Sir Raymond Unwin (1863-1940) was one of the best-known pioneers of town planning. Inspired by Willian Morris and Fabianism he designed new prototypes for working class housing. The design of 20th-century housing, new suburbs and new towns perhaps owes more to Unwin, and to the works in Letchworth, New Earswick and Hampstead Garden Suburb than to any other individual.

The two authors complement each other beautifully, one a visionary and gutsy politician, the other a gifted academic with a deep rooted social conscience. With the benefit of a century of post Letchworth Garden City knowledge and the lessons of two World Wars, their timely released book re-brands the Garden City from a social as well as a technical point of view. It says it's a manifesto for 21st Century Garden Cities of To-Morrow, but it could equally be a manifesto for decent human urban survival on our cherished Planet. It concentrates on the role of each citizen - his or her responsibilities and opportunities. It advocates restoring basic human values back to ordinary people, away from the `I'm doing you a favour' private pro-bono benefaction and/or cash-starved governmental institutions that seem to know the cost of everything, but the value of nothing.

The Garden City Movement provided a radical new model for the design and layout of housing at the turn of the nineteenth century and set standards for the twentieth century which were of international significance. The vision of the movement's founder, Ebenezer Howard, drew on many strands of political and utopian thought, and initially aimed at addressing the problems of an increasingly urban and dysfunctional society along 'the peaceful path to real reform'. It took only five years, from 1898 to 1903 for the idea to take root in the open fields of North Hertfordshire, when Earl Grey proclaimed the Letchworth Garden City Estate open. Letchworth was followed by Hampstead Garden Suburb, Welwyn Garden City and numerous smaller developments, and Garden City ideas informed both inter-war housing policy and New Town planning after the Second World War. Present-day issues such as sustainable development and eco-settlements have their roots in the Garden City. Written by the leading authority in the field, this book tells the story of a major development in England's urban and planning history and provides a timely popular survey of the achievements of the Garden City Movement and the challenge of change. This will not only appeal to planners and conservation professionals, but also residents of the garden cities.

This book offers a detailed record of one of the world's oldest environmental pressure groups. It raises questions about the capacity of pressure groups to influence policy; and finally it assesses the campaing as a major factor in the emergence of modern town and planning, and as a backdrop against which to examine current issues.

The Art of Building a Garden City is a well-researched guide to the history of the garden city movement and the delivery of a new generation of communities for the 21st Century. Bringing together key findings from the TCPA’s campaign work, and drawing on lessons from the first garden cities, the new towns programme and other large-scale developments, it identifies what steps need to be taken in order to deliver the highest standards of design and place making today.