Host: The City Planning Institute of Japan
Lewis Mumford attempted to establish the basic principles upon which our human environment may be renovated. He published The Culture of Cities (1938), City Development (1946), City in History (1961), and The Urban Prospect (1968). Mumford is one of the few theoreticians of the city who invented comprehensive theories of urban life that combined functional and normative theory, while he was a highly relevant critic of culture of cities, with great breadth and depth, and originality. However, due to his difficult writing style, there are only few interpretive scholarships on his ideas: his thoughts still remain untapped resources for planners. This paper examines his basic principles of city and regional planning that were established on the basis of Patrick Geddes urban ecology and Ebenezer Howards Garden City ideas
