Global History of Urban Design

HS25/FS26

Definition of the city

City is a self organized landscape/organism (Avermaete)

A man-made material and spatial project → actions and design made by men

City is the result of a combination of willful acts

Forma Ubis Romae

• massive marble map of the city of Rome created between 203-211 AC

• Consists of 180 stone tables, together describing the logics of the city of Rome

Vitruvius and the ten books of architecture

City as a combination of building + construction and ideas + concepts

• also called Fabrica (praxis) and ratiocinatio (theory)

Alberti’s idea of the city

• every part of the city makes a whole

• construction of a house like a mini city

• building the city as a repetition of existing and production of new

Urban Design as Engagement

Is about engaging with a certain condition in a particular situation and not about creating an ideal

• 11 characteristics that need to be considered

11 characteristics of urban design

1. the ground → topography influences form and streets of a city (Constantinople), soil influences construction of buildings

2. Materials → locally sourced materials provide a city image (baked bricks in Colombia)

3. Climate → influences layout of cities (orientation etc, Montreal)

4. Culture → urban design expresses particular cultures

5. Philosophy → urban design relates to bigger ideas

6. Religion → religious principles are traceable in urban fabric

7. Politics → political systems underline their importance in urban design (Berlin, Stalin Allee)

8. Social → urban design kann nutzen schaffen, but can also separate social groups

9. Economic → economic concerns are often a key driver of urban design because urban design can change economy

10. Technical → often linked to technical inventions

11. Art → often used as critic

6 regions where urban revolution took place 9000 BC

1. mesoamerica

2. ades

3. egypt

4. mesopotamia

5. indus

6. china

Gordon Childe

Says that the urban revolution took place as from 9000 BC in 6 regions simultaneously and independently

neolithic revolution

→ new tools lead to new concept of time (linked to harvest, ernte), and agriculture

• Resource surplus (Überschuss) → more harvest than needed, storing

• Social surplus → people living in groups in small settlements can create safety for each other

• Cultural surplus → exchange of cultural knowledge & skills lead to new artefacts and new crafts

Göbekli Tepe, Turkey

• 9000 BC

• first urban settlement

• built on top of a hill

• houses surrounding oval temples for religious rituals

• only made out of stone

Catal Hüyük, Turkey

• 7400 BC

• at the time most complex & largest settlement in southwest asia

• one story housing made out of mud bricks and wood

• kitchen, sleeping room + ritual space

• one house touched another → safety and stability

• no streets, public roofs for accessing the houses

Bronze Age Cities of Mesopotamia

5000 BC set of Sumerian cities with cultural and political centrality emerged between the rivers

• Sumerian cities had religion as main motive

• the were independent self governing cities with basic political unit

• each city belonged to a god/goddess with a central located temple

Uruk

• 2300 BC

• had a religious/administrative/economic center

• line drawings on clay tables used for geographic maps

• layers after layers of mud made the Ziggurat, where the most important buildings were situated

Nippur

• inscription of the city in a clay cuneiform tablet with a map showing streets/canals and fields

Ur

• 2100 BC

• oval city wall with main functions integrated inside it

• religious center on ziggurat

• 2 leveled courtyard house made out of mudbricks

• new brick constructions like true arch, barrel vault etc

Cities of the Indus Valley civilization

• hydraulic civilization

• water as a resource very important, religion was less central compared to Sumerian cities

Mohenjo-Daro

• 2600BC

• almost gridded street pattern

• buildings made of fire bricks

• hierarchy of streets → Main Street with stores, secondary with houses

• fresh water system in houses with storage

• Great Bath as center of public moments, activities etc

• hydraulic civilization

difference between Greece and Rome urban design

→ Both cases mission about bringing specific way of life to distant places, conforming people to the norms/forms of the empire

Greece: polis or city-state expressed specific way of life related to the question of politics

Rome: City as the main unit of administration as well as contact between ruler and ruled

Agora

central figure of greek polis

• center for religious, political and cultural function

• cluster of buildings and open spaces (bsp. temple for religion and bouleuterion+Metroon as center of politics and archive, Odeon as theater) and the “stoa” as a connecting element

Hippodamus of Miletus

• 500/400 BC

• founder of “the new cities” → pioneer of urban planning

• ideal city for 10’000 men, bzw 50’000 people (including slaves, women, children)

• divided citizens into 3 classes

  • Soldaten

  • Handwerker

  • Landwirte

• also land divided into

  • heilig

  • public

  • private

• city has a grid (one grid with small sign where agora is places, second grid with bigger adaption to the ground)

Alexander the Great

Did spread ideology of greek city into the east to Asia and Egypt

City of Miletus

• 490 BC rebuild with grid system

• Hippodamus of Miletus planned it

• two grids, smaller one for tight areas, larger one for more open areas

• Agora is located where the two grids meets and connects two harbors

Planning Tool of Greek Empire

Agora + Urban Grid main tools

• regulated and rational urbanism → city blocks divided into 10 Einheiten with courtyard houses 17×17m, placed facing south to get sun

• bigger Einheiten for people at the top of social hierarchy

• urban grid variated from city to city

Priene

• 330 BC

• Raster strenger an Topografie angepasst

• not central located Agora

Pergamon

• hellenistic city

• 280 BC

• had a city wall for defense

• 2 centralities

  • agora on lower side

  • acropolis on the upper side

Megara Hyblaea

• 480 BC

• western city with Greek ideology (nowadays Italy)

• grid was folded according to topography

• grid therefore gets different directions

• agora is placed where the different directions come together

Forum

• represented centrality where things were discussed (like Agora)

• is a civic place (bürgerlich)

• included buildings like temples, basilicas and political meeting places (Comitium + Curia)

Roman living types

• Domus + Atrium for rich people (around 30%), grosszügig, privat, innenhof

• Insulae for poor people (around 70%), mehrgeschossige Mietshäuser, eng, laut

Roman city planning

• 2 main axes through a city

  • Cardo Maximus → North-South

  • Decumanus Maximus → East-West

• Forum at the crossing point of the two axes

• Grid did not consider the topography, only secondary streets could adapt a little

Timgad

• 100 BC

• typical roman colonial city

• regular grid with regular blocks

• flat area so no necessity for variation

Pompeii

• 80 BC

• already existing settlement

• transformed with adding forum + basilica as well as some administrative offices

Augusta Raurica

• 40 BC

• colonial city with military principles

• perfectly used grid with cardo + decumanum max and forum at crossing point

Trading in Middle Ages

the Hanseatic League and Asiatic League conquered a lot of land in Europe

• connected cities through network of shipping and trade

• these cities required new infrastructures that were adequate for trade and shipping by sea as well by land, but also storage and exchange infrastructure (warehouses, notaries)

• similar/same building materials + ways of building can be recognized in these cities

middle age urban design

• Religious, especially Christianity became more important

• Cathedral replaced roman/greek temples

• Defense, trade and feudal structures shaping the city

• monasteries (kloster)

Arras, France

• Binary City with old roman part (left) and monastery (complex of buildings, right)

• Both religious entities become the double core of the city

Monastery Plan of St. Gallen

• functions as a little city

• church in the middle

• included hospital, courtyard, guest rooms, school etc.

Burhs

Cities that emerged from the idea of defense with a wall, inside was housing + agriculture for longer staying

Pembroke, England

• 1250

• typical burh with wall + towers and a main street

• herringbone pattern → houses to the street, long strip of private land for farming to the wall

• castle to retreat in case the enemies reached the town

Aigues-Mortes, France

• 1250

• A bastide → town of defense (mainly built in France)

• often grid pattern with central plaza (Carra) surrounded by urban blocks (moulons)

• 15 towers around the city

Tughlakabad fort, Delhi

• 1330

• relatively ordered bastioned defense city

• massive walls

• water engineering was important

Copenhagen

• 1200

• typical Hanseatic city with warehouse, shipyard+diverse harbor, fortified castle and marketplace

• brick city

  • stone + wood foundations

  • traded backed clay bricks

Amsterdam

• a lot of trade

• Religious orders created large civic complexes such as hospitals + orphanages (Waisenhäuser)

• first universities emerged

Oxford

• university city

• urban complex including buildings for teaching, meeting, living and collective/green spaces

urban fabric in Middle Ages

houses were built in wood + stone for foundation

→ after many fires more parts of the houses were made out of brick

City-State

Cities that became fully self-governing and independent from the feudal system

Siena

• ca. 1300

• tuscan-medieval city-state

• originates from the merging of settlements with own church, wall, towers due to defense

• Palazzo Publico showed new public governance (main square used for public events)

Florence

• ca. 1300

• tuscan-medieval city-state

• built upon roman existing planning

Bern

• Part of Zähringer Cities (north CH to south GER)

• walled city with castle outside the walls

• oval shaped urban plan with Main Street called Marktgasse

• Herringbone pattern