Ebenezer Howard's idea of a garden city: on the question of its origin and implementation in Great Britain in the 20th century.
With the development of the industrial revolution in the major cities of the world, socio-economic and environmental problems sharply worsened. In the 20th century, architects and urban planners began to offer various urban concepts, trying to solve the new problems that humanity faced. Such theories and concepts were put forward throughout the 20th century (“garden city”, “linear city”, “social city”, “industrial city”, etc.). The idea of the Englishman Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928), published at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, is one of the first in this series.
“At the beginning of the 20th century, two great inventions began to take shape before our eyes: the airplane (airplane) and the garden city. Both were harbingers of a new era: the first gave man wings, and the second promised him better living conditions when he descended to earth, ”wrote Lewis Mumford, an American historian, sociologist and philosopher of technology, a specialist in the theory and history of architecture, in 1946. and urbanism.
For the first time, the idea of a garden city was described in the book “Tomorrow: a peaceful path to real reform” (there is another version of the name - “Garden Cities of the Future”, this is a reprint of the book of 1902. - Approx. Aut.) by an English utopian sociologist and little known then parliamentary reporter Ebenezer Howard (the book was first published in 1898 and cost only one shilling, as it was published in paperback, but in terms of real value, the book turned out to be one of the influential works of the twentieth century).
Howard believed that the modern (at the time of writing) city had outlived itself. The author presented to the public an unusual way to solve the problem, as he proposed a scheme where the city and the countryside are combined (before him, the problem of urban overpopulation was solved only in one of two ways, there was no symbiosis of ideas). Howard criticized the chaotic, unrestrained growth of the industrial city, its unsanitary conditions and, more generally, its inhumanity. This was clearly observed in such English cities of that time as London, Manchester, Liverpool. The famous London fogs - smog - were nothing more than a haze due to the fact that the inhabitants of the capital stoked their stoves with coal, which can be repeatedly read in architectural magazine articles of the 1920s and 1930s devoted to urban problems.
It is not surprising that it was the Englishman Howard who expressed the idea of an ideal embodiment of a city built correctly, in harmony with nature and in compliance with environmental and sanitary standards. Still, there is a pattern in the fact that it was in the dank London fog, saturated with smog and electricity, that the utopian idea of \u200b\u200bthe ideal city - the garden city - was born.
In fact, Howard proposed a new concept of the city, as he combined in his concept the best features of the city and the countryside and eliminated the worst. He suggested creating new modern settlements that would solve several problems at once: first, a new spacious environment with new jobs would be created; secondly, due to the migration of the population to new places, the cost of land in crowded urban agglomerations and the population density in them would predictably begin to fall, which would make it possible to do more successful redevelopment of megacities (at a lower population density!), than was done in late 19th and early 20th centuries in Great Britain.
The ideal city, or "garden city", according to the English journalist and sociologist, is a small settlement with an agricultural belt surrounding it. In accordance with the project described in the book, the population of the new city was to be 32,000 inhabitants. Cities were to form larger groups with a single center. The total population of such a "constellation" of cities should have been about 250 thousand inhabitants.
Howard's ideal city itself was a structure of circular concentric zones. In the very center of such a city there is a park, it is surrounded by a residential area, consisting of low-rise buildings with household plots. The radius of the zone with residential development was to be approximately one kilometer. Industry and agricultural land were moved to the periphery.
Schematically, the garden city can be described as follows. The shape of the city is a circle. The area of the city is 1000 acres, the area of the agricultural belt is 5000 acres (the total area of the city is 6000 acres). The city is crossed by 6 boulevards (120 feet wide), dividing it into 6 equal sectors. The central square - the intersection of the boulevards - a circle of 5.5 acres (also a garden), which is surrounded by public buildings: the town hall, library, museum, hospital, etc. The central sector is surrounded by a glass gallery - a public park with sports grounds of 145 acres. The Crystal Palace itself is also part of the park, covered. Exhibitions are held here, and there is trade. As you move away from the center, concentric rings of buildings increase (each is surrounded by additional land, there is no dense building).
The development of an ideal city, according to Howard, should be as follows: 5500 plots measuring 20 feet by 130 feet. The municipality controls the line of the façades so that the streets are clear and level, otherwise creativity in the design of the houses is encouraged.
Grand Avenue is a 420 foot wide greenbelt (essentially a 115 acre park). Buildings face here: schools, playgrounds, churches - inside the belt, and administrative buildings facing the avenue are in the shape of a crescent.
On the outer ring of the city - factories, warehouses, dairies, markets, coal yards, timber yards, etc., facing the railway tracks (to save on transporting goods to the city center and unloading intra-city highways, which ultimately reduces the cost of road maintenance ). All industrial equipment runs on electricity, which saves the city from gas pollution.
The land around the city is not owned by private individuals and therefore cannot be built up with a sharp increase in its population. In the city, according to the idea of the author of the concept, a civil society is being formed, which protects these lands from development. The only way for such a city to grow is to “splash out” as a satellite city outside the agricultural belt. The satellites are connected to the central city by a railway network. Eventually, a ring of satellites forms around the main city. Globally - a hexagonal system of settlement of a certain area is being formed.
The goal of all this is to achieve the highest possible level of quality of life in garden cities.
Howard called his ideal city model the garden city. Why city? Because it means a compact and fairly large place in terms of population, where most of the people are engaged in non-rural work. And at the same time - a garden, since work, life, rest - the whole life of the people living in the city does not take place in a stone bag, but in a cultivated natural landscape. Against the backdrop of the very real horrors of a large leviathan city (such as London), Howard's proposal gave, albeit illusory, but still hope for deliverance.
It was one thing to reflect the ideal vision of the city, but quite another to put your sketches into practice. Quite quickly, Howard managed to organize an association for the construction of garden cities (Garden City Association). In the first decade of the 20th century, this association built two new garden cities in England - Letchworth and Welwyn. Both became examples of new development - urban development of the rural type.
The site for the first garden city was chosen 50 kilometers north of London, in the town of Letchworth. The master plan for the garden city of Letchworth was developed by Richard Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin already in 1904 in full accordance with the basic idea and schemes of E. Howard. The designers managed to successfully place in the landscape both the central green space, full of various public buildings, and the outer ring of industrial enterprises. In addition, a roundabout was created here for the first time.
Richard Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin (bottom)
In Letchworth, small dwellings were gracefully clustered around traffic lanes, green meadows, small groves and clusters of trees. Free from the dreary schematism of quarterly urban development, Letchworth's spacious layout created a feeling of comfort, humanity, and closeness to nature. In fact, Parker and Unwin, based on the ideas of Howard, created something more than the layout of another settlement - with their experience in Letchworth, they formed a completely new standard of urban development - a rural type, so to speak.
Garden City Letchworth
Letchworth was followed by Welwyn Garden City. Howard, unable in 1919 to convince Lord Salisbury to sell part of his land, found an advertisement for part of Lord Desborough's estate. He won the auction, and the money for the deposit was paid for by his wealthy business friends. Thus was born the second garden city in England - Welwyn Garden City.
True, the first garden cities were not particularly popular, and the decompression of London was out of the question. So, by the end of the 1920s, only 14 thousand people lived in Letchworth, and 7 thousand in Welvin. There were economic reasons behind this: the cost of building low-rise buildings was high, and the garden cities themselves were located at a considerable distance from the city center. In addition, it was not possible to withdraw industrial enterprises from London, which was explained by market conditions, demand, and the volume of labor. There were also cultural reasons: the gap in the level of communication and the opportunities that the metropolis provides in the field of education, culture, and public services is too great. Not everyone was ready to leave for the countryside after all the benefits of the city, albeit an industrial one.
Garden City Welwyn Garden City
However, Britain did not abandon the idea of a garden city. Many urban planners and architects continued to work on the concept. There was theory in the UK, debate continued, but practical implementation was minimal. That is why the famous English novelist, essayist, playwright and theater director John Boynton Priestley asked so many questions in 1934: “All this is confusing. Was Jarrow still in England or not? Did we go to Lancashire and the northeast coast as an exile? We were no longer talking to cotton weavers, miners, tinkers and riveters? Why has nothing been done about these decaying cities and their unemployed inhabitants? Did anyone expect a miracle that should fix everything? Why is there still no plan for these regions and cities for these people?
However, the miracle did not happen. The idea of an ideal city was hardly embodied in the UK, despite the fact that it was the Englishman who was the founder of the new concept in urban planning (the British are known to be skeptical about foreign trends, they have much more confidence in the national traditions of Albion and local ideas).
The state of affairs - both in the very concept of the city and in the development of new territories - gradually changed in the second half of the 20th century. The concept of the urban environment as a human environment has changed during the interwar period in Great Britain in connection with one interesting trend. In England alone, between 1919 and 1939, more than 4 million new suburban houses (cottages) were built: thus, the country most urbanized in the period before the First World War became the most de-urbanized country by the beginning of the Second World War. Dramatic changes did not escape the attention of contemporaries: as the critic wrote in 1934, "we look with surprise, but with the hope that we are on the threshold of a new agricultural era of new relations, new ideas and new values."
The so-called "suburban revolution", which led to the migration of the population outside the metropolitan areas, in the interwar period was largely due to falling land prices and rising incomes. At the same time, it is important to note that only a quarter of the total volume of houses (housing schemes) built during this period was subsidized by the state (about 1 million houses), that is, most of the work was carried out by private traders. Despite the lack of housing and numerous promises to provide real estate to the heroes of the First World War, the state generally denied new urban development schemes in every possible way.
It is important to note that some of Howard's cherished ideas - for example, he wanted the land to be community property - were not implemented due to social and legal norms in English society. The land was owned by private individuals (landlords) and the state.
Garden cities around London
The development of the idea of an ideal city in the second half of the twentieth century turned out to be very active. Much was used in the restructuring of London after the Second World War with the active participation of the Town and Country Planning Association, created by E. Howard. The construction of satellite cities around the British capital showed how the concept of an ideal city in English (i.e. garden city) evolved and was interpreted in a new way in practice.
The planner Leslie Patrick Abercrombie, who borrowed heavily from Howard's ideas and who had previously worked on projects to decompress many cities in England, Scotland and then part of the British Empire Ireland (Dublin) was the head of the satellite city program around London. , Edinburgh, Plymouth, Bath, Hull, Bournemouth).
Leslie Patrick Abercrombie
But there were also significant differences. The population of the new cities was supposed to be 60-100 thousand people, and not 30 thousand, as in Howard's. In accordance with the Abercrombie plan, 18 satellite cities with a total population of approximately 1 million inhabitants were to be built around London. At the same time, it was planned that approximately half of the population of such cities should have been residents of London. Thus, one of the goals of the new cities was to decompress London. Although the plan was partially implemented, its results fell far short of expectations. So by 1963, only 263 thousand people moved to the new satellite cities of London.
Thirty-two garden cities in the UK (numbers indicate opening year)
Subsequently, the concept was adopted and implemented in other countries of the world, but it did not receive mass distribution. Garden cities can be found in Russia, Belgium, Germany and Spain. Many historians note that by the second half of the 20th century, the classical concept of the garden city had lost popularity. The success and recognition of garden cities was less than expected. Many suburban garden areas have become bedroom communities. However, many of the ideas embodied in garden city theory are now used by modern urban concepts, such as the New Urbanism movement.
It is important to note that in Great Britain the idea of an ideal city - a garden city - can be realized in the 21st century. Thus, in January 2014, it became known that two cities of this type would be built in southern England as part of the implementation of a new urban planning concept. In addition, the management of Legal & General Corporation, Britain's largest pension fund manager, announced its intention to build five new garden cities across the country within ten years. According to the company, this type of urban space organization will be the best way to overcome the housing crisis in a country where real estate in London is highly overvalued and inaccessible to the average British citizen, and in the regions there is a shortage of quality and social housing. It is reported that the entire infrastructure in such cities will be organized based on current trends. It is clear that the technologies will be new, but the principles of organizing space and planning, and the very perception of the new garden city as a space where people live, will be similar to what Ebenezer Howard expressed at the end of the 19th century.
Construction site of the proposed new Ebbsfleet Valley Garden City in the UK
The ideal city of the previous era is radial in plan. A modern ideal city is a strip along the highway, i.e. linear city. Urban planners of the 20th century considered such a linear city incapable of survival, dying: they saw the future in improving only the radial structure. But the linear system turned out to be not just tenacious, but the only one possible and capable of surviving in modern conditions. The evolution of the concepts of the city in the history of mankind deserves a separate study: the city-fortress, which was a circle in shape, gradually transformed and became linear. New human requirements, new technologies, the development of society have led to the fact that cities began to form in a new way, becoming global and large-scale and bringing not only convenience, but also hardships to a person's life. It is possible that in the future thinkers will form new concepts of the ideal city of the third millennium and create works similar to E. Howard's Garden City.
The situation in almost every city today is difficult: the roads are bad, the construction is chaotic, there is no understanding of what needs to be done, and what, on the contrary, should be prohibited. Even in the case of a documented master plan, the city may develop far from the way it could. We present you ideas for the development of any city.
We decided to make a list of ideas that will be useful to any city– and took into account the best experience from the implemented projects – in Russia, Europe and the USA. We have divided all ideas into three categories of difficulty: easy, medium and difficult. Each of them requires more time/resources/costs to implement.
However, it is not so difficult: the only thing you need to have in any case is a clear will and desire to work. We are confident that the implementation of at least one idea from this list can change the life of the city.
Fast and cheap
Free digital library
When was the last time you went to the library and took out a paper book? That's it. The Soviet type of librarianship is becoming a thing of the past, and even schoolchildren and students, categories of the population who would have regular use of libraries, have no desire to go there.
In the digital age, when every home has at least one gadget, it is foolish not to use this potential. To begin with, in cooperation with companies, as the experience of MTS in large cities of Ukraine shows. And then it will be possible to think about something more modern.
Bicycle rental service
Returning to the topic of cycling, it is impossible to popularize it without giving people a try. Gradually, but surely, points where you can rent a bike for an hour, two or a whole day, appear on the territory of the countries of the former USSR.
Remove outdoor advertising from the historic city center
Walk along the central streets and squares of your city, look around and up - how much can you see? Can you see the city itself? No, you can't see it, because the beautiful facades are hidden behind the wretched advertising of billboards, which has become so much lately that the brain simply does not pay attention to it.
Advocates of billboards (usually city officials and advertising agencies) will say: “How, this is impossible, the city will lose revenue!”. In response, we will show them the current experience of Moscow, which proves that shooting billboards is not only worth it, but also useful. From now on, the remaining places on the billboards are sold on the basis of an auction, and have already brought the city budget 70 billion rubles.
Establish store signage guidelines
20 different fonts, 30 different colors - and when a beautiful street turns into an average Shanghai. Permissiveness and chaos in local self-government, on the one hand, and complete bad taste among shop owners, on the other, caused the appearance of facades littered with signs.
To prevent this from happening, it is enough to do only 2 things: to adopt at the legislative level the rules and requirements regarding the appearance of these signs, and gradually dismantle the old and scary ones with new ones. Think it's difficult? Again, no. This year, Moscow adopted a street design code developed by the Art. Lebedev Studio.
Pointer lights
Public free wi-fi
When a tourist arrives in Tbilisi, he is offered to connect to a free wi-fi network, which is called “ Tbilisi loves you". What do you think, how big are the chances that a person will like it and want to come back here again? That's right - big. Therefore, free Wi-Fi on the central streets and squares of the city is not such a hopeless idea.
A single online center for citizens' appeals
interactive sculptures
Looking at monuments is interesting, especially if they are hundreds of years old. But now we can make interactive sculptures that move, transform, and attract the attention of thousands of people. For example, like a sculpture of lovers in Batumi, which “converges” and “diverges” every 15 minutes.
Green spaces and flower beds
Creating a park is an expensive pleasure, like planting trees. A quick and cheap way to plant greenery on the street is to grow vegetation in special barrels/pots/beds. It looks no less cool, requires little maintenance and is not as expensive as it would seem.
public toilets
Few people like to talk about it, but when a natural need “calls” you, our cities turn out to be completely unadapted to this. Usually among the public toilets in the center there are 1-2 points of the Soviet type and type.
Board with a timetable
Waiting for public transport is like guessing on the coffee grounds: you never know when the bus will come, what direction it will take, or if it will come at all. However, the idea will only work with a comprehensive improvement of all transport in the city.
Social containers
As opposed to garbage cans, it is expedient to establish several points around the city for collecting used clothes: after all, often, doing a general cleaning, we decide to get rid of dozens of things that could still be useful to people with poor social status.
painted walls
A significant part of the housing stock in our cities was built during the Soviet era, and now our houses are gray, unsightly and sometimes even creepy. It's easy to fix the situation: give the walls of the houses to be painted by artists, and then the gloomy area will get a new bright life.
Provoke Creativity
Art does not arise on its own, like the rest of the cultural life in the city. It must be stimulated, given an impetus for development, and most importantly, not interfere.
Wall “Before I Die”
It all started with a Chinese girl, Candy Chang, who installed a black wall in her city with stenciled inscriptions “Before I Die, I want to…”. Passers-by were asked to add their own dreams and desires that they want to fulfill during their lifetime.
The idea became so popular that it quickly spread around the world: now such walls can be found at festivals, on city streets and holidays. Why not find out what the inhabitants of our cities dream about?
Navigation for buses
The transport system must be viable not only for the residents of the city, but also for its guests. When an unknown bus turns around a corner with a slurred number and a list of little-known streets typed by Capslock, this will not help much in deciding whether to take it or not.
interactive museums
The time of boring exhibitions and contemplation of jugs is over: the world is actively using new technologies to attract visitors to museums. Create an interesting video, set up a projector, set up screens, invite visitors to take part, join the exhibition - but do not force them to be passive viewers - no one wants to pay money for this. This also applies to all the “glorious and ancient” castles in Russia, which are more like a pile of stone.
People exchange
If you take a sober look, then we generally know almost nothing about those with whom we live in the same country. But we all have common problems. Why not try to dispel stereotypes, exchange experiences, problems and jointly develop ways to solve them? Short-term exchanges of people to improve cities would be an excellent example of cooperation.
Arrangement of wastelands
Every city has unoccupied lots that have been attracting stray dogs, people, rubbish for years and are actually of no use. Why not turn them into something more civilized? Wastelands, even those already owned, can be used with noble intentions.
Average duration and cost
Creation of bike paths and bike parking
For starters, at least in the historical center, and in the future, in all quarters. Yes, we are aware that we still do not even have roads for cars everywhere, not to mention bicycles. Switching to bicycles is a pan-European trend of recent years: it is environmentally friendly, it is cheap and good for health.
Without the proper infrastructure, no one will pull a bike out of a storage room for fear of being run over by a car or a wheel stuck in an open sewer manhole.
And by the way, for those who say that bike paths are unprofitable and useless occupation, there is an ironclad argument: it has been proven that they increase the profitability of establishments and the value of houses located nearby.
Create a city logo and brand
Of course, in the complete absence of a city development strategy and broken roads, it would be foolish to engage in brand development. But sooner or later everyone will understand that it is precisely such visuals that are the language of communication between the urban environment and its guests.
How the city positions itself depends on its future in the geosocial space. In the meantime, we can study negative experiences - for example, the corporate identity of Dnipropetrovsk, for which 300 thousand hryvnias were paid, and which, to put it mildly, is not very impressive.
City navigation system
No matter how cool your city is, it’s quite difficult for a person who gets into it for the first time to get his bearings the first time. Especially if these are cities of the medieval type (cramped, intricate center and large surroundings). If you want the guests of your city not to get lost, see all the sights and be satisfied, create a navigation system. A good experience is Lvov and Kyiv, where numerous boards were installed for tourists with the definition of key places on the city map and how to get to them.
Restriction on the use of MAFs
Small architectural forms, or, as they are also called, MAFs, are the misfortune of modern Russia. If in the 90s everyone traded from one-day tents, now they use plastic or wooden kiosks for this, the appearance of which is far from fitting into the architectural ensembles of the surrounding streets. In order to prevent the city from turning into Shanghai again, it is worth limiting the use of MAFs - for a start, at least establish a cool design for them and allowed places.
Organize street markets
No matter how sorry you feel for the grandmothers, it is wrong to trade vegetables, fruits and dairy products from the earth. The law must be equal for everyone – spontaneous markets should not be allowed to produce unsanitary conditions and disorder on the sidewalks.
Night flights of public transport
In large cities, this problem is not so urgent, however, in cities with a population of up to 500 thousand, late in the evening or even at night, it is quite difficult to find a bus that will take you home.
If this question is really relevant for your city, then maybe it is worth launching night flights? Which, for example, will run once an hour on a certain route?
Inventory of all property and land
It seems that in one Russian city they do not know exactly what, where, and in whose property it is. Land plots are alienated several times, state property is imperceptibly written off, and houses of national importance belong to no one knows who.
Only the presence of a transparent cadastral system, which is available for anyone to view, and an inventory of everything that is in the city, will allow you to see what resources it has.
energy saving lighting
Even banal energy-saving light bulbs have not yet become widespread in Russia, so that we can talk about their complete victory. In Europe, on the contrary, incandescent lamps have been legally banned, which not only harm the environment, but also consume energy inefficiently.
Waste sorting
At the moment, from 2% to 3% of the territory of Russia are landfills. In order for the garbage not to accumulate, but to be recycled, first you need to sort it. And it is desirable that people do it themselves. The first signs of progress can be seen on the streets of some cities: in Lviv, over the past few years, they have been actively implementing the procedure for separate waste collection near houses.
Safe playgrounds
In dozens of cities in Russia, the old Soviet-style iron is still functioning, which is called children's carousels, and children suffer from malfunctions every year. Such emergency sites should be closed and new ones built. Let this happen in cooperation with well-known brands and companies - such PR is better than human sacrifices.
Free sports grounds
If you do not want young people to play in the evenings in alcoholism and gatherings with "seeds", organize an additional leisure option. Every bedroom block should have free public sports grounds that anyone can come to. Not everyone has the money or desire to go to the gym, and such initiatives would be a great way to stimulate and develop a healthy lifestyle.
landfills
The longer it takes a person to find a landfill, the less likely it is that the garbage will get to the target, and not past it. In crowded places, landfills are vital - even the most conscientious citizens will not have the patience not to throw something under the nearest tree. And one more thing: it is desirable to put these dumps not near shops, Artemy Lebedev will explain to you why.
speed bumps
A simple yet highly effective way to protect pedestrians on busy streets. If there is no need or possibility to organize traffic light traffic control, then speed bumps very effectively stop drivers who like to drive, especially near educational and public institutions.
Adoption of the master plan of the city
No reforms are possible without something basic – a roadmap, instructions, rules that will govern everything. Such an instruction for each city should be a master plan.
Not a falsified sheet of edits for the temporary benefit of local oligarchs, but a real plan of action for the coming years. It is from him that we will need to build on all further reforms.
CCTV Cameras
How to prevent crime? At the very least, a warning. Surveillance cameras will help not only to fix possible crimes, but also to protect troubled neighborhoods: few people want to do bad things under the guns of cameras. Or even their dummies: it would be interesting to experiment with such dummies, assuring everyone that these are real cameras and real video surveillance. People will believe and the result will be the same 🙂
City greening program
To plant 100,500 ambrosia bushes is not to green the city, but to harm it. A program with competent landscaping, creation of parks, maintenance of existing plantings should be an integral part of the master plan. If you do not want to turn into a soulless and stale city, take care of the greenery.
New public spaces
The city is primarily a public space, places where events, destinies and lives intersect. First of all, you will go to the square, square or other secluded corner, and not just another shopping center. Therefore, care must be taken to ensure that such places exist and develop. This is not so difficult - a small corner of the public space can be done with your own efforts. [Lions Experience]
Long and expensive
Transfer old factories and premises to co-working and creative centers
In every city, wherever it is, there are several Soviet buildings with broken windows that have been idle for years.
Usually these are the remains of old enterprises or institutions that did not survive the collapse of the once great country. So why not use these buildings for a good cause?
Many young people have enough ideas about what to do with their lives. But they simply do not have enough space to implement these ideas: startups, artists, designers and other creative and young people simply do not have the money to pay expensive rent and hire offices.
For the success of this project, two components are needed: the will of the city government, which is not sorry to give something away, and an investor who will bring the building back to normal.
A year or two, and when the terrible and abandoned territory will become a new city magnet, where young people and creative intelligentsia will reach out.
Separate traffic lanes for public transport
You need to understand the key idea: the city is for people, not for cars. That is why dozens of passengers on buses and other ground public transport do not have to wait in traffic jams as long as the owners of jeeps.
The experience of Enrique Peñalosa, the mayor of Bogota, who in just three years turned the city from wilds into civilization, proves that this is the right way.
Tourist information centers
For those who do not have enough city maps with sights, it is worth looking into special tourist information centers, which can be found with a capital “and” in a green circle. The initiative to create such centers, which, by the way, are already functioning in many Russian cities, should come from the local authorities.
In such a center, a tourist can get a free map of the city, learn about the possibility of settling, purchase tickets for public transport, order excursions, and the like.
Live communication with trained specialists (preferably also those who speak English) is much more pleasant than chaotically asking passers-by how to find the station.
Solar panels on rooftops
To make energy-independent public transport stops that would not frighten people with darkness at night, but, on the contrary, would be illuminated - solar panels that can be placed on the roof of the stop can cope with this task.
Demolition of overpasses in favor of urban transport
The problem of traffic jams is not solved by building new highways and overpasses: it's like fuel for cars, more roads - more traffic jams. In Paris, fortunately, they understood this and decided to demolish the flyovers for the benefit of the tram.
Street reconstruction to improve safety
What does the ideal street look like? This is not only a piece of asphalt on which a car can drive, it is also a bike path, a sidewalk, departments, sewer systems, markings, safety islands for pedestrians, and accessibility for people with disabilities.
Perfection is made up of little things: the experience of Orlando and the experience of Paris.
Liquidation of heat losses
Once someone thought of putting on thermal imagers in winter and taking a look at our streets. The result was incredible: a significant amount of heat, which is designed to heat houses, is simply lost along the road, warming up the asphalt and air. One of the objectives of the modernization of utilities is the elimination of such losses.
Underground parking
Instead of allocating such necessary and expensive land plots for parking lots, it is better to use the underground space.
On the surface, you only need to arrange check-in and check-out for cars, while the space above the parking lot can be used much more efficiently. If you don't want your streets to be jammed with cars, build parking lots. And hide them underground.
Removal of business centers in separate quarters
A pan-European trend is the withdrawal of large business centers outside the historical center. This allows you to unload transport hubs and concentrate the city's business activities in a certain place. One of the most striking examples of such a process is the Des Fans district in Paris.
Reconstruction of water supply systems
It seems that we do not live in the desert, but with water it is extremely difficult for us. Not all cities can boast round-the-clock water supply, and this mainly depends on the perseverance of local administrations and utilities. Making a round-the-clock water supply and setting up sewage filtration is a commonplace task, but it is still relevant for Ukrainian cities.
Restoration of facades
If you do not want the houses in the city center to fall on the heads of passers-by, and tourists still have something to photograph, you need to take care of preserving the historical facades. A sad situation: the cafe on the first floor found finances and a desire to restore its piece of the facade, and the rest of the buildings will soon collapse.
It is necessary to outline the boundaries of the historical center, to passport each facade, and to restore them on the basis of separate financing (50% - the authorities, 50% - the owner).
Fully pedestrianized streets
What audacity to forbid cars from entering and turn the street into a completely pedestrian one? It turns out that this has its own benefits - it is not only another public space, but also a specific benefit for everything that is located on this street. Pedestrian streets make the city more attractive.
Do you have any ideas of your own that could complement this material? Do you have something to object / add / criticize? We would love your opinions in the comments. And even better - a reference to a practical - real, not virtual - way to solve problems. You can consider this post as a theoretical start, from which we will begin to talk more about useful things that can change the life of our cities.
About one book for children - LEGO fans.
I’ll tell you about another one, but it differs in that it contains a lot of instructions that will allow your child to build a whole city with small cars, houses and even trees.
What is this book about
This is the first edition with unofficial LEGO ® building instructions in Russian! Its authors, well-known LEGO fans in Europe, will explain how to build mini-models of buildings, trees and a variety of cars that will fill the streets of your city.
The publication features a whole fleet of over 20 vehicle models: a truck, a tractor, an excavator, a fire engine, a police car and much more! From simple basic models, you will reach large-scale structures assembled from many parts.
book chips
In addition to the instructions themselves, you'll find in this book a description of the main parts of LEGO ® , different techniques for their connection, as well as lists of useful abbreviations and sites for fans of the designer.
And the large colorful illustrations are simply mesmerizing! They can be looked at indefinitely. We are sure they will inspire you to create your own mini-city.
What is this book about
book chips
LEGO® - the toy of the century....
What is this book about
This is the first edition with unofficial LEGO® building instructions in Russian! Its authors, well-known LEGO fans in Europe, will explain how to build mini-models of buildings, trees and a variety of cars that will fill the streets of your city.
The publication contains a whole fleet of vehicles - more than 20 models of vehicles: a truck, a tractor, an excavator, a fire truck, a police car and much more! From simple basic models, you will reach large-scale structures assembled from many parts.
book chips
In addition to the instructions themselves, you'll find in this book a description of the main parts of LEGO®, different techniques for their connection, as well as lists of useful abbreviations and sites for fans of the set.
And the large colorful illustrations are simply mesmerizing! They can be looked at indefinitely. We are sure they will inspire you to create your own mini-city.
Why we decided to publish this book
LEGO® is the toy of the century. This book will help you rediscover the possibilities of your favorite building kit and teach you how to create your own models.
Who is this book for?
For advanced LEGO® lovers of all ages.
JoachimKlang - in 2002, the site 1000steine.de chose his work (a combat walker based on the movie "Star Wars") as the model of the month. Joachim then participated in such collective projects as the assembly of the Sandcrawler tracked all-terrain vehicle and the model of the outdoor concert stage for the VillagePeople group. For the TSL exhibition in Berlin, the Death Star Hangar project was implemented, consisting of more than 400 figures, and a model of the EmpireStateBuilding skyscraper with an area of about 3 square meters was built. m and a height of about 3.5 m. At the moment, together with Michael von Hovora, he creates a model of the battle of Minas Tirith ("Fortresses of the Guard" based on the plot of the film "The Lord of the Rings") and a model of the historical center of Cologne (Ludwig Museum and the Cologne Philharmonic). The author can be found on the Internet under the nicknames derjoe and Unimoy and on the website Joerilla.de.
Oliver Albrecht - LEGO® lovers know Oliver as the creator of large models of technical devices with pneumatic and mechanical functions, created in scale from 1:13 to 1:20. For example, he assembled a Gottwald AK 850 crane manufactured by Schmidbauer KG from LEGO® parts, which is 1 meter long and has a boom height of 2.5 m. At the moment he is working on a model of the historic center of Cologne, in particular, on a block of houses between Bechergasse and Gasse Unter Taschenmacher on the north side of the Alter Market.
HideThe LEGO constructor is the most popular entertainment for children of all ages, and for many adults as well. Book " Pick up your city" Joachim Klang reveals the possibilities of this designer. It contains instructions and useful tips, following which you can create everything from one car to a whole metropolis. But this is not only a collection of detailed diagrams, but also a piggy bank of ideas, on the basis of which you can create your own interesting models .
