ABSTRACT

A great part of the interwar expansion of European cities relied on social housing schemes built on affordable suburban land following garden-city principles. Green spaces were an essential part of these extension plans, which were particularly ambitious in London and Frankfurt. While both initiatives have been extensively researched, most of these studies contemplate their green areas as an offshoot of the housing programmes and not as an essential part of the planning. Based on published sources and archival research, this article compares two of the most paradigmatic settlements of the period, Becontree in London and Römerstadt in Frankfurt, to analyze the role gardens played in the urban agenda. As this comparative study shows, private gardens and allotments were not a byproduct but a keystone in interwar suburban planning, albeit in different ways. While in London they were introduced as a new hobby for the working classes that insisted on its ornamental features, in Frankfurt, they were part of a comprehensive plan to make the city self-sufficient, so its productive, utilitarian role was prioritized. Both strategies used gardens in a significant way to achieve their ultimate goal of improving living conditions in order to avoid social unrest.

摘要

欧洲城市在两次世界大战之间扩张的很大一部分依赖于遵循花园城市原则建立在负担得起的郊区土地上的社会住房计划。绿地是这些扩建计划的重要组成部分，在伦敦和法兰克福尤为雄心勃勃。虽然这两项举措都得到了广泛研究，但大多数研究都将绿地视为住房计划的一个分支，而不是规划的重要组成部分。本文根据已发表的资料和档案研究，比较了当时最典型的两个定居点——伦敦的 Becontree 和法兰克福的 Römerstadt，以分析花园在城市议程中的作用。正如这项比较研究表明的那样，私人花园和分配不是副产品，而是两次世界大战之间郊区规划的基石，尽管以不同的方式。在伦敦，它们被引入作为坚持其装饰特征的工人阶级的一种新爱好，而在法兰克福，它们是使城市自给自足的综合计划的一部分，因此它的生产性和功利性作用被优先考虑。这两种策略都以重要的方式利用花园来实现改善生活条件以避免社会动荡的最终目标。