Re-approaching The "Garden Cities Of To-morrow"

The Garden City theory is considered to be the foundation of modem urban planning system.There are so much academic research in terms of theory.However,some phenomenon should be noticed.It seems that most of existing research focused on the value of its social reform.Could it become a reason in which the Garden City is the cornerstone of modern urban planning?Therefore,this paper tries to study the true value of the Garden City in professional field of urban planning.Firstly,this paper investigates the basic background when Howard put forward the Garden City theory.And it is found that social programs exists already before the appearing of the theory.After that,in order to study completely the question which has been raised before,this research is carried out from the two clues——"practice" and "theory,by means of literature summarization.In practice,it is studied that how the Garden City developed since the birth year in all over the world especially in Britain and America.The conclusion is that physical space is the main form in which the Garden City Theory is reflected in practice.In theory,it is reviewed systematically that how the theory is understood from the end of the Second World War in the West and China.The main value of the Garden City in theoretical studies is summarized.The conflicts of theory research start to be shown already.On the basis of the practice and theory research,this paper further demonstrates the conflict and the clash between the practice and tiheory or theory inside.It is given definitely that existing theoretical interpretation can not stand for that the Garden City theory constitutes the foundation of Modem Urban Planning System.Analysis of conflict and clash can reveal the problem,but through it the answer ean’t be given.Eventually,the correct interpretation can only be given by a logical guess and consistencytest.Therefore,this article tries to give the final guess from the professional point of view:The real value of the Garden City theory is that it is the physical space intervention with which the holistic effects can be best.It is a model that how the planning helps to create better cities and world from the part of physical space.This is the essential reason which makes the urban planning become an independent subject.