Linden, Guyana, South America
Year 1971 latitude: ° 0' longitude: ° 0' Period Initiator(s) Planning organization Nationality initiator(s) Designer(s) / Architect(s) Design organization Inhabitants 29,500 Target population Town website Town related links http://www.sdnp.org.gy/mtclinden/history.htm Literature type of New Town: > scale of autonomy New-Town-in-Town Satellite New Town Company Town > client Private Corporation Public Corporation > policy Capital Decentralization Industrialization Resettlement Economic
In 1971 Mackenzie and the villages of Wismar and Christiansburg officially united as Linden. The towns were established to house the workers of the mines in the Linden area, which owes its existence entirely to the discovery and development of bauxite deposits. The Demerara River is used to exporting the ore, and a paved road to Georgetown was built in addition. The mines were operated by the canadian ALCAN company (nationalized 1971) and a subsidiary of the US owned Reynolds Metals (nationalized 1975). The town centre is surounded by a series of residential neighbourhoods for different social groups. An accurate street pattern with small recreation areas and strategically placed schools and churches show similarity with the new town developments of the 50s in England. Wismar and Christiansburg have a more informal layout; the villages merge into the forest away from the core. They have many shanty-type holdings and few shops, services and orderly street patterns. Several self-help housing projects were developed here adjacent to the villages. The decline in bauxite production caused by indifferent management since nationalization and falling world demand has hit Linden very hard. source: Robert B. Potter (ed.), "Urbanization, Planning and Development in the Caribbean"
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