•

cities in the per-industrial revolution

•

in older cities, you can see signs of cities of hundreds of years ago just by walking around

•

but even in newer cities, you can see aspects which have these roots

•

in the earliest settlements

•

people simply gathered around the campfire

•

house emerged around it

•

settlements developed in this informal process

•

at least 3000 years ago, people began to deliberately design settlements

•

common characteristics arose

•

1. the wall

•

for defense

•

critical element in planning cities for over 2000 years

•

also moats

•

2. the grid

•

a logical and easy way to subdivide property

•

500 BC gridiron created by Greeks 500 BC

•

15th century: most common layout of cities when the Europeans conquered the Americas

•

e.g. Lima, Peru

•

3. the axis

•

in most cities throughout history, the design of the city was design around the fact that some people were more important than others

•

e.g. Beijing, a central axis that only the emperor was permitted to walk along

•

e.g. Renaissance Rome, Pope Sixtus the V uses the Axis (Strada del Corso) as a way to united the residue of monuments that had been left throughout history

•

4. the city square

•

in Europe, public squares were like living rooms of cities, places for important events such as market places

•

England, city squares were often green spaces

•

offered relief from the dense city

•

this idea was carried over into the New World in the design of cities

•

5. the cloister

•

places for worship and home of religious deities

•

monasteries, house of worship, temples, shrines

•

often give prominent locations in cities

•

Bangkok's many wats were the landmarks that defined the city and do to this day

•

churches define the skylines of early American cities

•

sacred spaces were often accompanied by schools and public meeting places

•

how these five elements were incorporated in cities from antiquity to the 19th century

•

Chang-An

•

800 AD, the largest and most important city in the world was Chang-An, in central China, located along the Silk Road

•

populate over 1,000,000

•

seat of the Tang Dynasty

•

legations from all the important countries of the world

•

today known as Xian [ZHEE-ahn]

•

planning of Chang-An began much earlier, many of walls and temples build in 100 BC

•

Tang Dynasty made it its capital

•

became the prototype for all Chinese cities, including the prototype for Beijing

•

wall of Chang-An

•

5KM by 6KM

•

had 11 gates

•

central axes that led to the emperor's palace

•

city had a grid plan

•

two markets near the gates of the city

•

many temples scattered throughout the city, almost one on every block

•

modern day Xian occupies only about one-third of the original city of Chang-An

•

remains want of the few walled cities in the world with gates in their original locations

•

the diversity of blocks within the grid is maintained

•

Beijing shows the unmistakable elements of Chang-An

•

12th and 13th centuries in Europe

•

much money spent on fortifications

•

bastides

•

Montpazier, France is one of the best preserved bastide towns

•

market square is at the precise center

•

town is still largely occupied

•

16th century Rome

•

real revolution of city design began here

•

after the fall of the Empire, Rome fell had fallen into ruins and was almost deserted

•

because of the ambition of the Popes and the money being collected from all over Europe, Pope Sixtus V provide the impetus

•

laid new street connecting major monuments

•

set the stage for the creation of Peter's Square, one of the greatest achievements in city design in history and the icon of Baroque city planning

•

1666 the Great Fire of London

•

sometimes disaster provides the impetus for city design

•

unfortunately it was rebuilt pretty much the way it was build before

•

but the redesigning process had an impact on city planning in the New World

•

1681 William Penn, Philadelphia

•

given large land grant by the King

•

Thomas Holme proposed a gridiron plan running from the Delaware River to the Schuylkill river

•

plots had enough room for people to keep animals within the city

•

was thought of as a "Greene Country Towne"

•

slow to develop

•

20 years after its founding, only a few blocks had been occupied

•

took two centuries to fill out the city from river to river

•

Philadelphia's four squares remain the public centers of its neighborhoods

•

1733 Savannah, Georgia

•

Charles Oglethorpe

•

a plan where virtually every house faced a square

•

remains today one of the most livable cities in the country

•

1823 Adelaide, Australia

•

Colonel William Light

•

similar to Philadelphia

•

surrounded it by a green belt

•

1791 Washington

•

the national capital that replaced Philadelphia

•

laid out by Charles L'Enfant

•

grid-iron plan

•

blocks that varied whether they were commercial areas or residential blocks

•

later recast as the city beautiful movement in America

•

cities are often modified throughout history

•

Rome by Sextus V

•

Paris by Baron Haussmann

•

American cities through urban renewal in the 1970s and 1980s