History of Urban Planning
The historical origins of urban planning can be traced back to a social movement for urban reform that began in the late nineteenth century, in response to the chaos of the industrial city. Many thinkers of the time desired an ideal city, but practical factors such as proper sanitation, transportation of goods and people, and the supply of amenities also fueled the need for planning. However, modern planners want to balance challenging requirements of social equality, economic prosperity, environmental awareness, and visual appeal.
Customarily, a top-down approach was utilized in master planning the architectural structure of human communities. The top focus was public welfare, which covered efficiency, protection, cleanliness, and utilization of the environment, and even the impact of the master plans on economic and social activities.
Over time, urban planning has shifted its focus to the environmental and social bottom lines, emphasizing planning as a tool for improving people's health and well-being while adhering to environmental standards. When the adverse environmental and economic effects of prior planning models became obvious in the late twentieth century, sustainable development was incorporated as one of the fundamental aims of all planning activities.
Urban planning provides solutions to issues about how people will live, work, and engage in a particular community, and thus guiding orderly development in rural, urban, and suburban areas - a feeling of belonging and opportunity for everyone.
During the first American urban planning conference that took place in New York in 1898, a British planner questioned if he and his colleagues were aiming for beautiful cities or beautiful people. He also asked whether urban planning is about architectural design, or about making life easier for those who live in urban areas. It was a crucial question for a field that didn't exist until the early twentieth century.
Before then, three categories of people, including public health officials, architects, and social workers were thinking about how an urban area ought to look and function. Each party took a different approach to the issue of city building.
The public health specialists were preoccupied with infrastructure. They recognized there was a link between particular diseases and societal conditions, even if they didn't know specifically what it was. The most effective strategy to prevent the spreading of diseases was planning where waste should go, how a water system would function, and how to get waste out of a city. On the other hand, the architects were primarily concerned with the city as a built community.
Finally, the social workers sought to use the city to better the lives of the residents. They desired cleaner tenements, better play areas for immigrant children, and more fresh air and light for people living in the city.
However, when American urban planning was formed, we opted to build cities that prioritized a place over people.
Some of the contemporary concerns in urban planning include, but are not limited to, urban sprawl and inefficient land use, which results in housing affordability issues, transportation issues, and the depletion of a scarce resource. In most circumstances, roads predominate, and urbanization does not support public transportation and is unsuitable for walking and cycling.
Furthermore, urban regions are facing rising sustainability problems in terms of delivering acceptable environmental and socio-economic living conditions. Both of these issues must be addressed in urban planning. We all know that the primary purpose of most urban planning concerns is to promote economic prosperity, but we must also seek to enhance people's lives.
