The Art of Building a Garden City

This chapter takes us on a journey through the history and radical

origins of the garden city movement, starting in the 16th century and

exploring the influence that notions of ideal communities have had

on the debate about future of design and place-making. It provides

an overview of the debate about land and freedom during the English

Civil War in the 17th century – which sparked new movements and

ideas from groups like the Levellers and the Diggers – through to rich

debates about the future of society at the end of the 19th century,

and the first attempts at building new communities based on utopian

thinking. It was out of this rich cultural ...