New towns

A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ''ad hoc'' and organic fashion.

The term ''new town'' refers to planned communities of the new towns movement in particular, mainly in the United Kingdom. It was also common in the European colonization of the Americas to build according to a plan either on fresh ground or on the ruins of earlier Native American villages.

Planned capitals

A planned capital is a city specially planned, designed and built to be a capital. Several of the world's national capitals are planned capitals, including Canberra in Australia, Brasília in Brazil, Belmopan in Belize, New Delhi in India, Abuja in Nigeria, Islamabad in Pakistan, Naypyidaw in Myanmar (Burma) and Washington, D.C. in the United States, and the modern parts of Astana in Kazakhstan and Ankara in Turkey. In Egypt, a new capital city east of Cairo is under construction. The federal administrative and judicial centre of Malaysia, Putrajaya, is also a planned city.

Abu Dhabi (UAE) and some of the recently built cities in the Persian Gulf region are also planned cities.

Sejong was constructed to be a planned-administrative capital of South Korea.

Africa

Botswana

The city of Gaborone was planned and constructed in the 1960s.

Egypt

Modern

* 6th of October (city) – Giza Governorate.
* 10th of Ramadan (city) – Sharqia Governorate.
* 15 May (city) – Cairo Governorate.
* Ain Sokhna – Suez Governorate.
* Badr – Cairo Governorate.
* Borg El Arab – Alexandria Governorate.
* El Shorouk – Cairo Governorate.
* Ismailia – Ismailia Governorate.
* Madinaty – Cairo Governorate.
* New Akhmim – Sohag Governorate.
* New Aswan – Aswan Governorate.
* New Asyut – Asyut Governorate.
* New Beni Suef – Beni Suef Governorate.
* New Borg El Arab – Alexandria Governorate.
* New Cairo – Cairo Governorate.
* New Damietta – Damietta Governorate.
* New Fayum – Fayum Governorate.
* New Nubariya – Beheira Governorate.
* New Qena – Qena Governorate.
* New Salhia – Sharqia Governorate.
* New Tiba – Luxor Governorate.
* Obour (city) – Qalubyia Governorate.
* Port Fuad – Port Said Governorate.
* Port Tewfik – Suez Governorate
* Ras El Bar-Damietta Governorate.
* Ras Sedr – South Sinai Governorate.
* Sharm El Sheikh – South Sinai Governorate.
* Sheikh Zayed – Giza Governorate.

Under Construction

* Proposed new capital of Egypt
* New Alamain.
* New Ismailia.
* El Galala.

Pre Modern

* Memphis, Egypt – The first capital of Egypt. It was built by the king Narmer around 3150 B.C.
* Akhetaten – A city which was built by the King Akhenaten in the 14th century B.C. It was the capital of Egypt in his reign.
* Pithom – A city was built by the King Ramesses II in the 13th century B.C.
* Pi-Ramesses – Another city which was built by Ramesses II in the 13th century B.C. It was the capital of Egypt in his reign and it was the first city to exceed 100,000 in history. At its peak, the population of the city was 300,000.
* Heracleion – A city built in the 7th Century B.C. The city had been a major port in Ancient before it sank.
* Alexandria – A city built by Alexander the Great in the 4th century B.C. It was the first city to have a population of half million.
* Ptolemais Hermiou – A city built by Ptolemy I in the 4th century B.C.
* Berenice Troglodytica – A city built by Ptolemy I in the 3rd century B.C. on the Red Sea Coast.
* Fustat – A city built by 'Amr ibn al-'As when he conquered Egypt to be its capital around the 7th century A.C.
* al-Askar – The capital of Egypt during the Tulunide Dynasty.
* al-Qata'i – Capital of Egypt during the Ikhshid Dynasty.
* Cairo – It was built in the 10th century A.D. by the Fatimid Caliph Al Muizz.
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Equatorial Guinea

In 2012, President Teodoro Obiang decided to move the capital to a new jungle site at Oyala.

Kenya

Konza Technology City is a planned city that is hoped to become a hub of African science and technology upon its completion in 2030.

Nigeria

The capital, Abuja, is a planned city and was built mainly in the 1980s. Several other cities are under development to accommodate the rapidly growing population, some of which include: Eko Atlantic City, a planned city of Lagos State being constructed on land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean. Upon completion, the new city which is still under development is anticipating 250,000 residents and a daily flow of 150,000 commuters. Centenary City, in the Federal Capital Territory, is another planned smart city under development. The city is designed to become a major tourist attraction to the country. A list of Nigerian cities and neighbourhoods that went through a form of planning are as follows:

* Abuja, one of the most populous planned cities, and the fastest growing city in the world.
*Banana Island, an affluent neighbourhood in Ikoyi, Lagos, Lagos State
* Bonny Island in Rivers State
* Centenary City in the Federal Capital Territory
* Eko Atlantic in Lagos State
* Festac Town in Lagos, Lagos State
**FESTAC Phase 2, the next phase for Festac has been proposed.
* Ikeja, the capital of Lagos State
*Lekki, a new city in Lagos State
** Lekki Free Zone, a free trade zone in the Lekki
**Orange Island, a planned real estate development in Lekki.
* Victoria Island in Lagos, Lagos State

Senegal

* Akon City, the nation's first planned city, co-planned by the Senegalese-American singer Akon.

South Africa

A number of cities were set up during the apartheid-era for a variety of ethnic groups. Planned settlements set up for white inhabitants included Welkom, Sasolburg and Secunda. Additionally the majority of settlements in South Africa were planned in their early stages and the original town centres still lie in a grid street fashion. Some settlements were also set up for non-whites such as the former homeland capital of Bisho.

Asia

Hong Kong

The terrains of Hong Kong are mostly mountainous and many places in the New Territories have limited access to roads. Hong Kong started developing new towns in the 1950s, to accommodate rapidly growing populations. In the early days the term "satellite towns" was used. The very first new towns included Tsuen Wan and Kwun Tong. Wah Fu Estate was built in a remote corner on Hong Kong Island, with similar concepts in a smaller scale.

In the late 1960s and the 1970s, another stage of new town developments was launched. Nine new towns have been developed to date. Land use is carefully planned and development provides plenty of room for public housing projects. Rail transport is usually available at a later stage. The first towns are Sha Tin, Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun and Tseung Kwan O. Tuen Mun was intended to be self-reliant, but was not successful at the beginning and maintained as a dormitory town up until the recent decades like the other new towns. More recent developments are Tin Shui Wai and North Lantau. The government also plans to build such towns in Hung Shui Kiu, Ping Che-Ta Kwu Ling, Fanling North and Kwu Tung North. At present, there are a total of nine new towns:
* Tsuen Wan New Town
* Sha Tin New Town
* Tuen Mun New Town
* Tai Po New Town
* Fanling-Sheung Shui New Town
* Yuen Long New Town
* Tseung Kwan O New Town
* Tin Shui Wai New Town
* North Lantau New Town

India

* New Delhi
* Chandigarh
* Durgapur
* Navi Mumbai
* New Town, Kolkata

Indonesia

* Jakarta
** Batavia (predecessor of modern Jakarta) was a planned city, modeled after Dutch 17th century coastal city architecture. First, in the 17th century as a planned fortified city, crisscrossed with Dutch-style canals dug in regular grid. The city served as the administrative center of Dutch East India Company.
** In the early 19th century, the Dutch colonial authority moved their administrative center from the dilapidated and unhealthy port town of Old Batavia (now Kota area) several kilometres south to Weltevreden area (now Central Jakarta). Old Batavia and Weltevreden were connected by the Molenvliet Canal and a road (now Gajah Mada Road) that ran alongside the waterway. It was a well-planned community around the Koningsplein, the Waterlooplein and Rijswijk (Jalan Veteran). The area, then known as Weltevreden, which include the Koningsplein, Rijswijk, Noordwijk, Tanah Abang, Kebon Sirih, and Prapatan became a popular residential, entertainment and commercial district for the European colonial elite.
** Menteng, today a sub-district in Central Jakarta, was first built as a well-planned community. An urban design developed in the 1910s set the area to become a residential area for Dutch people and high officials. At the time of its development, the area was the first planned garden suburb in colonial Batavia. Supported by easy access to service centers and nearby to the central business district, this area has become one of the most expensive areas for residential real estate in modern Jakarta.
* In the early 20th century, Bandung was planned by the Dutch East Indies government as a new capital city to replace Batavia. The idea was to separate the busy trading port or the commercial center (Batavia) from the new administrative and political center (Bandung). By the 1920s the plan to transfer the capital to Bandung was underway. As the city began to laid the master plan of a well-planned new city, grid of streets and avenues were laid, and numbers of government buildings were constructed, such as Gedung Sate that was planned as the colonial administrative center of Dutch East Indies. The plan, however, failed due to the Great Depression and the outbreak of the Second World War.
* Since Palangkaraya was established as the capital of Central Kalimantan province in 1957, the first president of Indonesia, Sukarno, outlined a plan to develop Palangkaraya as the future capital of Indonesia. Palangkaraya is far larger in area than Jakarta and safe from the danger of earthquakes and volcanoes, common on the island of Java.
* In the late 1950s to the first half of the 1960s, Sukarno, Indonesia's first president, laid a master plan to build Jakarta as the planned national capital of the Republic of Indonesia. He filled Jakarta with numbers of monuments and statues. Numbers of monumental projects were conceived, planned and initiated during his administration, including Monumen Nasional, Istiqlal mosque, DPR/MPR Building, and Gelora Bung Karno stadium. Sukarno also filled Jakarta with nationalistic monuments and statues, including Selamat Datang Monument, Pemuda Monument at Senayan, Dirgantara Monument at Pancoran, and Irian Jaya Liberation Monument at Lapangan Banteng. Although many of this projects were completed later in his successor era ( Suharto administration), Sukarno is credited for shaping Jakarta's monuments and landmarks. He desired Jakarta to be the beacon of a powerful new nation.
* Because of Jakarta's environmental degradation and overpopulation problems, there has been an idea to build a new proposed capital city to replace Jakarta. In 2019, President Joko Widodo announced that Indonesia will move its capital from Jakarta to the new planned city in the East Kalimantan province which will be built in between the regencies of North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara. Its construction will commence in 2020. The new national capital will be called Nusantara and it is set to be inaugurated in 2024 with the groundbreaking ceremony in March 2022. The capital is expected to form a new province separated from East Kalimantan, similar to Jakarta.

Iran

220px, Sadra a planned city near Shiraz
In the period of the Persian Safavid Empire, Isfahan, the Persian capital, was built according to a planned scheme, consisting of a long boulevard and planned housing and green areas around it.

In modern-day Iran more than 20 planned cities have been developed or are under construction, mostly around Iran's main metropolitan areas such as Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz and Tabriz. Some of these new cities are built for special purposes such as:
* Pardis, which is built as a scientific city.
* Poulad-Shahr, which is an industrial city built for the housing of Isfahan's steel industry workers.
* Shirin Shahr which is to provide housing for the sugar industry personnel.
* Tehranpars which was built to house Tehran's additional population.
* Shahrak-e Gharb, built as a massive project of modern apartment buildings.
* Parand which is intended to provide residences for the staff of Imam Khomeini International Airport.
* Shushtar New Town which was built to provide housing for the employees of a sugar cane processing plant.

576,000 people were planned to be settled in Iran's new towns by 2005.

For a list of Iran's modern planned cities see: List of Iran's planned cities.

Israel

According to politics of country settlement a number of planned cities were created in peripheral regions. De facto all the cities which have Jewish population its new Jewish side have been planned like New Acre and Nazareth Illit. Those cities also known as ''Development Towns''. The most successful is Ashdod with more than 200,000 inhabitants, a port and developed infrastructure. Other cities that were developed following Israel's lineation plan are Shoham, Karmiel and Arad. Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut has been another of the country's most successful planned cities. Construction began in 1994 and it now has a population of over 80,000. Modi'in also rates higher in terms of average salary and graduation rates than the national average. It was designed and planned by Israeli architect Moshe Safdie. Many Israeli settlements follow this model, including towns like Modi'in Illit and Betar Illit.

Malaysia

* Shah Alam
* Putrajaya, Malaysia's new administrative capital
* Cyberjaya
* Petaling Jaya (New Town)
* Kulim Hi-Tech Park
* Iskandar Puteri
* Iskandar Malaysia

Japan

The city of Kyoto was developed as a planned city in 794 as a new imperial capital (then called Heian-kyō), built on a grid layout and remained the capital for over a millennium. The grid layout remains, reflected in major east–west streets being numbered, such as . In modern times, Sapporo was built from 1868, following an American grid plan, and is today the fifth-largest city in Japan. Both these cities have regular addressing systems (following the grid) unlike the usual subdivision-based Japanese addressing system.

Borrowing from the New Town movement in the United Kingdom, some 30 new towns have been built all over Japan. Most of these constructions were initiated during the period of rapid economic growth in the 1960s, but construction continued into the 1980s. Most of them are located near Tokyo and the Kansai region. Some towns, ( Senri New Town, Tama New Town) do not provide much employment, and many of the residents commute to the nearby city. These towns fostered the infamous congestion of commuter trains (although as the metropolitan areas have grown, this commute has become relatively short in comparison to commutes from the new urban fringe).

Other New Towns act as industrial/academic agglomerations (''sangyo-shuseki'') (Tsukuba Science City, Kashima Port Town). These areas attempt to create an all-inclusive environment for daily living, in accordance with Uzō Nishiyama's "life-spheres" principle.

Japan has also developed the concept of new towns to what Manuel Castells and Sir Peter Hall call technopolis. The technopolis program of the 1980s has precedents in the New Industrial Cities Act of the 1960s. These cities are largely modeled after Tsukuba Academic New Town (Tsukuba Science City) in that they attempt to agglomerate high-tech resources together in a campus-like environment.

In the past, the Japanese government had proposed relocating the capital to a planned city, but this plan was cancelled.

Overall, Japan's New Town program consists of many diverse projects, most of which focus on a primary function, but also aspire to create an all-inclusive urban environment. Japan's New Town program is heavily informed by the Anglo-American Garden City tradition, American neighborhood design, as well as Soviet strategies of industrial development.

In 2002 Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced the end of new town construction, although the new towns continue to receive government funding and redevelopment.

Sources:
* Ministry of Construction, Japan International Cooperation Agency, City Bureau. 1975? City Planning in Japan.
* Hein, Carola. 2003. “Visionary Plans and Planners: Japanese Traditions and Western Influences” in Japanese Capitals in Historical
* Perspective, Nicholas Fiévé and Paul Waley, eds. New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 309–43.
* Scott, W. Stephen. 2006. Just Housing? Evidence of Garden City Principles in a Postwar Japanese New Town. Undergraduate diss. New College of Florida.

Myanmar

Naypyidaw is the capital of Myanmar. It is administered by the Naypyidaw Union Territory, as per the 2008 Constitution. On 6 November 2005, the administrative capital of Myanmar was officially moved to a greenfield 3.2 km west of Pyinmana, and approximately 300 km north of Yangon (Rangoon), the previous capital. The capital's official name was announced on 27 March 2006, myanma Armed Forces Day. Much of the city was still under construction as late as 2012.Marshall Cavendish Corporation (2007). ''World and Its Peoples: Eastern and Southern Asia.'' Marshall Cavendish. p. 650. As of 2009, the population was 925,000, which makes it Myanmar's third largest city, after Yangon and Mandalay.

Palestinian territories

* Rawabi

People's Republic of China

Many ancient cities in China, especially those on the North China Plain, were carefully designed according to the fengshui theory, featuring square or rectangular city walls, rectilinear road grid, and symmetrical layout. Famous examples are Chang'an in Tang dynasty and Beijing.

An exception to that is an ancient town in Tekes County, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, with a shape of a ba gua.

In modern China, many special economic zones are developed from the sketch, for example, Pudong, a new district of Shanghai.

Philippines

Quezon City was the planned city of President Manuel L. Quezon, who had earlier proposed a new city to be built on land northeast of the City of Manila. Carefully planned districts include Santa Mesa Heights (part of the original Burnham Plan for Manila), the Diliman Estate (includes the University of the Philippines), New Manila, the Cubao Commercial District, South Triangle, Housing Projects 1 (Roxas District), 2 and 3 (Quirino District), 4, 5 (Kamias-Kamuning District), 6, 7, and 8.

President Elpidio Quirino proclaimed Quezon City as the national capital on 17 July 1948, with President Ferdinand Marcos restoring Manila as the capital on 24 June 1976. He then created a metropolitan area called Metro Manila, which remains congested today due to failed execution of the Quezon City plan as well as the Burnham Plan.

Other planned cities (in order of foundation):
* Baguio
* Trece Martires, Cavite
* Island Garden City of Samal
* Palayan, Nueva Ecija

Saudi Arabia

King Abdullah Economic City, a future planned city along the Red Sea located in Saudi Arabia.

In 1975, Jubail Industrial City, also known as Jubail, was designated as a new industrial city by the Saudi government. It provides 50% of the country's drinking water through desalination of the water from the Persian Gulf.

Singapore

The new town planning concept was introduced into Singapore with the building of the first New Town, Queenstown, from July 1952 to 1973 by the country's public housing authority, the Housing and Development Board. Today, the vast majority of the approximately 11,000 public housing buildings are organised into 22 new towns across the country.

Each new town is designed to be completely self-sustainable. Helmed by a hierarchy of commercial developments, ranging from a town centre to precinct-level outlets, there is no need to venture out of town to meet the most common needs of residences. Employment can be found in industrial estates located within several towns. Educational, health care, and recreational needs are also taken care of with the provision of schools, hospitals, parks, sports complexes, and so on.

Singapore's expertise in successful new town design was internationally recognised when the Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF) of the United Nations awarded the World Habitat Award to Tampines New Town, which was selected as a representative of Singapore's new towns, on 5 October 1992.

South Korea

Since 2007 Sejong was planned as the new capital, but it is becoming the de facto administrative capital instead, with many national research institutes moving there between 2013 and present. It has a planned population of 0.8 million, which is the largest of all the newtown development plans. The head of the domestic-administration, the Prime Minister of South Korea, also residents in Sejong, along with more than 65% of the South Korea's government facilities.

New Songdo City is a planned international business centre to be developed on 6 square kilometres of reclaimed land along Incheon's waterfront, 65 kilometres west of Seoul and connected to Incheon International Airport by a 10-kilometre highway bridge. This 10-year development project is estimated to cost in excess of $40 billion, making it the largest private development project ever undertaken anywhere in the world.

Gwanggyo newtown is located 25 km south away from Seoul in Suwon city and Youngin city, Gyeonggi province. Gwanggyo newtown area 11 square kilometers was designated in 2004 by Gyeonggi Province, Suwon city, Youngin city, and Gyeonggi Development Corporation (GICO). It will accommodate more than 31,000 households. Gwanggyo newtown was not only for the housing supply but also for several regional goals such as provincial office movement, convention center building, and creating economic growth core in Gyeonggi provincial area. Its infrastructure was scheduled to be constructed by 2012.

Since the 1990s, several planned communities were built in the Seoul Metropolitan Area to alleviate housing demands in Seoul. They include:
* Several ongoing developments in Hwaseong, including Bongdam, Dongtan1 & 2, and Hyangnam, Suji in Yongin.
* Gangnam, Seocho & Jamsil, Southern Seoul called Gangnam
* Bundang, Seongnam City
* Ilsan, Goyang City
* Hwajeong, Goyang City
* Jungdong, Bucheon
* Pyeongchon, Anyang
* Dongtan1, Hwaseong
* Dongtan2, East Hwaseong: The largest in South Korea with more than 100,000 flats and 300,000 inhabitants
* Pangyo, Seongnam City
* Wirye, SE Seoul
* Haewun dae in East Busan.
* Myeongji in West Busan
* Dunsan in Daejeon after relocating air field site development.

Taiwan

After losing the Chinese Civil War, the central government of China and its government forces had retreated to the former Qing province and later Japanese colony of the island of Taiwan, which was still a Japanese territory under Allied occupation. As a result, Nationalist forces constructed several military dependents' villages that were intended to be temporary housing for party members and their families in order to regain Mainland China from the Communists. Many of these neighborhoods became permanent and still exist today.

Beginning in the 1950s, the Taiwan Provincial Government was moved out of Taipei to central Taiwan for security reasons. Several planned communities were created to house these government employees, including:
* Zhongxing New Village, the seat of the provincial government, Nantou County
* Liming New Village, Taichung City

Taichung's 7th Redevelopment Zone, which is located in Taichung, Taiwan, was a major planned community. Before the Taichung's 7th Redevelopment Zone Plan, only a few farmhouses were scattered along a limited number of narrow streets. Today, this area the new central business district (CBD) of Taichung, away from the city's Central District. It features broad and widely spaced boulevards, large apartments complexes, department stores, and office towers. There are many universities nearby, such as Tunghai University and Feng Chia University.

United Arab Emirates

* Capital city of Abu Dhabi, is a planned city to some extent
* Certain new parts of Dubai, are planned
* Masdar City, conceived of as a mixed purpose residential and commercial area

South Asia

Ancient history

An urban culture is evident in the mature phase of Indus Valley civilization which thrived in present-day Pakistan and north western India from around 3300 BC. The quality of municipal city planning suggests knowledge of urban planning and efficient municipal governments which placed a high priority on hygiene. The streets of major cities in present-day Pakistan such as Mohenjo-daro