Frank Lloyd Wright’s "Broadacre City" (1932)
Architect Wright’s vision of the future, first introduced in his 1932 book The Disappearing City, was the antithesis of the looming, gigantic urban skylines envisioned by other futurists of his era. Instead, Wright envisioned a spacious suburban landscape, with only a third of the population density of the cities, designed to give "space, air and beauty to every individual in the community." Individual families would live on one to five acres of land, in Wright’s single-story modular-layout Usonian houses, which presaged the style of Levittown and other postwar suburban developments. Wright thought such spacious living arrangements would be made possible by the rise of the automobile and telephone, which in effect shortened distances. "Broadacre City" featured a network of superhighways and a grid of arterial roads, connecting its inhabitants to large shopping areas — the equivalent of today’s malls — as well as churches, theaters, sports arenas and other places where people could come together as a community. Wright also foresaw the use of suburban zoning regulations to create designated areas for various activities.
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