Garden cities: from past utopias to nowadays’ challenges
Garden cities are generally known to be utopian urban planning projects striving to create better communities and better lives. Based on socialist ideas, they emerged as ecosystems enabling their residents to benefit from improved living conditions while being connected to each other and to nature. Nowadays, in many cities around the world, the garden cites have become on the one hand a refuge for middle class people seeking to reconnect to each other and nature in a charming environment, on the other, areas prawn to many urban planning challenges (from bad insulation, to flooding to safety and security issues) – especially affecting those lower income households still living there.
From a garden cities utopian concept to nowadays’ challenges and striving solutions – this article sketches the way the EUI Ground for Wellbeing project led by the City of Amsterdam, in the district of Tuindorp Oostzaan, is anchored in its social and cultural heritage while seeking to address initial planning issues leading to current increasing soil subsidence and impermeability.
Part 1: the emergence of the garden cities concept
The need to improve workers’ living conditions
At the end of the 19th century, industrial cities in Europe and worldwide, saw the living conditions of the working class too often restrained to hovels and slums. These were particularly small for poor families and their daily activities (sleeping, cooking and going to the toilet), creating discomfort, lack of intimacy as well as strong lack of hygiene leading to outbreaks of diseases such as cholera, tuberculosis and malaria.
Ideas for improving workers’ living conditions had already emerged as socialist utopians’ ideas in the early 19th century. For example, Charles Fourier’s developed the Phalanstère between 1808 and 1837: though never implemented as such, his concept of a network of palatial buildings in the healthy outdoors, surrounded by forests and ponds with a community founded on cooperatives, gender equality and free love, inspired, at least one factory owner: Jean-Baptiste André Godin, developed the Familistère - a social palace for the workers of his stove and furnace factory in Guise, in 1832.
Another approach to improve the living conditions of workers were company towns: villages adjacent to factories with their own facilities such bathhouses, shops, association houses and churches. Notwithstanding the relative luxury or at least improvement of these living conditions, these towns remained a paternalistic approach for factory owners to uplift workers’ living condition with a strong social control.
Garden cities – a British concept
The Concept of Garden Cities was promoted by the English social reformer Howard Ebenezer in his book “Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform” in 1898 (reprinted in 1902 under the title of “Garden Cities of To-morrow”). By bringing together the city and the countryside, he developed a concept of affordable housing in a green and healthy environment, a coherent vision for the living environment and a strong sense of community.
In his three-magnet model, garden cities were to be located around a large city, as a ring of satellite cities. They were to be small cooperative communities of maximum 30,000 inhabitants, with good public transport and electricity (instead of polluting coal as the source of energy). This concept, providing good living conditions, in spacious and green living environment, with a village-like characters included many (pocket) parks and individual gardens, centralised around public facilities.
The concept was implemented in the UK for example in Bournville (1893) and New Earswick (1902) by Quackers (and chocolate factorers for the former) – though still highly inspired by the company towns’ concept, Letchworth Garden City – 50 km North London in 1904 (with a housing cooperative concept), Welwyn Garden City – 32km North of London in 1920 both by Ebenezer, and Hampstead Garden Suburb by Henrietta Barnett in 1907.
Garden cities in the world
The social and economic realities of industrial cities could be found all around the world and the concept of garden cities grew internationally in the early 20th century translated as: garden villages, garden districts, garden suburbs, cités-jardins, cudades jardins or Gartenstädte. Examples of such areas, each with their own interpretation of the concept, include: Jardim América (1913-1929, São Paulo, Brazil), Den-en-chōfu (1918, 10km of Tokyo, Japan), Cité Jardins (1903, France), Belgian garden cities (1920s), New Frankfurt (1927-28, Germany), and Gartenstädte (1920s, Germany).
Garden cities in the Netherlands
This movement is no exception to the Netherlands, where dozens of examples of garden cities can be found, many of them executed in the style of the Amsterdam School of architecture. A major impulse was the Housing Act of 1901 which tied public financing of housings to regulatory oversight of institutional structure, rent amounts, and construction quality. Examples can be found in Snouck van Loosenpark (1894-95, Enkhuizen), Agnetapark (1884-1925, Delft), Hilversum (1915-1935), Westelijke Tuinsteden (1935-65, Amsterdam), Betondorp (1923-25, Amsterdam-Oost), Tuinwijk-Zuid (19020-22 Haarlem) or Heijplaat (1914-18, Rotterdam).
The movement continued after World War II due to housing shortage, for example in Slotervaart, Geuzenveld, Osdorp and Overtoomse Veld (Amsterdam) and Slotermeer and Pendrecht (Rotterdam) or with the creation of new towns such as Almere.
Several garden villages were built on the northern bank of the IJ River in Amsterdam for the workers of the large shipyards after the World War I. The villages consisted mainly of idyllic low-rise buildings with influences of the Amsterdam School such as Tuindorp Nieuwendam (1924-27), Disteldorp (1918-19), Vogeldorp (1918), or Tuindorp Oostzaan (1919-1924).
Part 2: Tuindorp Oostzaan yesterday and today
The EUI Ground for Well-being project is taking place in Tuindorp Oostzaan. On the Northen side of the IJ River, in the North of Amsterdam, shipyards increased their activities in the early 1900s. As such, they were in need for urgent and efficient accommodation for workers in an area which had to be reclaimed from the sea. The project was to build temporary housing for workers with good living conditions based on the garden cities principles: a house, with a front and back garden. These were built in less than 10 years, close enough to the shipyards so that workers could go there by foot or bicycle. The houses were built according to one of the 4 possible models. Smaller and large houses referred to the position in the shipyard assembly line and management.
The street names evolve around cosmology, several community and meeting points were created as pocket parks and public squares. Two major squares were built: Zonneplein centered around Zonnehuis theatre and retails shops, and Plejadenplein around a major green space with a swimming pool and playground surrounded by a church, two community centres and a school. One major street crosses the neighbourhood: the Meteorenweg. Nowadays the area hosts two schools, three churches, a dozen of small shops, a cafe, and a community garden.
Around 17 000 people live in the neighbourhood with an increase of families in the recent years. Over 25% of residents are above 60 years-old – most for whom have lived there all their lives in the poorer section of the area. Recent families moved into to the area as part of a gentrification process. Which in turn prevents the lower income families - there for decades - to access houses to live closer to their own families and friends. 75% of the buildings are nowadays social housing. Circa 30 nationalities can be found there (out of 180 in Amsterdam).
More relevant than ever …
Due to its ideals of healthy and sustainable living, the garden city idea is more relevant than ever. Not only for preserving its heritage, but for future urban planning and public housing as well. The neighbourhood is of human size and provides, at the outskirt, a nice and charming living environment, an urban design which enable social interactions (e.g. front door gardens), meeting points, public spaces. The atmosphere is said to be of that of a village still, with people knowing each other, or at least, saluting each other. The area is relatively green which can contribute to climate change adaptation, as well as physical and mental health. Not to mention the added value of aesthetics on well-being.
… but more challenging than ever
Yet, the area faces many challenges, due to the changes in habits, housing market but also due to its original design.
First of all, the village feeling is challenged by the gentrification which increases individualisation and polarisation between groups, making the “village” feeling experienced and lived differently.
Many shops are closed, and shopping mostly takes place outside the neighbourhood. Also, older and newer residents do not necessarily talk to each other and might feel some resentment as well as differing habits. For example, for some, drinking coffee takes place at home, but not in a newly open and expensive café (or vice versa), where social interaction does not happen the same way.
Although the houses were originally built with grass gardens and low fences around them enabling easy contact (and trust), now gardens are replaced with pavement and high fences. This prevents contact.
Crucially, the original design of the urban area cannot address nowadays’ sustainability and climate-related challenges. On the one hand, the increasing housing shortage requires a new approach to urban expansion and densification. On the other, the heritage character of the area (which has a monument listing) – and the wish to protect it – limits the options to add weight to the housing – due to the lack of proper foundation, which prevents, for example, improving insulation.
In terms of geology, Tuindorp Oostzan was built below sea level: it is 0.5-meter lower with a 2mm per year decrease annually. It was built on a temporary basis, as such, houses were built on concrete slab rather than pillars. Also, the soil originates from the sludge resulting from dredging activities in the IJ River, which does not provide a solid foundation for building houses. Consequently, the houses, and the whole area face serious soil subsidence issues: the neighbourhood is locked in a tremendously high groundwater situation, as lowering the groundwater without better understanding of the soil condition may trigger further subsidence.
This situation leads to regular floodings after heavy rains, inadequately addressed by the current sewage system. The most important one took place in 1960, which reached the first floor of houses. However, the area also faces strong heatwaves, especially in the Summer, which is difficult to mitigate as water is not adequately stored in the ground, too much is pumped away, together with the above-mentioned pavement of private gardens. Trees suffer mostly from the high groundwater situation - the roots of the trees are not strong enough, and the trees fall down. Lower vegetation is vulnerable to drought, grass does not grow. Yet, some residents feel that outside appearance is crucial, what seems to be easier (especially when the tenants gets older) and less time consuming to reach with pavement rather than with grass.
As a result, houses sink – and might sink increasingly, are unstable, pavement shifts, mould and fungus invade houses, crackling and foundations issues arise. All these leading to serious health problems of the population, which is more vulnerable than in other neighbourhoods of the city (vulnerability also on the grounds of poverty and public nuisance).
Part 3: The GfW solution
In order to address the main challenges of Tuindorp Oostzan in terms of soil subsidience, and to go beyond solutions already tested in the past, the GfW project seeks to co-create integrated solutions for the area, upstream of the planning process. It will invest in two main renovation activities:
- The redesign and implementation of the Plejadenplein
- The redesign of the main mobility axis of the area, Meteorenweg to control water area as a way to get water in and out, for example through the inclusion of a dual sewage system under the road and greenery and canopea at the ground level.
It will do so by:
- Integrating the social and spatial design in the working methodology of the City of Amsterdam;
- Improving soil and groundwater as critical infrastructure in the akin to sewerage, electricity or tree, using the Soil and Water Sensitive Urban Design (SWSUD) approach;
- Experimenting with innovative methods for socio-ecological feedback loops through Rhythm analysis and Zoöp model; and,
- Involving residents throughout the entire project in consultation and co-creation of the future designs of the renovation projects, as well as awareness-raising and empowering, including for de-sealing and greening activities in their own gardens.
- Increasing ownership over the solution and the future, by strengthening reisdents’ connection with urban space, as well as with other residents.
Though only a part of the neighbourhood is officially protected, the project and further activities on site will seek to keep the urban fabric. Garden cities still have a long life ahead of them, bearing they can be upgraded and adjusted to nowadays’ realities and challenges.
Thank you!
I would like to thank Jan Jacob Sikkema from the City of Amsterdam for presenting to me the history and challenges of the Tuindorp Oostzaan as well as visiting with me the exhibition “The Workers' Paradise: World Garden Cities” at Het Schip. Thank you to Max Driessen from the City of Amsterdam, Bart Aptroot from One Architecture and Rins Lindeman from Muzus, for proof reading the article.
About this resource
The European Urban Initiative is an essential tool of the urban dimension of Cohesion Policy for the 2021-2027 programming period. The initiative established by the European Union supports cities of all sizes, to build their capacity and knowledge, to support innovation and develop transferable and scalable innovative solutions to urban challenges of EU relevance.
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