Ebenezer Howard

Sir Ebenezer Howard (born January 29, 1850 in London , † May 1, 1928 in Welwyn Garden City , Hertfordshire , England ) was a British town planner and is considered to be the inventor of the garden city .

Ebenezer Howard, 1926

Life

Howard started out as a City clerk in London and trained to be a sought-after stenographer . He practiced this profession almost until the end of his life. During a stay in the USA (1872 to 1877) he met the poets Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson and admired them. Howard began to think about a better life and how to make it a reality.

Services

Garden City concept by Ebenezer Howard, 1902: Residential cities are arranged in a ring around the core city and linked to it in a star shape by streets, railways and subway and connected to one another in a ring shape

In 1888 he read Edward Bellamy's utopia Looking Backward , the reading of which would determine his future life. It inspired the British to the idea of the garden city, which he presented in his central work Garden Cities of Tomorrow . However, the German Theodor Fritsch had published a font in 1896 under the title Die Stadt der Zukunft , which shows striking parallels to Howard's book. In the foreword to the second edition, Howard blatantly accuses Howard of plagiarism. According to Howard, the garden city should be an independent city , not just a suburb. According to Howard's conception, the garden city lies in the middle of the countryside and is intended to house rural housing estates as well as factories and all cultural amenities. Howard's proposals go much further than what was later often built in Germany as "garden cities": His proposals were not only of an urban nature, but also strongly influenced by ideas of social reform: the land of the garden cities should be jointly owned to avoid speculation capital income should flow into the community facilities, rents should be kept low. Spatially, he had a system of several garden cities in mind, with a central city of around 58,000 inhabitants and a ring of smaller garden cities with around 32,000 inhabitants each. The growth of the cities should prevent green turning points. According to his model, the layout of the garden cities itself is characterized by ring-like residential areas around a "Central Park" as the center ( radial-concentric type ). Here there are cultural institutions and the "Crystal Palace", a covered shopping arcade that might have had a model in the Great Victorian Way planned by Joseph Paxton in 1855 . Radial boulevards link the center and the residential areas with the surrounding landscape; a ring-shaped, green "Grand Avenue" interrupts the residential circles. Outside there is an industrial belt and the railway line that connects the garden cities. Howard thought of the Garden City as the third pole and balance of the contrast (antagonism) between town and country, as is also clear in his name "Town-Country". This overall concept, in contrast to the “garden city” district, can be summarized under the term “city in the landscape”.

In 1899 the Garden City Association was founded. The practical implementation of the ideas began in 1903: the garden city of Letchworth was built according to designs by Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin . After the First World War, this strongly influenced the satellite towns ( New Towns ) of England . Howard himself was not very convinced of Letchworth, the settlement was too "green" for him and, in his opinion, lacked urban life; the density of settlements remained below the level he proposed and the large, green central square was not a real urban center. He made a new attempt with the garden city of Welwyn in north London. Welwyn was more like his ideas. He lived here himself until his death in 1928.

In Germany, Howard's garden city concept, especially with regard to the ideas of social reform, was most consistently implemented in the first German garden city, Hellerau , a suburb (today a district) of Dresden . Howard visited Hellerau in 1912 and said impressedly “ Hellerau is not a mere imitation of the English garden cities […] In Hellerau, the effort to build people's homes close to their workplaces and to bring work close to their homes is clearly evident. I confess that in Hellerau I liked both the interior of the houses and the way they were grouped. I should like to add that although we have many factories in Letchworth, none of them is nearly as beautiful from an architect's point of view as the German workshops for craftsmanship in Hellerau. "

Esperanto

Howard is committed to the international language Esperanto . During the 3rd World Congress in Cambridge in 1907, he welcomed around 600 participants from all over the world who had come by train. He explained the concept of the garden city in Esperanto. The founder of Esperanto, Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof , was invited as a special honor to take a ride in an automobile and came too late.

Howard said: "Esperanto and the garden city are pioneers of a new and better environment - an environment of peace and understanding. [...] As Esperanto is more and more accepted, the idea of the garden city will also spread."

Works

Howard's book Tomorrow. A Peaceful Path to Real Reform was published in 1898. In 1902 the new edition of his book appeared under the title Garden Cities of Tomorrow . (German: Garden Cities in Sight , Jena 1907)

In 1968 it was re-edited as Volume 21 of Bauwelt Fundamente by Julius Posener (ed.): Ebenezer Howard. The garden cities of tomorrow. The book and its story. Bauwelt Foundations Volume 21, Berlin Frankfurt / M. Vienna: Ullstein, 1968

Honors

Howard was beaten to Knight Bachelor ("Sir") in 1927 .

literature

Julius Posener (ed.): Ebenezer Howard. The garden cities of tomorrow. The book and its story. Bauwelt Foundations Volume 21, Berlin Frankfurt / M. Vienna: Ullstein, 1968 ( partial online view )

Web links

Commons : Ebenezer Howard - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Literature by and about Ebenezer Howard in the catalog of the German National Library
letchworthgardencity.net

Individual evidence

↑ Kenneth Frampton: Die Architektur der Moderne , Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3421030757 .
^ Rudolf Hillebrecht : Urban planning today? - from Ebenezer Howard to Jane Jacobs - , Announcements of the List Society, Fasc. 5, No. 9, 1966, see also: Ders .: Urban development today? -from Ebenezer Howard to Jane Jacobs- , Bauwelt, 56, 1965.
↑ Howard's speech is documented in the 1907 magazine "La Revuo" in a report on the visit. The scan is made available by the Austrian National Library .

personal data
SURNAME	Howard, Ebenezer
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Howard, Sir Ebenezer (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British town planner and inventor of the garden city
DATE OF BIRTH	January 29, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH	London
DATE OF DEATH	May 1, 1928
Place of death	Welwyn Garden City , Hertfordshire , England

[KennFr2010-1] Kenneth Frampton: Die Architektur der Moderne , Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3421030757 .

[2] Rudolf Hillebrecht : Urban planning today? - from Ebenezer Howard to Jane Jacobs - , Announcements of the List Society, Fasc. 5, No. 9, 1966, see also: Ders .: Urban development today? -from Ebenezer Howard to Jane Jacobs- , Bauwelt, 56, 1965.

[3] Howard's speech is documented in the 1907 magazine "La Revuo" in a report on the visit. The scan is made available by the Austrian National Library .