Many urban areas developed during the 20 th century, mainly due to the rural-urban migration and rapid industrial development. However, due to overpopulation, many urban areas started experiencing many problems such as congestion and pollution. Hence, it was necessary to redesign urban areas for them to cope with the emerging challenges, which led to the emergence of three urban design concepts that include the garden city, the city beautiful, and the modernists. The three concepts were mainly aimed at addressing urban problems and to enhance the well-being of urban residents while protecting the environment.
The concept of the garden city is majorly associated with Sir Ebenezer Howard who invented it in 1898 after he realized that there was a need to improve the quality of life in urban areas ( Hügel, 2017) . The uncontrolled growth of urban areas resulted in pollution, overcrowding, and congestion. Therefore, the garden city concept was mainly about the creation of well-planned small cities that incorporate both urban and rural facilities and lifestyle. Garden cities were to be located in agricultural land and were to be surrounded by rural belts. Many countries embraced the concept, leading to the garden city movement.
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The city beautiful, on the other hand, was coined at the beginning of the 20 th century by an American urban designer who was known as Fredrick Olmsted. Olmsted and other proponents of the concept advocated for the need to create monumental public spaces and beautification of urban facilities such as streets ( Freestone, 2007) . Besides, they encouraged urban planners to use classical architecture by emphasizing on recreational values and aesthetic. The city beautiful was mainly based on the need to improve the living condition of urban dwellers. The third concept is the modernist city, which is characterized by 3-dimensional features. The modernist city concepts emphasize on the construction of high-rise buildings as well as tunnels and underground infrastructure ( Qiming & Wenjiang, 2004) . The modernist city concept was based on the need for urban areas to adapt to economic and technological growth.
The ideas of the garden city were mainly embedded in the need to address the increasing urban population while reducing the environmental population to improve the living conditions of town dwellers. Primarily, the concept was aimed at decongesting major cities. Dunedin is an example of a town in South Florida whose design is based on the concept of the garden city. The city has a lot of community gardens and is designed to reduce the environmental population. On the contrary, the ideas of the city beautiful are to have environmentally friendly and attractive urban areas. Besides, it is embedded in the need to enhance the recreational values of cities ( Freestone, 2007) . Orlando is one of the cities Florida that has embraced the concept of the city beautiful. As a result, its name is The City Beautiful. At the same time, the concept of the modernist city was embedded on the ideas of utilizing both land and space resources to address urban problems and to make cities look modern. For instance, Miami is one of the cities in South Florida whose design is based on the modernist city concept.
Lastly, the three concepts have both similarities and differences. The main similarity amongst the three concepts is that they are all aimed to solve urban problems such as overcrowding and congestion ( Hügel, 2017) . Secondly, the concepts are aimed at improving the living conditions in urban areas. However, they differ regarding philosophy. For instance, the garden city concept is based on creating many small cities while the city beautiful is majorly about the attractiveness of cities as well as enhancing recreational values. Nonetheless, the concepts are important because they can improve urban life by solving emerging problems.
References
Freestone, R. (2007). The internationalization of the city beautiful. International Planning Studies , 12 (1), 21-34.
Hügel, S. (2017). From the garden city to the smart city. Urban Planning , 2 (3), 1-4.
Qiming, Z., & Wenjiang, Z. (2004). A preliminary review on three-dimensional city model. Geo Spatial Information Science , 7 (2), 79-88.
