CLARENCE ARTHUR PERRY
Urban Planner, Sociologist, Author and Educator.
INTRODUCTION
• Born in Truxton, NY.
• He worked in the New York city
planning where he became a strong
advocate of the neighbouring unit.
• He was an early promoter of the
neighbourhoods and recreation
centres.
• WHAT IS A
NEIGHBOURHOOD UNIT?
The area within which residents may
all share the common services, social
activities and facilities required in the
vicinity of dwellings.
IDEA OF A NEIGHBOURHOOD UNIT
• Earlier idea of Perry was to provide
a planning formula for the
arrangement and distribution of
playgrounds in the city of New York.
• The necessity thought was because
of the rise of automobiles in the
early 20th century.
• Road sense was not proper with the
social conscious, thus street facility
rates were increased.
• Idea was to generate islands locked
amidst a wide sea of vehicular
traffic, a dangerous obstacle which
prevented children and adults from
safe walking to nearby amenities
and requirement facilities.
IDEA OF PERRY’S NEIGHBOURHOOD
• The neighbourhood unit
was conceived of as a
comprehensive physical
planning tool, to be utilized
for designing self-
contained residential
neighbourhoods which
promoted a community
centric lifestyle, away from
the noise of the trains and
out of the site of smoke
and ugliness of industrial
plants.
The core principles of Perry’s
neighbourhood unit were around these
design ideals:
• Centre the school in the
neighbourhood.
• Place arterial streets along the
perimeter so that they define and
distinguish the “place” of the
neighbourhood.
• Design internal streets using a
hierarchy that easily distinguishes
local streets from the arterial streets.
• Restrict local shopping areas to the
perimeter.
• Dedicate atleast 10% of the
neighbourhood land area to parks
and open spaces.
STATISTICS OF NEIGHBOURHOOD UNIT.
• Perry described the neighbourhood unit as an area that
requires an elementary school with 1200 pupils.
This meant a population between 5000- 6000 people.
• Developed with population density of 10 families per acre,
it would occupy a total area of 160 acres.
• Any child has to walk a distance of about ½ mile to
school.
• About 10% of the area would be allocated to recreation
and through traffic arteries would be confined to the
surrounding streets, internal streets being limited to
service access for the residents of the neighbourhood.
• The unit would be served by shopping facilities, churches,
library and a community centre.
ELEMENTS OF PERRY’S
NEIGHBOURHOOD.
• Residential units
• Schools
• Shopping centres
• Traffic roads
• Railway stations
• Open spaces
NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING
• It is a small unit that serves the local community and
encourages them to foster a neighbourhood spirit or
relationships which seems to have been lost in the
modern city life.
• All the residential units are now planned on
neighbourhood principles.
• It should possess the best qualities of small town to
facilitate the acquaintance and neighbourly relations and
also be broad enough to accommodate sufficient people
to enable each individual to come in contact with people
of different strata of society.
PURPOSE
• To make people socialise with one another.
• To enable the inhabitants to share public amenities and
recreational facilities.
• To support a safe and healthy environment.
• To provide safety and efficiency to road users and
pedestrians.
• To maintain, enhance and improve area for recreational
activities.
• To determine communities prospects for the future.
PRINCIPLES
• Size
• Boundaries
• Protective strips
• Internal streets
• Layout of building
• Shopping centres
• Community centres
• Facilities
SIZE
• The town is divided into self contained units or sectors of
population.
• This is further divided into smaller units called
neighbourhood with 2000 to 5000 based on the
requirements of one primary unit.
• The size of the unit is therefore limited to about 1 to 1.5
sq. within walk able distance of 10 to 15minutes.
BOUNDARIES
• The unit should be bounded on all the sides by main road,
enough for traffic.
PROTECTIVE STRIPS
• These are necessary to protect the neighbourhood from
traffic and to provide suitable facilities for developing
parks, playgrounds and road widening scheme in the
future. These are called minor green belts.
INTERNAL STREETS
• The internal streets are designed to ensure safety to the
people school going children in particular.
• The internal streets should circulate throught the unit with
easy shops and community centres.
LAYOUT OF BUILDINGS
• To encourage neighbourhood relation and secure social
stability and balance.
• The houses to suit the different income groups should be
provided single family houses, double family houses,
cottagaes, flats etc.
SHOPPING CENTRES
• Each shop should be located on the circumference of the
unit preferably at the traffic junctions and adjacent to the
neighbourhood units.
COMMUNITY CENTRES
• Each community will have its centre with social, cultural
and recreational amenities.
FACILITIES
• All public facilities required for the family for their comfort
and convenience should be within easy reach.
• These include the primary school, temple, club, retail
shops, sports.
• These should be located within 1km in the central place
so as to nucleus to develop social life of the unit.
CONCLUSION
• Neighbourhood planning is quickly becoming a high
priority by the city planning department, and even service
providers.
• Neighbourhood planning is effective and provides creative
strategies that can increase the capacity of residence in
charting out their shared future.
• It’s a vision of a better future.
