Trädgårdsstaden : från historisk idé till dagsaktuell verklighet

The aim of this study has been to make clear the conception of “The Garden City”, and also to investigate why and how the garden city has come to be a more frequent and attractive form of settlement in our Swedish community. The essay is supported by a literature study about the garden city from its beginning (1890’s) to present time. To make a distinct explanation of the garden cities progress over time, I have studied the idea behind two garden cities of today, Tullinge and Vistabergs garden city. Architects and commissioners of building projects, working with those two examples of garden cities, has been interviewed in purpose to catch a glimpse of the 21th centuries designing and planning of garden cities and society. Ebenezer Howard’s idea of the garden city was to create a public reform, witch aimed to create a better life for lower classes in society. The reform concerned to redistribute the population, from the crowded cities to the garden cities verdure and pleasant low-rise buildings. Howard’s thoughts and ideas were too diagrammatic and theoretical to become real. His ideas has passed on and has progressed through time to suit the prevailing time and space. In the 1990’s the garden cities got a Renaissance on the Swedish market. It was a necessary contrast to the criticized high-rise areas designed during the era of the million program (miljonprogrammet) of the 1960s. At the same time as the awareness of the environments and natures necessity rose, the garden city became more popular because of it natural soundness. The garden cities little picturesque settlement and structure appeal to the Swedish culture and the human sense. This kind of settlement is a functional complement to the stressful society of today. In the settlement of the garden city the inhabitants can rest, breath out and get away from the stressful city. Its access to verdure oases and private cultivable land attract a lot of people. The peaceful work in the garden is ranked high in the Swedish society. However, all the garden cities that are planned and exist today can’t fulfil the origin demands, often because of defect cooperation between the actors within the fields of planning and constructing. The garden city seems in many ways to be a suitable settlement also for the age that we live in. Its actual popularity seems to remain and because of that it will make a definite impact on the spatial development and suburban life in Sweden