The influence of the Garden City Idea in Israel and Egypt

The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of the Garden City’s idea during the Twentieth Century and to present some of it’s expressions in contexts far apart from those in which the idea was initially conceived (Europe and Great Britain particularly). The aim is to demonstrate the hypothesis that this influence can be conveniently described in terms of four basic elements: the central parts of the city, the lay-outs of the streets; the “minimum units”; the open mainly natural space. Each of these four elements is declined according to a certain aspect: the central parts of the city according to the multiplication of the centres; the layouts of the streets are presented as systems of free lay-outs, that can be re-conducted to a character of fluidity of design and constructed shape; the neighbour-hood units organized following a hierarchical sequence; the open mainly natural space generally assuming a double role, as element of separation between the parts of the city and, at the same time, of connection of the parts. The paper will consider two study-cases in the South-East Mediterranean: Israel and Egypt.