| The garden
suburb had its origins in England in the late
18th century, when garden villages were built by
landed gentry to provide decent, architect
designed housing and environments for workers on
their estates. The earliest manifestations of the
true garden suburb were geared towards the more
prosperous merchant class, with up-market villas
integrated with landscaped public spaces and
roads. Merseyside has a number of fine examples,
some very early: Rock Park Estate, Birkenhead
Park, Prince's Park and Sefton Park. By the
middle of the 19th century, philanthropic factory
owners embraced socialist principles and the
belief that the working class deserved better and
more affordable housing near to their workplace.
Price's Village, Port Sunlight Village and
Hartley's Village are notable examples in
Merseyside. Finally it was up to local
authorities to take the initiative, resulting in
examples such as Wavertree Garden Suburb. |
|
By the
1920s an opposing, modernist view of urban design
was emerging, spearheaded by Le Corbusier with
his vision of regular arrays of tower blocks and
rectangular green spaces criss-crossed by
mechanised transport lanes. The garden suburb
concept waned after World War II, when modernism,
especially the concrete 'brutalism', was in the
ascendancy. Nowadays we see the error of so much
of this kind of mass development, which became
unloved by the general public and was eventually
widely demolished. We now see the spirit of the
garden village emerging again in modern housing
developments and larger scale planning around the
world. |
