The linear city is an

urban plan Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

for an elongated urban formation that was proposed by Arturo Soria y Mata in 1882. The city would consist of a series of functionally specialized parallel sectors. Generally, the city would run parallel to a river and be built so that the

prevailing wind In meteorology, prevailing wind in a region of the Earth's surface is a surface wind that blows predominantly from a particular direction. The dominant winds are the trends in direction of wind with the highest speed over a particular point on t ...

would blow from the residential areas to the industrial strip. The sectors of a linear city would be: # a purely segregated zone for railway lines, # a zone of production and communal enterprises, with related scientific, technical and educational institutions, # a residential zone, including a band of social institutions, a band of residential buildings and a "children's band", # a park zone, # an agricultural zone with gardens and state-run farms (''

sovkhoz A sovkhoz ( rus, совхо́з, p=sɐfˈxos, a=ru-sovkhoz.ogg, syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated from , ''sovetskoye khozyaystvo''; ) was a form of state-owned farm or agricultural enterprise in the Soviet Union. It is usually contrasted w ...

y'' in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

). As the city expanded, additional sectors would be added to the end of each band, so that the city would become ever longer, without growing wider. The linear city design was first developed by Arturo Soria y Mata in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

during the 19th century, but was promoted by the Soviet planner Nikolay Alexandrovich Milyutin in the late 1920s. Milyutin justified placing production enterprises and schools in the same band with

Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''

Ernst May, a famous

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

functionalist architect, formulated his initial plan for

Magnitogorsk Magnitogorsk ( rus, Магнитого́рск, p=məɡnʲɪtɐˈɡorsk, ) is an industrial city in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, on the eastern side of the extreme southern extent of the Ural Mountains by the Ural River. Its population is curre ...

, a new city in the Soviet Union, primarily following the model that he had established with his

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

settlements: identical, equidistant five-story communal apartment buildings and an extensive network of dining halls and other public services.

References

{{Cities Urban geography Urban studies and planning terminology Constructivist architecture City layout models ca:Traçat lineal

See also

References