Evolution of City Concepts
The Industrial Revolution (IR) in the eighteenth century transformed the way cities grew. Mass production in urban factories led to large numbers of workers relocating into the cities to work. As the cities grew, homes and other commercial and community facilities like schools and hospitals had to be planned and built. Urban transport and communication also transformed with the building of suburban railway networks, metros, automobiles, and bicycles. However, industrialization and rapid growth also resulted in environmental pollution and poor living conditions.
City planning concepts evolved in response to these technological trends in the last two centuries. But as cities grew denser, more polluted, and congested with industrialization and with the proliferation of cars, the urban planners’ challenge has primarily been to keep cities in harmony with nature and to retain the human scale even with higher density and high-rise buildings. These ideas have...
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The authors acknowledge the research assistance provided by Derek Loei in the preparation of this Chapter
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Lam, K.P., Khoo, T.C. (2022). Cities in Nature. In: Brears, R.C. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Futures. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87745-3_182
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