Navi Mumbai, India is the world's largest planned city.

A planned community, or planned city, is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are less frequent in planned communities since they are planned carefully. New towns can apply to specific communities especially in the United Kingdom where they are created under the New Towns Act 1946.

Navi Mumbai, a planned city near the Indian city of Mumbai, is the largest planned township in the world. It was also common in the European colonization of the Americas to build according to a plan either on fresh ground or on the ruins of earlier Amerindian cities.

Planned capital cities[link]

Several of the world's capital cities are planned cities, including Washington, D.C., in the United States, Canberra in Australia, Brasília in Brazil, Belmopan in Belize, New Delhi in India, Abuja in Nigeria, Astana in Kazakhstan, Naypyidaw in Burma, and Islamabad in Pakistan. The federal administrative centre of Malaysia, Putrajaya is also a planned city.

Africa[link]

South Africa[link]

A number of cities were set up during the apartheid-era for a variety of ethnic groups. Planned settlements set up for white inhabitants included Welkom, Sasolburg and Secunda. Additionally the majority of settlements in South Africa were planned in their early stages and the original town centres still lie in a grid street fashion. Some settlements were also set up for non-whites.

Asia[link]

Mainland China[link]

Many ancient cities in China, especially those on the North China Plain, were carefully designed according to the fengshui theory, featuring square or rectangular city walls, rectilinear road grid, and symmetrical layout. Famous examples are Chang'an in Tang dynasty and Beijing.

An exception to that is an ancient town in Tekes County, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, with a shape of a ba gua.

In modern China, many special economic zones are developed from the sketch, for example, Pudong, a new district of Shanghai.

South Asia[link]

Ancient history[link]

A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture is evident in the Indus Valley Civilization which thrived in present-day Pakistan and western parts of the modern day Republic of India from around 2600 BC. The quality of municipal city planning suggests knowledge of urban planning and efficient municipal governments which placed a high priority on hygiene. The streets of major cities in present day Pakistan such as Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, the world's earliest planned cities, were laid out in a perfect grid pattern comparable to that of present day New York City. The houses were protected from noise, odours, and thieves.

As seen in the ancient sites of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, this urban plan included the world's first urban sanitation systems. Within the city, individual homes or groups of homes obtained water from wells. From a room that appears to have been set aside for bathing, waste water was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets. Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes.

The ancient Indus systems of sewage and drainage that were developed and used in cities throughout the Indus Valley were far more advanced than any found in contemporary urban sites in the Middle East and even more efficient than those in some areas of modern South Asia today. The advanced architecture of the Harappans is shown by their impressive dockyards, granaries, warehouses, brick platforms, and protective walls.

Medieval history[link]

A number of medieval Indian cities were planned including:

• Ahmedabad in Gujarat. Established by Sultan Ahmad Shah in 1411.
• Udaipur in Rajasthan. It was the historic capital of the former kingdom of Mewar.
• Madurai, in the state of Tamilnadu. It was the capital of the erstwhile Pandyan kingdom and is noted for its lotus-like symmetry.
• Fatehpur Sikri in Agra. Its planning was done by the Mughal emperor Akbar the Great.
• Vijayanagar in Karnataka, the capital of the erstwhile Vijayanagara Empire.
• Hampi in Karnataka, which was the former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire prior to the city of Vijayanagar.

Modern history[link]

The period following independence saw India being defined into smaller geographical regions. New states such as Gujarat were formed with planned capital cities. The major planned cities of India include:

• Navi Mumbai(New Mumbai), World Largest Planned city and Super city.^[1]
• New Delhi
• NOIDA
• Chandigarh India's first planned city
• Durgapur India's second planned city
• Gandhinagar
• Patiala
• Panchkula
• Mohali
• Greater Noida
• Udaipur
• Auroville
• Bhubaneshwar, the capital of Orissa
• Dispur
• Dhule, Maharashtra, a city planned by the renowned architect of India, Sir Vishveshwarayya.
• Naya Raipur, the upcoming capital of Chhattisgarh
• Bidhannagar(Salt Lake City), planned township near Kolkata
• Kalyani^{[disambiguation needed ]}
• Rajarhat (New Town), planned township near Kolkata
• Jamshedpur, planned township in Jharkhand
• Bhilai, planned township in Chattisgarh

In Pakistan:

• The most notable planned city is the capital Islamabad, whose first foundations were laid during the 1950s.
• Sargodha
• Jauharabad
• Faisalabad
• Gwadar
• Dera Ghazi Khan

Iran[link]

In the period of the Persian Safavid Empire, Isfahan, the Persian capital, was built according to a planned scheme, consisting of a long boulevard and planned housing and green areas around it.

In modern day Iran more than 20 planned cities have been developed or are under construction, mostly around Iran's main metropolitan areas such as Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz and Tabriz. Some of these new cities are built for special purposes such as:

• Pardis, which is built as a scientific city.
• Poulad-Shahr, which is an industrial city built for the housing of Isfahan's steel industry workers.
• Shirin Shahr which is to provide housing for the sugar industry personnel.
• Tehranpars which was built to house Tehran's additional population.
• Shahrak-e Gharb, built as a massive project of modern apartment buildings.
• Parand which is intended to provide residences for the staff of Imam Khomeini International Airport.
• Shushtar New Town which was built to provide housing for the employees of a sugar cane processing plant.

576,000 people were planned to be settled in Iran's new towns by the year 2005.

For a list of Iran's modern planned cities see: List of Iran's planned cities.

Israel[link]

A planned community in the Negev

According to politics of country settlement a number of planned cities were created in peripheral regions. Those cities also known as Development Towns. The most successful is Ashdod with more than 200,000 inhabitants, a port and developed infrastructure. Other cities that were developed following Israel's lineation plan are Karmiel and Arad. Modi'in has been another of the country's most successful planned cities. Construction began in 1994 and it now has a population of over 67,000. Modi'in also rates higher in terms of average salary and graduation rates than the national average. It was designed and planned by Israeli architect Moshe Safdie. Many Israeli settlements follow this model, including towns like Modi'in Illit and Betar Illit.

In the West Bank, the city of Rawabi has been under construction since January 2010.

Japan[link]

Kyoto was built on a grid system, starting in 794.

The city of Kyoto was developed as a planned city in 794 as a new imperial capital (then called Heian-kyō), built on a grid layout modeled after the Tang dynasty capital of Chang'an (modern day Xi'an), and remained the capital for over a millennium. The grid layout remains, reflected in major east-west streets being numbered, such as 4th street (四条, shi-jō^?). In modern times, Sapporo was built from 1868, following an American grid plan, and is today the fifth-largest city in Japan. Both these cities have regular addressing systems (following the grid) unlike the usual subdivision-based Japanese addressing system.

Malaysia[link]

• See entries for Shah Alam, Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, Petaling Jaya(New Town) and the Multimedia Super Corridor.
• Kulim Hi-Tech Park
• See entries for Nusajaya and Iskandar Malaysia

Philippines[link]

Quezon City was the planned city of President Manuel L. Quezon. He proposed a new city to be built northeast of Manila. Carefully planned districts include the Santa Mesa Heights (part of the original Burnham plan), Diliman Estate (includes the University of the Philippines), New Manila, Cubao Commercial District, South Triangle, Housing Projects 1 (Roxas district), 2 & 3 (Quirino District), 4, 5 (Kamias-Kamuning District), 6, 7, and 8. President Elpidio Quirino proclaimed Quezon City as capital of the Philippines on July 17, 1948. President Ferdinand Marcos restored Manila as capital on June 24, 1976. He then created a metropolitan area called Metro Manila. Due to the failed plan execution, Metro Manila remains congested.

Saudi Arabia[link]

King Abdullah Economic City, a future planned city along the Red Sea located in Saudi Arabia.

In 1975, Jubail Industrial City, also known as Jubail, was designated as a new industrial city by the Saudi government. It provides 50% of the country's drinking water through desalination of the water from the Persian Gulf.

South Korea[link]

New Songdo City is a planned international business centre to be developed on 6 square kilometres of reclaimed land along Incheon's waterfront, 65 kilometres west of Seoul and connected to Incheon International Airport by a 10 kilometre highway bridge. This 10-year development project is estimated to cost in excess of $40 billion, making it the largest private development project ever undertaken anywhere in the world.

Since the 1990s, several planned communities were built in the Seoul Metropolitan Area to alleviate housing demands in Seoul. They include:

• Several ongoing developments in Hwaseong,including Bongdam, Dongtan, and Hyangnam
• Bundang, Seongnam City
• Ilsan, Goyang City
• Pangyo, Seongnam City

Taiwan[link]

• Zhongxing New Village, Nantou County
• Linkou District, New Taipei—Gueishan, Taoyuan County (Linkou New Town, 林口新市鎮)
• Danhai, Tamsui District, New Taipei (Danhai New Town, 淡海新市鎮)
• E-da (E-da World, 義大)

United Arab Emirates[link]

• Masdar City, conceived of as a mixed purpose residential and commercial area

Europe[link]

Belgium[link]

Louvain-la-Neuve, built for the Université Catholique de Louvain.

Bosnia and Herzegovina[link]

Slobomir is a new town in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its name means: "the city of freedom and peace". It is located on the Drina river near Bijeljina. It was founded by Slobodan Pavlović, a Bosnian philanthropist. It aims to be one of the major cities of post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. In fact, the city will be located in two countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, although majority of it will be in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The city is named after its founder, Slobodan Pavlović, and his wife, Mira.

Bulgaria[link]

The cities of Stara Zagora and Kazanlak, in central Bulgaria, were rebuilt as planned cities after they were burnt to the ground in the 1877-1878 Russia-Turkey War. Also the city of Dimitrovgrad in south Bulgaria, that was planned as a key industrial and infrastructure center.

Denmark[link]

Fredericia was designed as a combination of town and military fortress following the devastation caused by the Thirty Years' War. A more recently example is Ørestad planned and built to strengthen development in the Copenhagen/Malmö region. The suburb Albertslund was also built from scratch in the 70's, merging the two villages Vridsløselille and Herstedvester.

Finland[link]

The city of Helsinki, previously just a small village, was rebuilt on a rocky peninsula near the sea in 1812 by decree of Alexander I, Emperor of Russia. The new town was to become the capital for the new Grand Duchy of Finland. The planner of the new town was Carl Ludvig Engel.

However, the last city in Finland that was ordered to be built on a previously completely uninhabited land was Raahe, founded by governor general Per Brahe the Younger in 1649.

Finland also has various "ekokyläs" or "ecological villages". For example, Tapiola is a post-war garden city on the edge of Espoo.

The city of Vaasa was rebuilt about seven kilometers northwest of its original location in 1862, after a fire which destroyed the city in 1852. The new town was planned by Carl Axel Setterberg. The disastrous consequences of the fire were considered as the design included five broad avenues which divided the town into sections and each block was divided by alleys.

Hamina is an old Finnish eastern trade capital, founded during the reign of the swedes. The star-shaped fortress and the circular town plan are based on an Italian renaissance fortress concept from the 16th century. Fortress towns like this are quite rare, another example is Palmanova in Italy.

France[link]

Many new cities, called bastides, were founded from the 12th to 14th centuries in southeastern France, where the Hundred Years War took place, in order to replace destroyed cities and organize defence and growth. Among those, Monpazier, Beaumont, Villeréal are good examples.

In 1517, the construction of Le Havre was ordered by Francis I of France as a new port. It was completely destroyed during the Second World War and was entirely rebuilt in a modernist style, during the Trente Glorieuses, the thirty-year period from 1945-1975.

Cardinal Richelieu founded the small Baroque town of Richelieu, which remains largely unchanged.

A program of new towns (French ville nouvelle) was developed in the mid-1960s to try to control the expansion of cities. Nine villes nouvelles were created.

• Near Paris: Cergy-Pontoise, Marne-la-Vallée, Sénart (former Melun-Sénart), Évry, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
• Near Lille: Villeneuve d'Ascq (Former Lille-Est)
• Near Lyon: L'Isle-d'Abeau
• Near Marseille: Rives de l'Etang de Berre
• Near Rouen: Val-de-Reuil

La Défense, in the greater Paris area, could also be considered a planned town, though it was not built all at once but in successive stages beginning in the 1950s.

Germany[link]

Planned cities in Germany are:

• Bayreuth: an example of a medieval new city
• Berlin - Friedrichstadt
• Eisenhüttenstadt: the "first socialist town" in Germany
• Freudenstadt: the roads follow the layout of the Nine Men's Morris game
• Halle-Neustadt: a "stadteil" or "town part" in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt
• Karlsruhe: the roads follow the layout of a hand-held fan with the castle being at the juncture
• Ludwigsburg: planned new capital for the duke of Württemberg
• Mannheim Quadratestadt: squares named like ranks and files on a chessboard
• Munich Maxvorstadt: the first planned city expansion of Munich was realized from 1805 to 1810 according to a raster
• Neustrelitz: founded in 1733 with streets spreading from an octagonal market place
• Putbus: built around a circular centre with radially aligned streets
• Wolfsburg: founded in 1938 to host the factories for the newly built Volkswagen

Hungary[link]

All Hungarian planned cities were built in the second half of the 20th century when a program of rapid industrialization was implemented by the communist government.

• Dunaújváros, built next to the existing village Dunapentele to provide housing for workers of a large steel factory complex. Once named after Stalin, the city maintains its importance in heavy industry even after the recession following the end of Communist era.
• Tiszaújváros, built next to the existing village Tiszaszederkény and was named after Lenin for decades. A significant chemical factory was built simultaneously.
• Kazincbarcika, created from the villages Sajókazinc, Barcika and Berente (the latter has become independent since then) in a mining area. The city and its population grew fast after the founding of a factory.
• Tatabánya, created from four already existing villages was developed into a mining town and industrial centre and shortly after its elevation to town status became the county seat of its county, a status it still maintains despite the presence of historically more significant towns in the area.
• Beloiannisz (although not a town, only a village) was planned and built in the 1950s to provide home for Greek refugees of the Civil War.

Ireland[link]

In the Republic of Ireland, as in the United Kingdom, the term "new town" is often used to refer to planned towns built after World War II which were discussed as early as 1941. The term "new town" in Ireland was also used for some earlier developments, notably during the Georgian era. Part of Limerick city was built in a planned fashion as "Newtown Pery".

In 1961 the first new town of Shannon was commenced and a target of 6,000 inhabitants was set. This has since been exceeded. Shannon is of some regional importance today as an economic centre (with the Shannon Free Zone and Shannon International Airport), but until recently failed to expand in population as anticipated. Since the late 1990s, and particularly in the early 2000s, the population has been expanding at a much faster rate, with town rejuvenation, new retail and entertainment facilities and many new housing developments.

It was not until 1967 that the Wright Report planned four towns in County Dublin. These were Blanchardstown, Clondalkin, Lucan and Tallaght but in actuality this was reduced to Blanchardstown, Lucan-Clondalkin and Tallaght. Each of these towns has approximately 50,000 inhabitants today.

The most recent new town in Ireland is Adamstown in County Dublin. Building commenced in 2005 and it is anticipated that occupation will commence late in 2006 with the main development of 10,500 units being completed within a ten year timescale.

Italy[link]

In the past centuries several new towns have been planned in Italy. One of the most famous is Pienza, close to Siena, a Renaissance city, also called The Ideal Town or Utopia Town. Between 1459 and 1462 the most famous architects of Italy worked there for the Pope Pius II and built the city centre of the small town.

Another example of renaissance planned cities is the walled star city of Palmanova. It is a derivative of ideal circular cities, notable Filarete's imaginary Sforzinda.

In early 20th century, during the fascist government of Benito Mussolini, many new cities were founded, the most prominent being Littoria (renamed Latina after the fall of the Fascism). The city was inaugurated on December 18, 1932. Littoria was populated with immigrants coming from Northern Italy, mainly from Friuli and Veneto

The great Sicilian earthquake of 1693 forced the complete rebuilding on new plans of many towns.

Other well known new cities are located close to Milan in the metropolitan area. Crespi d'Adda, a few kilometres east of Milan along the Adda River, was settled by the Crespi family. It was the first Ideal Worker's City in Italy, built close to the cotton factory. Today Crespi d'Adda is part of the Unesco World Heritage List. Cusano Milanino was settled in the first years of the 20th century in the formerly small town of Cusano. It was built as a new green city, rich in parks, villas, large boulevards and called Milanino (Little Milan). In the 1970s in the eastern metropolitan area of Milan a new city was built by Silvio Berlusconi. It is called Milano Due. It is a garden city designed for families of the upper middle class, with peculiarity of having pedestrian paths completely free of traffic. In the 1980s another two similar cities were built by Berlusconi, Milano 3 and Milano Visconti. Each of them has around 12,000 inhabitants.

Malta[link]

The fortified cities of Senglea and Valletta were both built on a grid plan by the Knights of Malta in the 16th century.

Netherlands[link]

One province of the Netherlands, Flevoland (pop. 370,000 (2006)), was reclaimed from the IJsselmeer.

After a flood in 1916, it was decided that the Zuiderzee, an inland sea within the Netherlands, would be closed and reclaimed. In 1932, a causeway (the Afsluitdijk) was completed, which closed off the sea completely. The Zuiderzee was subsequently called IJsselmeer and its previously salty water became fresh.

The first part of the new lake that was reclaimed was the Noordoostpolder (Northeast polder). This new land included, among others, the former island of Urk and it was included with the province of Overijssel. After this, other parts were also reclaimed: the eastern part in 1957 (Oost-Flevoland) and the southern part (Zuid-Flevoland) in 1968. The municipalities on the three parts voted to become a separate province, which happened in 1986. The capital of Flevoland is Lelystad, but the biggest city is Almere (pop. 183,500 in February 2008). Apart from these two larger cities, several 'New Villages' were built. In the Noordoostpolder the central town of Emmeloord is surrounded by ten villages, all on cycling distance from Emmeloord since that was the most popular way of transport in the 1940s (and it's still very popular). Most noteworthy of these villages is Nagele which was designed by famous modern architects of the time, Gerrit Rietveld, Aldo van Eyck and Jaap Bakema among them. The other villages were built in a more traditional/vernacular style. In the more recent Flevolandpolders four more 'New Villages' were built. Initially more villages were planned, but the introduction of cars made fewer but larger villages possible.

New towns outside Flevoland are Hoofddorp and IJmuiden near Amsterdam, Hellevoetsluis and Spijkenisse near Rotterdam and the navy port Den Helder.

The cities of Almere, Capelle aan den IJssel, Haarlemmermeer (also a reclaimed polder, 19th century), Nieuwegein, Purmerend and Zoetermeer are members of the European New Town Platform.

Norway[link]

Oslo: After a great fire in 1624, it was decided by the then King Christian IV that the city would be moved behind the Akershus fortress. The new town, named Christiania, was laid out in a grid and is now the downtown area known as "Kvadraturen". The original town of Oslo was later incorporated into Christiania, and is now a neighborhood in eastern Oslo; Gamlebyen or "The Old City".

The city of Kristiansand was formally founded in 1641 by King Christian IV. The city was granted all trade privileges on the southern coast of Norway, denying all other towns to trade with foreign states. As Oslo/Christiania before it, the city was behind a fortress, with a grid system allowing cannons to fire towards the two ports of the city and the river on the eastern end.

Poland[link]

Three cities stand out as examples of planned communities in Poland: Zamość, Gdynia, and Nowa Huta. Their very diverse layouts is the result of the different aesthetics that were held as ideal during the development of each of these planned communities. Planned cities in Poland have a long history and fall primarily into three time periods during which planned towns developed in Poland and its neighbors that once comprised the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. These are the Nobleman's Republic (16th-18th c.), the interwar period (1918–1939) and Socialist Realism (1944–1956).

The Nobleman's Republic of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth[link]

The extreme opulence that Poland's nobility enjoyed during the Renaissance left Poland's elites with not only obscene amounts of money to spend, but also motivated them to find new ways to invest their hefty fortunes out of the grasp of the Royal Treasury. Jan Zamoyski founded the city of Zamość in order to circumvent royal tariffs and duties while also serving as the capital for his mini-state. Zamość was planned by the renowned Paduan architect Bernardo Morando and modeled on Renaissance theories of the 'ideal city'. Realizing the importance of trade, Zamoyski issued special location charters for representatives of peoples traditionally engaged in trade, i.e. to Greeks, Armenians and Sephardic Jews and secured exemptions on taxes, customs duties and tolls, which contributed to its fast development. Zamoyski's success with Zamość spawned numerous other Polish nobles to found their own "private" cities such as Białystok and many of these towns survive today, while Zamość was added to the UN World Heritage list in 1992 and is today considered one of the most precious urban complexes in Europe and in the world^{[citation needed]}.

Interwar period[link]

The preeminent example of a planned community in interwar Poland is Gdynia. After World War I when Poland regained its independence it lacked a commercial seaport (De iure Poles could use Gdańsk, which was the main port of the country before the War and is again today, but de facto the Germans residing in the city made it almost impossible for them), making it necessary to build one from scratch. The extensive and modern seaport facilities in Gdynia, the most modern and extensive port facilities in Europe at the time, became Poland's central port on the Baltic Sea. In the shadow of the port, the city took shape mirroring in its scope the rapid development of 19th century Chicago, growing from a small fishing village of 1,300 in 1921 into a full blown city with a population over 126,000 less than 20 years later. The Central Business District that developed in Gdynia is a showcase of Art Deco and Modernist architectural styles and predominate much of the cityscape. There are also villas, particularly in the city's villa districts such as Kamienna Góra where Historicism inspired Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque architecture.

Socialist realism[link]

After the destruction of most Polish cities in World War II, the Communist regime that took power in Poland sought to bring about architecture that was in line with its vision of society. Thus urban complexes arose that reflected the ideals of socialist realism. This can be seen in districts of Polish cities such as Warsaw's MDM. The City of Nowa Huta (now a district of Kraków) and Tychy were built as the epitome of the proletarian future of Poland.

Portugal[link]

Vila Real de Santo António was built after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, on the model which served to rebuilt the capital city of Portugal and on a similar orthogonal plan.

Romania[link]

The cities of Braila, Giurgiu and Turnu Severin were rebuilt, according to new plans, in the first part of the 19th century and the cities of Alexandria and Calarasi were built completely new the same time. The city of Victoria, located in the Braşov County, was built by the communist government in the beginning of the second half of the 20th century.

Roman Empire[link]

Although Rome itself is not a planned settlement, the Romans built a large number of towns throughout their empire, often as colonies for the settlement of citizens or veterans. These were generally characterised by a grid of streets and a planned water-supply; and many modern European towns of originally Roman foundation still retain part of the original street-grid. The most impressive Roman planned town was the city of Constantinople from around the 4th century. Roman Emperor Constantine the Great chose the site for the new metropolis and began construction. His plans quickly fell into place. The modern city (now known as Istanbul) has changed much since then, but it must be remembered that the city did not develop due to simple human migrational patterns nor pure military advantage. Constantine wanted a city to mark his magnificence and Constantinople fulfilled the desire.

Russia[link]

Saint Petersburg was built by Peter the Great as a planned capital city starting in 1703.

Magnitogorsk is an example of a planned industrial city based on Stalin's 1930s five-year plans.

The Avtozavodsky district of Tolyatti is a planned industrial city of Soviet post-war modernism.

Slovenia[link]

Nova Gorica, built after 1947 immediately to the east of the new border with Italy, in which the town of Gorizia remained.

Spain[link]

During the 16th and 17th centuries the population of Spain declined due to emigration to the Americas and later kings and governments made efforts to repopulate the country. In the second half of the 18th century, king Charles III implemented the so-called New Settlements (Nuevas Poblaciones) plan which would bring 10,000 immigrants from central Europe to the region of Sierra Morena. Pablo de Olavide was appointed superintendent and about forty new settlements were established of which the most notable was La Carolina, which has a perfectly rectangular grid design. [1]

Later kings and repopulation efforts led to the creation of more settlements, also with rectangular grid plans. One of them was the town of La Isabela (40.4295 N, 2.6876 W) which disappeared in the 1950s submerged under the waters of the newly created artificial lake of Buendía but is still visible just under the water in satellite imagery. PDF

Under Franco, the Instituto Nacional de Colonización (National Institute of Colonization) built a great number of towns and villages.

Tres Cantos, near Madrid, is a good example of a successful new town design in Spain. It was built in the 1970s.

Newer additional sections of large cities are often newly planned as is the case of the Salamanca district or Ciudad Lineal in Madrid or the Eixample in Barcelona.

Serbia[link]

Novi Beograd, meaning New Belgrade in Serbian, is a municipality of the city of Belgrade, built on a previously undeveloped area on the left bank of the Sava river. The first development began in 1947, the municipality has since expanded significantly and become the fastest developing region in Serbia.

Drvengrad, meaning Wooden Town in Serbian, is a traditional village that the Serbian film director Emir Kusturica had built for his film Life Is a Miracle. It is located in the Zlatibor District near the city of Užice, two hundred kilometers southwest of Serbia's capital, Belgrade. It is located near Mokra Gora and Višegrad.

Sweden[link]

Göteborg was planned and built as a major fortified city from nothing in the 17th century.

Karlskrona was also planned and built as a major city and naval base from nothing in the 17th century.

Vällingby, a suburb, is an example of a new town in Sweden from after 1950.

Kiruna was built because of the large mine.

Ukraine[link]

• Odesa was built as a planned city according to 18th-century plans by the Flemish engineer Franz de Wollant (also known as François Sainte de Wollant, or in Ukrainian: Франц Павлович де Воллан, Frants Pavlovych de Vollan, and in Russian: Франц Павлович де Воллан, Frants Pavlovich de Vollan)^[2]

The same engineer also planned the following municipalities in Ukraine in the late 18th century:

• Voznesens'k (Ukrainian: Вознесенськ), in Mykolayiv Oblast
• Ovidiopol' (Ukrainian: Овідіополь), in Odesa Oblast

United Kingdom[link]

England[link]

The Romans planned many towns in Britain, but the settlements were changed out of all recognition in subsequent centuries. The town of Winchelsea is said to be the first post-Roman new town in Britain, constructed to a grid system under the instructions of King Edward I in 1280, and largely completed by 1292. Another claimant to the title is Salisbury, established in the early 13th Century by the then Bishop of Sarum. The best known pre-20th century new town in the UK was undoubtedly the Edinburgh New Town, built in accordance with a 1766 master plan by James Craig, and (along with Bath and Dublin) the archetype of the elegant Georgian style of British architecture.

However, the term "new town" is now used in the UK, in the main, to refer to the towns developed after World War II under the New Towns Act 1946. These grew out of the garden city movement, launched around 1900 by Ebenezer Howard and Sir Patrick Geddes and the work of Raymond Unwin, and manifested at Letchworth Garden City and Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire.

Following World War II, several towns (eventually numbering 28) were designated under the 1946 Act as New Towns, and were developed partly to house the large numbers of people who had lost homes during the War. New Towns policy was also informed by a series of wartime commissions, including:

• the Barlow Commission (1940) into the distribution of industrial population,
• the Scott Committee into rural land use (1941)
• the Uthwatt Committee into compensation and betterment (1942)
• (later) the Reith Report into New Towns (1947).

Also crucial to thinking was the Abercrombie Plan for London (1944), which envisaged moving a million and a half people from London to new and expanded towns. A similar plan was developed for the Clyde Valley in 1946 to combat similar problems faced in Glasgow. Together these committees reflected a strong consensus to halt the uncontrolled sprawl of London and other large cities, under the axiom if we can build better, we can live better. This consensus should probably be viewed in conjunction with emerging concern for social welfare reform (typified by the Beveridge Report).

The first of a ring of such "first generation" New Towns around London (1946) was Stevenage, Hertfordshire and Basildon, Essex along the Thames being the nearest to East London, both after Borehamwood, Middlesex. Hertfordshire actually counts four of eight London new towns where three of these four form a group. The group consists of Stevenage, Welwyn Garden City (in corporation with adjacent Hatfield) and Letchworth, though standing apart, is an active part of the group. (Hall 1996: 133) New Towns in the North East were also planned such as Newton Aycliffe (which Beveridge wanted to be the "ideal town to live in") and Peterlee. Two new towns were also planned in Scotland at East Kilbride (1947), and Glenrothes (1948). Bracknell in Berkshire, was designated a new town in 1949 and is still expanding. Later a scatter of "second-generation" towns were built to meet specific problems, such as the development of the Corby Steelworks. Finally, five "third-generation" towns were launched in the late 1960s: these were larger, some of them based on substantial existing settlements such as Peterborough, and the most famous was probably Milton Keynes, midway between London and Birmingham, known for its huge central park and shopping centre, designed from the outset as a new city – though in law it is a 'New Town'. Other towns, such as Ashford, Kent, Basingstoke and Swindon, were designated "Expanded Towns" and share many characteristics with the new towns. Scotland also gained three more new towns, Cumbernauld in 1956, famous for its enclosed 'town centre', Livingston (1962) and Irvine (1966) (see Film- New Towns in Scotland).