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Sociable Cities-The Legacy of Ebenezer Howard Peter Hall & Colin Ward Wiley Chichester, 1998, 229 yp., L15.99, ISBN: 0471 9850 58
This book is much more than the first event to mark the centenary of the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), which originated in 1899. It contains a host of ideas about why, where and how new living environments might be developed in England in the 21st century. It combines collectivist ideas of strategic planning from Hall with the ideas of individual initiative from Ward into a package of proposals matching those of Howard a century ago.
There are two parts to the book: firstly, chapters outlining the strands of Fabianism, anarchism and other philosophies associated with the personalities contributing to the TCPA's historic pursuit of new communities and opportunities for alternative lifestyles; and secondly, chapters containing Hall & Ward's proposals to accommodate England's coming growth of households and urban areas through a new quality of strategic planning. to achieve housing environments matching the sociable and sustainable standards campaigned for by the TCPA throughout its life.
Part I provides an absorbing account of the people and events eventually-after 50 yearsbringing about the government's new towns programme. Reformist ideas about land issues were put together by Howard into a distinct package, whereby new towns for the social benefit of escapees from urban congestion would be financed by the same capitalistic enterprise as had led to the squalor of the great metropolises. Howard's vision was of both an improved living environment and of a society in which residents worked, socialized and played according to an idealized lifestyle. Yet, social frailties and impairments were recognized, his grand design for 'Social Cities' reserving places for homes for "inebriates", "waits, the "insane", "convalescents", the "blind" and...