Thank you to all who came to the NGCA Garden Cities conference in Letchworth last week. We were not only fortunate to have avoided Storm Doris by one day but also to have got so many good people together in one place.

There was a huge amount of passion and enthusiasm and I felt that it could have easily have been a two day conference.

I am grateful to our morning speakers Richard Bacon MP and David Ames from the Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation.

Also to our morning workshop leaders who also said a few words : Michael Holmes, National custom and self build association, Nicole Lazarus, Bioregional Development Group, Luke Engleback, Landscape institute, Toby Lloyd, Shelter, John Devaney, British Standard Institute and Christiane Lellig, Wood for Good.

In the afternoon Lord Taylor was able to articulate what many of us were thinking about the state of the housing market and the need to have belief and courage to create great places. As he said there is a need to ‘seize the moment’.

Bastian Wahler-Zak from the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development gave an excellent German perspective. The original garden city movement was developed hand in hand with that in Germany and the new movement may well do too. Bastian I know learnt a great deal from the workshop discussions that we were having in the hall.

The afternoon workshops built on those of the morning and examined in greater detail those of sustainable build and self build, land value capture and governance.

The conclusions of the day was the agreement by a show of hands of the Garden City Declaration on agreeing an articulate of what a garden city is. (Socially, ecologically and economically sustainable).

Also it is proposed to write up the results of the workshop for a small pamphlet which I will organise. I shall be asking separately the workshop leaders to send me some photos of their notes or if they can some typed up notes.

Finally my thanks to Thomas Hoefner and Liz Wrigley of the NGCA, to Letchworth Heritage Foundation and all our sponsors.

Decisions

Passed Garden City Declaration

Agreement to create pamphlet from conference – aim to publish early April

NGCA to send out a paper on formalising membership

Plans to hold a conference next year open to offers

Investigate idea of a simple garden city training course on basic principles

Resources

Garden City Declaration

Initial Workshops briefs

Twitter feed with pictures – thanks to Mingfei Ma for tweeting on the day

 

Historian Dan Cruickshank discovers whether the governments proposed new Garden Cities programme – hailed as an idyllic alternative to generic commuter towns – is the answer to our housing crisis or a toxicblight on lifestyle and landscape.

Excellent contributions from Katy Lock of the TCPA and John Davis from Burlington CLT and Philip Ross from the New Garden Cites Alliance

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07z4155

What makes a 21st Century Garden City?

These are the 12 principles discussed in the book ‘21^st Century Garden cities of To-Morrow’ by Philip Ross and Yves Cabannes.

A Garden City is a fair, just and harmonious community. It is not restricted to new cities or towns or those built following traditional Garden City town planning, architectural or design principles. A Garden City is about community, not merely about architecture and urban design.

It is about building a harmonious community, balancing the best of town and country together to a community where the measure of success is ultimately the happiness of the people who live in it. Below are listed twelve principles that we believe underlie a Garden City. Some are methods and others are objectives. In effect these principles represent doorways into the Garden City; you can enter using one of the many doorways. But contradict or deny any of the principles, then they will also prove themselves to be exits. We declare that any town, city or neighbourhood can be considered as a Garden City if it embraces the following principles:

1. Residents are citizens.
2. The Garden City owns itself.
3. The Garden City is energy efficient and carbon neutral.
4. Provides access to land for living and working to all.
5. Fair Trade principles are practised.
6. Prosperity is shared.
7. All citizens are equal, all citizens are different.
8. There is fair representation and direct democracy.
9. Garden Cities are produced through participatory planning and design methods.
10. A City of Rights that builds and defends the Right to the City
11. Knowledge is held in common, shared and enhanced.
12. Wealth and harmony measured by happiness.
    

1. Residents are citizens

Residents consider themselves to be citizens of the Garden City. This includes people who also work, participate and use the Garden City. They are aware that the town truly belongs to them. There is a culture of rights, duties and responsibilities that comes through citizenship. The town is run for the common good, reflecting and representing the common will with a belief in equality and fraternity as the city is run for the benefit of the many, not the few.

2. The Garden City owns itself

The Garden City is ultimately owned by its local community and not by a series of landlords. This ownership and governance is derived from the people who live and work in the city and who are its citizens acting for the common good. If the Garden City is its own landlord then it is answerable to and controlled by its citizens, ideally as a Community Land Trust managed by democratic structures that make it both inclusive and accountable.

3. The Garden City is energy efficient and carbon neutral

A Garden City has a harmonious relationship with nature and is energy efficient. A Garden City is a carbon neutral city and does not pollute; its planning, design and resources are deployed to achieve this goal. Citizens and the government in the Garden City have a collective responsibility in their daily lives to design and implement such policies. This could be ensuring the provision of clean, safe and efficient public transport, the ability to navigate the Garden City by walking or cycling on one hand and the ability to reduce waste, recycle and reuse resources by citizens on the other.

4. Provide access to land for living and working to all

The Garden City promotes urban agriculture, the ability for citizens to grow most of their own food, even in an urban area. There is a right of free and fair access to the land for all residents to grow their own food whether it is through common allotments, common land, farms, productive streets and parks or private gardens. Alongside this is the right to affordable housing and also the right of access to resources in urban areas to build or run their individual or collective businesses or workshops.

It is a productive city that aims at its own self-sufficiency providing opportunities for agricultural work, crafts, commerce and industry. Rents are provided to encourage self-sufficiency and regeneration, provided in partnership with tenants, not just for tenants. The goal is for the City to be productive and sustainable in its own right, not as a dormitory settlement or a place of mere consumption.

5. Fair Trade principles are practised

The Garden City is committed to the practises and ethics of Fair Trade implementing the credo that its prosperity is not built upon the suffering of others, whether inside its own city limits, inside its own country or internationally.

6. Prosperity is shared

The prosperity of the Garden City is shared in practise among all its citizens, not just among the rich, wealthy and establishment. Participatory budgeting through which citizens decide on the priorities for public and community investment is one of the key mechanisms in practise. To secure the wealth and trigger jobs among the community, it can create local or a complementary community currency and set up community banks.

7. All citizens are equal, all citizens are different

All citizens in a Garden City are equal regardless of how long they have lived there or how many generations of their family has lived there. There are no special privileges for anyone. A Garden City provides support, treats with dignity those with mental and physical disabilities and values each citizen, irrespective of their religious or sexual orientation.

8. Fair representation and direct democracy

There is a right to participate in the Garden City, in what the city does, how it is run and who does what. A Garden City can be made up of many cities and towns but each of these will be comprised of different neighbourhoods and communities, each with differing needs and aspirations. The prosperity of the Garden City is employed to help those in greatest need. Each community and neighbourhood should be empowered and encouraged to form its own free and open association, council or forum to represent and engage the views and needs of that local community. The Garden City will share its decision making. It will devolve some to representatives but also by engage directly and meaningfully with the citizens so all can have an informed say and collective decision making power on the priorities for the Garden City.

9. Garden Cities are produced through participatory planning and design methods

A Garden City is in harmony with the landscape, water, air, nature and the surrounding countryside. New developments and housing have Garden City space and design characteristics and aim to promote the health and wellbeing of its citizens, current and future and are developed through participatory methods on fundamental issues, not just cosmetic ones. Public spaces are widely available as an important concept as they provide the means for people to meet and share views and to integrate. These public spaces and facilities bring together young and old, rich and poor, those of different races, religions and backgrounds as a community that celebrates and rejoices in its diversity and exercises tolerance and freedom.

10. A City of Rights that builds and defends the Right to the City

In the Garden City there are universal rights for all citizens such as the right to clean air, the right to nutritious food, the right to adequate housing, the right to work and fair wages. There are not only individual rights but collective rights such as the collective right to enjoy the city and its majesty as well as collective civic and political rights. In traditional terms, as the City is held in common there is a collective right to these commons. The Right to the City is a superior Right as it is both individual and collective.

11. Knowledge is held in common, shared and enhanced

A Garden City is a mutual city that builds a culture of production, sharing and co-operation, not just in terms of its prosperity and governance but also in terms of the knowledge it acquires and generates. It shares and co-operates for the good of the City while still operating competition to create innovation and development.

12. Wealth and harmony measured by happiness

The wealth and harmony of the Garden City is measured in the happiness its citizens. It is the only true measurement of a successful city. Their happiness is not based upon the suffering or expense of others.

These are the characteristics of a Garden City. Not all can be present but the guiding principles of a new Garden City will be to: Share, Enjoy and Prosper.

What turns the sharing of the Garden City’s prosperity from an act of paternalism or charity to one of empowerment and citizenship? It is people not just having a share in the City’s prosperity but a share – an active say – in how it is spent and what and where it is spent on. It means people having a chance to participate and speak for themselves and make informed decisions.