhoods and several precincts depending on the size of the targeted population. The concept of planning a new town with a town centre, neighbourhoods and precincts was to create and foster a sense of community among the residents. This is because, by dividing the towns into smaller units, a distinct community spirit can then be effectively promoted among the residents. This system of zoning of new towns into into smaller self-sufficient units has implications with the decentralized concept of the garden city. In a HDB new town, a town centre forms a focal center for residents from the various neighbourhoods. It is a important gathering place where residents could interact and socialize.

It forms the hub of a town and is where all activities take place. In a town centre, typical facilities include a central institution like a library and a major transport centre like a bus interchange or a mass rapid transit station (MRT). It is also in here that large retail shops, personal services, shopping centres, beauty pa lours, music shops, large hawker centres, cinemas and other entertainment centres are found. Such buildings add colour to the experience of the residents. This is because these buildings supported a wide range of activities. Thus, a town centre act like a 'mini-city' where the hassle of busy people is a common sight.

Each new town further consists of various neighbourhoods whereby each neighbourhood was to be an independent unit within the town. It would have its own facilities such as shops, markets, parks, open spaces, community centre and neighbourhood police post. In addition, major roads would not interrupt these facilities. Here, these neighbourhoods identified themselves as the smaller garden city that surrounded the central city - the town centre. An example of this can be seen in Toa Payoh town. Toa Payoh town is the second satellite town developed by HDB.

It is bounded by Jalan Toa Payoh, Central Expressway, Brad dell Road and Thomson Road. Its town centre is recently redevelops such that the new towns would carry distinctive identities of its own. This has aim to foster community relationships and to create a sense of identity. Toa Payoh town has been developed in such a way that there are six neighbourhoods embracing Toa Payoh Central. The town centre, neighbourhoods and precincts has been strategically organized and located.

In addition to that, Toa Payoh is built as a self contained town with all the essential facilities needed. From Figure 4, we can see that Toa Payoh Central - town centre - contains a lot of major buildings and services. This includes Toa Payoh bus interchange, Toa Payoh MRT station, Toa Payoh swimming complex, Toa Payoh Stadium, Toa Payoh town park, a clinic, Toa Payoh cinema, Toa Payoh entertainment centre, a central theatre and Toa Payoh Community Library. Hence, with this abundance of services and facilities, Toa Payoh Central forms an activity hub within with a wide range of activities is supported.

This add life and vibrant to the new town and hence promote a sense of community. The buzz and energy of the new town paint yet another picture to the identity of the new town. In addition, clusters of neighbourhoods can be seen surrounding Toa Payoh Central from the northeast direction. Within these neighbourhoods, common facilities such as church, neighbourhood police post, neighbourhood park, community centre, schools, and residential buildings can be identified. Major roads can also be seen encircling around individual neighbourhood and town centres. This facilitates movements from one place to another and serves to provide a boundary that demarcated individual unit from its surrounding.

At the outer edge of the new towns, the expressway, roads and MRT routes serve as a boundary to separate it from neighbouring new towns. This prevents the risk of urban sprawling of the HDB new towns too. Moreover, the expressways and MRT also allow one to travel from Toa Payoh town to other places such as the urban centre. The garden city's self containment and zoning notion has provide with the residents a highly efficient environment. It can be seen from here that buildings and facilities that are used daily are located within proximity to the residents. This includes offices, schools, parks and markets.

By doing so, a lot of time could be saved. This is because these buildings are often located such that they can be reached within walking distances. This is one of the reasons why major roads do not run round this facilities within neighbourhoods. The locating of services and public buildings at the city centre proved to be a intelligent way of zoning. This is because the city centre is often perceived as a meeting place where residents will gathered and interact. If buildings that are used daily by the residents are being located at the city core, this would eventually led to overcrowding.

Hence, but locating public buildings and services in the city centre, a population balanced can thus be maintained within the new town.