ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the spirit that drove much urban design thinking in the twentieth century. The advocacies of some reformers had a direct influence on later urban design thought. The efforts of social reformers, accompanied by the interest of several industrialists, led to the building of model industrial communities. These “villages of vision” provided generous accommodations by contemporary standards and supporting facilities for workers and their families. They were philanthropic gestures that enhanced the financial return on the industry owner’s investments by increasing worker productivity. Many of the model towns were also based on strong moral convictions. Social reformers who produced illustrative designs of their vison of a good industrial town invariably placed them in the countryside. Two influential generic designs demonstrate the attitudes in much contemporary thinking. They are Owen’s self-supporting industrial town and Victoria, a model temperance community, proposed by James Silk Buckingham.
