Model villages and other early examples of planned housing

In most cases historic urban development was a gradual process that also involved large-scale interventions. Most of the housing was the result of private initiative, but there are also many examples of speculative house building from the Middle Ages onwards. Urban development was often disorderly and non-linear. There are, however, examples of planned housing. These can include completely new settlements (villages, towns and cities), sometimes with a specific function, but also extensions or functional urban quarters (e.g. harbour with docks warehouses and housing for workers).

The term model village was first used by the Victorians to describe the new settlements created on the rural estates of the landed gentry in the 18th century. The term was transferred from the aesthetic to the functional to signify a type of often self-contained community built by industrialists to house their workers near the place of work. First to be built in England was Trowse (Newton) where in 1805 a model village was started on the edge of the Crown Point Estate which was later expanded by the owners of Coleman's Mustard Factory. The second one was Blaise Hamlet (1811) on the edge of the Blaise Estate not far from Bristol. Both should be seen as functional and decorative additions to the landscape park in the tradition of the hameau (a mock village that goes back to the ferme orné - the ornate farm). Some earlier examples can be seen in France (e.g. Hameau de Chantilly - 1774 and Hameau de La Reine - 1783) and Germany (e.g. Dörfchen Nymphenburg - 1764 and Dörfchen Schönbusch - 1789). In fact the model village Brandenbusch built for Albert Krupp near the Villa Hügel is fairly similar -although much later (1885).

Apart from these decorative spatial interventions, there was a long tradition in providing accommodation, especially in towns and cities. Convents and monasteries are a good example, although not open to the public. The beguinage has been mentioned before as a way of providing a safe living environment for unmarried woman in the medieval cities of the Low Countries. There were more of these semi-religious institutions, most notably the Gasthuis (literally Guesthouse, but more properly translated as Hospital or Hospice) and the Heilige Geest Huizen (Houses of the Holy Spirit) that were funded by church collections and were thus akin to almshouses. In the Netherlands the (protestant) almshouses were often modelled on (catholic) beguinages with terraced housing around a communal green or garden.

The City of London Freeman's Almshouses in Brixton were built to the same model as the beguinage, but more spacious. These buildings (1850-82) are still used to house retired or otherwise needy people as a form of sheltered housing.

In the 16th century attitudes to criminals changed and more emphasis was placed on preventing reoffending. For this workhouses were built in many cities (Bridewell London -1555, Spinhuis and Rasphuis Amsterdam - 1597). Also there were poorhouses which evolved into rehabilitation colonies for pauper far from the cities (Koloniën van Weldadigheid 1818).  In these reform housing colonies paupers, vagrants, prostitutes and pimps were housed to be retrained as farmers or farmhands. Apart from these large (gated) estates most charitable provisions were on a small scale as most people were left to fend for themselves.

Wortel-Kolonie was a reform housing colony where the central closed unit is still used as a prison. The whole estate was built on former heathland that was cultivated by inmates.

Most model villages were born out of necessity as during the industrial revolution many industries established themselves in rural spots with access to waterpower, raw materials or coal, but with little to no housing provision nearby. So industrialists started to provide small cottages from a paternalistic attitude. Most of the best-known model villages should be seen as a type of philanthropic housing. Dwellings companies also had social aims, but were at the same time aimed at making a profit from their developments of working class housing. By the end of the nineteenth century some city councils also started developing purpose-built housing for working class and middle class people whilst at the same time clearing slums (that were the result of unchecked development in the decades before). Examples can be found in London, Berlin, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, etcetera. Most councils don't involve themselves in this however as they wish not to interfere with private enterprise (an argument also used for privatising social housing).  

A separate category are the many colonies built to house miners and other heavy industry workers. These workers colonies initially provided no amenities only basic accommodation. Some of these colonies were built on land adjacent to existing settlements, others were built near isolated collieries. Influenced by social reformers and liberals industrialist adopted a more paternalist attitude towards their workers, creating housing in combination with leisure clubs, schools and such. This was well understood self preservation by the industrialists as this bound the workers to their employer with the added bonus of being able to prevent self organisation by claiming good working conditions. Workers colonies started to look more like model villages in a sense. Some even had a church, a community hall and leisure facilities. Many famous football clubs -Borussia Dortmund of the Ruhr Area, named after the Borussia Colliery- are examples of this. Typically model housing is mixed, but with some degree of segregation between workers, middle management and the directors and other higher personnel.

An example of commercial suburban development from the 1920s in Haringey. Street after street of houses that share the exact same floor plan but have some minor decorative differences to distinguish between streets.

From 1900 onwards the model village, the paternalistic factory housing, Lebensreform and the ideas of the Garden City Movement are fused into the development of special mixed neighbourhoods and housing developments that are often seen as exemplary for the Garden City Movement. In England these are typically low density, whilst in continental Europe they can also include flats and communal gardens. The low density neighbourhoods also form the staple of urban sprawl along urban railways, so in England it is often difficult to distinguish between garden villages and commercial suburban housing. Purely commercial developments always tend to be more samely, however, with little variation in floor plan and outside appearance.