Revolutionary Industry-oriented Town

A successful urban planning considers character, of "home" and "sense of place", local identity, respect for natural, artistic and historic heritage, an understanding of the "urban grain" or "townscape," pedestrians and other modes of traffic, utilities and natural hazards, such as flood zones. It is said that the medieval piazza and arcade are the most widely appreciated elements of successful urban design, as demonstrated by the Italian cities of Siena and Bologna.[1]

Robert Owen’s (1771-1858) “Industrial Village”. He was a Welsh socialist and a social reformer. He started construction of an industrial village at New Lanark mills near the Manchester. Ideally, the Ideal Village has 800-1200 people on 600-1800 acres (240-728 hectares). It is self-sufficient community without child labor. Each community has educational and recreational facility. It was planned to alleviate the poverty during that time through socialism. Socialism is an economic philosophy and political movement that aims to achieve a just, classless society through collective or government ownership of all property and means of manufacture and distribution of goods.

Edgar Chambless’s “Roadtown”. He illustrated the three main feature is a town; the commercial, housing, and the transportation. He describe a commercial ─ a roof promenade, with glass-in parlor in winter and a shaded walk in summer. With bicycling and skater paths, a tower which is housing schools, nurseries, recreational, and stores. A two-storey housing above-ground level, with a workroom at street level while the living area above it; three below-ground levels of railroad lines for expresses and locals, to carry both passengers and freights.

Concentric Approach is a economic development where central business district is most likely located at the core of a growing city then adjacent to it are the secondary important like government buildings and greeneries. Houses are categorized according to “affordability”. Informal settlers or slums likely occurred in the periphery of CBD. People living at the outside area or last of the chain are people who can afford to commute.

Landscape design- idea of Frederick Law Olmtead. For him landscape design is a solution to urbanization; the idea that public parks should be integrated. The parks are with winding carriage paths and lush landscape, a large open space where people can relax with.

Generated from the approach explained above is a revolutionary town where the main economic growth depends on the industry present and invested in the area such as a town adjacent to the Banana plantation and processing industries. The main transportation inside the town is a railway that will link to the industrial communities and to the other part of the town like the CBD, housing, and government. However, there will roads that will link to outside towns. The size of the area is adaptive to the Ideal Village which has 800-1200 people on 600-1800 acres (240-728 hectares). The CBD is in central area but not necessary it is the core of the town. Large open green spaces can be the core of the town. Houses near the CBD will be acclimatizing to the way of life in the area; two-storey houses while the houses that are almost near to plantation should have vegetations between them. It will act as a barrier for the effect of chemical dispersal. Other aspect such schools, churches, and government buildings are situated near to the residential but not far from the CBD. There will be patches of green space between buildings.

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Reference: AR61 module

[1] http:/wwww.wikipedia.org/urban planning