A NEW BELGIUM
PLAN FOR MODEL TOWNS AN INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT. I Plans are already under way on an international basis for the rebuilding of Belgium into one of the garden spots of the world (wrote the Washington cor- ! respondent of the New York Evening Post on 29th December). All the civilised • nations wil] be invited to contnpute ideas for the erection iv the devastated cities, towns, ,and villages of Belgium model homes, which, while preserving as much as possible the picturesqueness of the buildings levelled by tho guns of war, yet will exemplify the best examples of community building. In January a meeting of Belgians will be held in England, under the auspices of the International Garden Cities Town Planning Association, to consider plans for the reconstruction of homes in Belgium. It is hoped that several Belgian Ministers will attend, and that, through correspondence with members in various parts of the world, the association may assemble a mass of expert advice in city planning, which can be turned to account in the unhappy land across the Channel. "Church and home, public building | and farmstead, are alike laid waste, and, with the exception of a tiny corner, the whole country presents a scene | of desolation which the world has not before witnessed*," says the magazine published by the association. "But to-morrow the Belgians are going back, and the homeless wanderers who are now finding sanctuary in Holland, France, and Britain have to return to take up again the broken thread of their life. To go back as things are at present will be to increase the hardship and to create a, new risk arising from the remnants of the war and the destruction of sanitary organisation. It would seem not inopportune, therefore, for such an association as the Garden Cities and Town-Planning Association to take the initiative in calling together the experts of the world to 'consider • the replanning of the new Belgium." The purpose of the article from which these lines are quoted is to provoke adequate discussion, and to that end correspondence and criticism are invited by the association, whose offices are at 3, Gray's Inn Place, London, W.C. URGED AS ONLY ADEQUATE REMEDY. Ewart G. Culpin, secretary of the association, points out in this article that there is no proposal at present before the world which deals effectively with such conditions except the Garden City principle, as set out originally by Ebenezer Howard, and advocated by the Garden Cities and Towns Planning Association. The Garden City proposals involve practically starting afresh on new ground ; and while it is recognised that every care must be taken to prevent the suspicion of a desire to foist upon Belgium any exotic type of development, and while whatever is done must be upon lines suggested by and approved by the Belgians themselves, it is suggested that in this regard the universality of Mr. Howard' 3 proposal has a special value. In Belgium, it is believed, will come the great opportunity of building up model towns and a model country — £>ne lacking many of those monuments of the past which have survived the centuries, but one which shall be a country of healthful towns and villages, where the old dark background j of insanitary town life shall not again enter, but where the advantages of the town shall find place with the sweetness of the countryside ; where, in a series of communities of reasonable size, each surrounded and preserved by its Belt of agricultural land, and each connected with adequate means of transport, the full application may be made of those further principles of Mr. Howard whioh it has not yet been found possible to carry out. DANGER IN. HASTY ACTION. An object-lesson taken from American history has been suggested to the Association by Richard B. Watrous, secretary of the American Civic Association. Mr. Watrous ia the American member of the association, whose last international conference he attended, and he has been urged by Secretary Culpin to present his own views with respect to the Belgian problem. In his reply, Secretary Watrous has emphasised the danger and delicacy of a situation which ! calls for quick action .and yet, because of its emergency, may beget results ] which will fall lar short of the oppor- ! tunity i "I might cite, for instance," writes Mr. Watrous, "the experience in the rebuilding of the city ol San Francisco in this, country, which, suffered such disastrous damage from the earthquake of some years &go. Two or three years before* that disaster, a wonderful plan for the future development of San Francisco had been prepared by the late distinguished city planner, Daniel H. Burnham. Steps had been taker* to put into effect those plans, which were only awaiting the > touch of enthusiasm and the necessary financial support to give them life. The disaster # overtook San Francisco, with the ruination, of hundreds of buildings and the obliteration of established highways. " The opportunity to take advantage of Mr. Bnmham's plan was there in wonderful degree, hut the emergency seemed too great, and there was such a demand for haste that following the earthquake and the more disastrous fire that accompanied it, the new San Francisco sprang up quickly along almost the same lines as the old San Francisco, and advantage was not taken of the rare opportunity for the right kind of building according to a plan. " Students of municipal planning in the United States are following with_ interest the attempt being made by highminded men and women of all countries to assist Belgium, not only with material means, but with ideas which, if they can be realised, will build a finer Belgium than the world has known. Incidentally, it is noteworthy that the programme of the international city planners takes no note of the German occupation of Belgium, and cheerfully contemplates that the Teuton will riot remain to impose his own ideas upon the scheme of Belgian rehabilitation."
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27, 2 February 1915, Page 2
Word Count
988A NEW BELGIUM Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27, 2 February 1915, Page 2
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