Reserve between North and South Box Court, Hadfield, Victoria

Nothing special, but an apparently effective space. See the google map here

These images taken from the road entrance at the north end of South Box Ct.

High Wincobank Estate, Sheffield

In A. D. Greatorex, ed. Housing and Town Planning Conference, 1911


Many of the reserves still remain. They were clearly set aside as recreation grounds or, at least, something other than agricultural spaces - because allotments are to the south.

Thomas Sharp - 1

Here, in his book Design in Town and Village (MInistry of Housing and Local Government, London 1953 p.55) Thomas Sharp is showing varieties of internal reserve within new developments. He writes:

'There are some who contend that the roads should be kept outside the space altogether, so that it is free of all vehicles, and so that the floor is undisturbed by carriageways - always a source of aesthetic difficulty as kerbs, gutters and changes of material complicate the pattern. There are many examples (Fig 88a is an obvious one) to show that this presents no difficulties in a layout of flats; but a single light service road will seldom destroy the character of a space and to contend that every flat layout should be in the form of a precinct would be a dangerous dogma leading to stereotyped plans, and would cripple the design of a related series of such spaces.

'When houses are turned inwards to overlook a communal open space there is the inevitable problem of how to treat the private gardens. The choice in a nutshell is whether the gardens should be placed on the road side, in which case the street picture is sacrificed for the sake of the internal space, or whether they should be inside the space, in which case the latter is spoilt in the interests of the street picture. Figs 88b and c illustrate the dilemma. Possible solutions of the difficulty are to be found in a compromise in which the gardens on the road are reduced in size, and to compensate for this, small private gardens are placed around the internal space.'

Housing for Pimlico

Hidalgo Moya and Philip Powell's Housing for Pimlico, 1947, in the Architect's Year Book 2, p. 140. These are not really internal reserves, so what are they doing here you might ask. If nothing else I wanted to put in at least one example of the extreme end of public open space as shared 'backyard space' in a housing block. There are no private gardens here, of course, and the housing blocks were intended to be 3-5 storeys. I don't think this estate was constructed (someone might be able to confirm or deny this).

Hypothetical Internal Reserve 1952

The frontispiece of Robinson and Keeble's The Development of Building Estates, Estates Gazette, London 1952, features a small triangular internal reserve at the top which is entirely treed.Pp. 144-147 of the book shows that this reserve came about as a conscious attempt to retain a triangular piece of forest from the pre-developed land; which is to say, its shape and position make it an overly convenient inclusion in this hypothetical.

Robinson and Keeble advise (p. 142) that the residential area being developed here was to include 4 acres (1.6 hectares) of 'minor open spaces' but there is no other information on this space or its intended purpose.

Leberecht Migge

I am reading David H. Haney's When Modern was Green: Life and Work of Landscape Architect Leberecht Migge (Routledge, Abingdon 2010). Two internal reserve developments - very different ones - leap out. 1926 Onkel Toms Hutte was, Haney writes, built in 'a much-loved conifer forest on the edge of the wealthy Zehlendorf villa district... simple modernist housing blocks among stands of evergreen trees... stood out against the plain facades... the main open spaces were semi-public courtyard-like wooded areas inside the major blocks.' (p. 185)(p. 189)
1927 'Housing blocks in Berlin had traditionally contained one or more inner courts, a type that Migge proposed to enlarge to the greatest extent possible, to be planted as garden-like spaces, complemented by roof gardens providing still more outdoor activity areas... A housing block in the Berlin district of Pankow designed by Erwin Gutkind, with a garden court by Migge, was shown as a concrete example.' (pp. 193-4)

Chatham Village, Pittsburgh

'My ideas for Scottish housing were influenced strongly by the brilliant landscape architect Henry Wright, a 1901 Penn architecture graduate, and the architect-planner Clarence Stein. They had invented the superblock, first employed in Radburn, New Jersey, later on in Chatham Village in Pittsburgh and Baldwin Hills Village near Los Angeles.'

Ian McHarg A Quest for Life: An Autobiography John Wiley & Sons New York 1996, p. 107