The master plan
What it is
The master plan is a comprehensive long-range document that sets out the intended pattern of land use, roads, infrastructure and growth for an entire city or district, typically with a fixed horizon of twenty years or more. It emerged in Britain and the United States in the early 20th century as planning professionalised, formalised in the US by the 1928 Standard City Planning Enabling Act and in Britain through successive Town Planning Acts. The plan fixed a single coordinated blueprint that public works and private development were meant to follow.
Why it matters
The master plan was the central instrument of 20th-century planning, giving authorities a comprehensive tool to guide and control urban growth. Its rigidity later drew criticism, and it is increasingly replaced by flexible strategic frameworks that can adapt to change.
Plans it shaped
- Rabat Prost Plan (1914–1920)
- Casablanca Prost Plan (1917–1922)
- Greater Helsinki Plan (unbuilt) (1918)
- Rome EUR (Esposizione Universale di Roma) (1937–)
- Nairobi Master Plan (1948) (1948)
- Lima Plan Piloto (1949)
- Havana Plan Piloto (1955)
- Randstad / Green Heart Concept (1958)
- Buenos Aires Plan Regulador (1958/62)
- Dhaka Master Plan (1959)
- Plan for Tokyo 1960 (unbuilt) (1960)
- Tsukuba Science City Plan (1960s–)