Ebenezer Howard And The Marriage Of Town And Country

Abstract

Ebenezer Howard advocated the construction of garden cities to reduce the alienation of human society from nature. The social world was to be reorganized and integrated into the surrounding environment to ensure sustainable interactions. In Garden Cities of To-morrow, Howard provided an outline of a garden city that promised a clean environment, free from air and water pollution, and an abundance of parks and open spaces. Social production was organized for local demands with the goal of creating self-sustaining communities, thus reducing the need for long-distance trade. Howard insisted that the long-term sustainability of garden cities was founded on abiding by the law of restitution, where all wastes were recycled back to the soil to ensure the continued productive potential of the land. In this, Howard's garden cities dissolved the divide between town and country and provided a model for an ecologically sustainable society.