ANCIENT WORLD
Mesopotamia (Fertile Crescent)
- Water was the basis for the earliest urban
development.
- A major civilization was Sumer, and the people
created 15 city-states. These cities used water canals and stones for
their boundaries, and had a temple in its centre, dedicated to a patron
god/dess.
- The Ziggurat (temple) of Ur (one of the
city-states) showed how religion was very important to the early
civilizations.
Source: purpleteal.wordpress.com
·
The ancient city-state of Ur. Agricultural
spots are present in the far north of the city, and that the temple and special
houses for leaders, which are the source of power, are protected inside the
walls, surrounded further by a moat. There is only a drawbridge to connect this
special area to the surrounding houses.
Source: 2.bp.blogspot.com
Egyptians
- The power of and
respect for religion extended all the way from the earliest of Mesopotamia
all the way to the Egyptian civilisation. Ancient Egyptians worshipped
their kings as gods, and once they died and were buried, lived forever.
Thus the monumental temples, mortuaries, and tombs.
- The pyramids were constructed in
capital cities, tying the power with the largest settlements. The city of
the dead is called a necropolis.
·
The temple
of Hatsephsut and the Pyramids of Giza are examples of how the ancients
worshipped their buried kings. These grand tombs also exhibited perfect
symmetry.
Sources:
Wikipedia and cdni.condenast.co.uk
Greeks
·
Ancient
Greece spanned three centuries (8th to 6th centuries BC). It saw the
flourishing of philosophy, art, and science in Classical Greece. Religion
and politics directed movements and development during this
time. Ancient Greece is an influence to the Roman Empire and
eventually Western Civilisation.
·
Hippodamian Plan or the grid city
(498-408 BC)
- “Inventor / father of
formal city planning”
- Made the Hippodamian
Plan or the grid city to maximise winds in the summer and minimise
them in winter. This shows his geometric, arranged style in design
- Also worked on the
Piraeus Port and Alexandria Piraeus grid.
Source: museumofthecity.org
Plato (428-347 BC)
- In his Dialogue, Plato
established one of the oldest environmental law principles and an economic
idea: The Polluter Pays Principle. It states: “If any one
internationally pollutes the water of another, whether the water of a
spring, or collected in reservoirs, either by poisonous substances, or by
digging, or by theft, let the injured party bring the cause before the
wardens of the city, and claim in writing the value of the loss; if the
accused be found guilty of injuring the water by deleterious substances,
let him not only pay damages, but purify the stream or the cistern which
contains the water, in such manner as the laws… order the purification to
be made by the offender in each case.”
- This principle is
reflected in our Philippine environmental laws. For example, in the
Environmental Code (Presidential Decree 1152), Section 20 discusses
clean-up operations with regard to water pollution.
Aristotle (384-322 BC)
- Aristotle, in his distinction of corrective and distributive justice, provided the foundation for the concept
of intergenerational equity by stating that “Human well-being
is realised only partly by satisfying whatever people’s preferences happen
to be at a particular time; it is also necessary for successive
generations to leave behind sufficient resources so that future
generations are not constrained in their preferences.” This is
what is referred to as ‘for our children’s children, and their children.’
- Intergenerational equity is an approach of the
United Nations for sustainable development, climate justice and
solidarity.
ROMANS
The Roman Empire (29 BC – 393 AD) excelled in military
science and engineering. This is reflected in their designs and
inventions, which were built to ease transport and enhance military
movement and strategies.
The City of Rome, the Imperial City
- The city was a
military camp or castra, and had grand walls for protection
- Rectangular and
grid-iron street patterns were used
Source: the-colosseum.net
- Notable
infrastructure: The Forum, the Appian Way (Roman road or via appia),
the Basilica, arches, the Colosseum, and so on. The significance of all
these infrastructure is, aside from reflecting the Roman culture and
needs, these were carried on to be used by the next civilisations,
even to the present time.
- More notably, the
Romans were heavily dependent on water from the Tiber River, thus
the engineered sewerage, canals, hydraulics, and the Aqueduct.
Source: roman
aqueducts.info
Despite the excellence in
physical planning, engineering and architecture, the downfall of Rome came from
mostly socio-political reasons. The Vikings destroyed the Aqueduct, which cut
the city’s lifeline. Religious divisions, absence of military discipline,
murder, and citizen unrest also brought about instability which eventually led
to the fall of Rome.
MEDIEVAL
Cathedral Cities
- Focal point of radial
city growth was the cathedral or any similar monumental structure
- Retained the walled
city from Roman practice
The enclosure of the cities
posed problems for growing populations because of the limited resources,
epidemics, and generally unhealthy environment.
RENAISSANCE
·
Settlement growth during the renaissance is
very similar to that of the middle ages, so it was also radial in
pattern.
·
Commerce was a driving factor of
the renaissance period, calling for accessibility and easier mobility. This led
to the development of plans that follow the topography of an area.
·
Mercantilism believed that the value of the
economy was measured by quantities of gold and silver.
·
This system drove nations to conquer foreign
lands to acquire more gold/silver, and advantage in maritime trade
Urbino: Neo-classical Town
Hall with piazza and streets radiating from the center
Leone Battista
Alberti (1404-1472) came up with in his study of architecture. With
principles from Plato and Aristotle, he wrote the De Re
Aedificatoria, which contained ten books of planning and design principles.
BAROQUE
·
Marked by monumentalism and grandeur of reigning monarchs of the Western world (France)
·
Cities possessing majestic boulevards
characterized with huge open spaces
·
Common architectural designs are luxuriant, decorative portals,
fronts, and gates, overload with unrestrained ornamentation
INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
·
The City
Beautiful Movement (1800s to mid 1900s) emphasised beauty and aesthetics in
design. Think monuments, great and grand buildings, parks, perfect landscapes
and lakes, and circular road systems.
Georges-Eugène Haussmann (1809-1891)’s work on
the renovation of Paris is a distinguishable accomplishment in planning. In his
plan, the Arc de Triomphe became the center of twelve avenues, radiating
outward, connecting to the city. Baron Haussman also assured green spaces by
lining the avenues with trees and by using pocket parks all around the city. To
date, this planning design is still used for the development of other cities,
making Paris the best planned city.
Daniel Hudson Burnham (1846-1912)
- Called the Father of
American City Planning
- He designed the World’s
Columbian Exposition, together with Frederick Law Olmsted and John Wellborn
Root. The plan for the expo was the first comprehensive planning document
in the US.
- He gave the famous
quote: “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men`s blood
and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in
hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded
will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing,
asserting itself with ever- growing insistency. Remember that our sons and
grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword
be order and your beacon beauty.”
- His plans include Chicago (the greatest feat;
was described as “Paris on a Prairie”), San Francisco, Cleveland, and
locally, Manila and Baguio.
·
Canberra, Melbourne, and Washinton DC are
cities that reflect the City Beautiful movement.
Sources: edu-geography.com, central
equity.com.au, cdn.boulevards.com
Sir Ebenezer
Howard (1850-1928)
- Wrote the book Garden Cities of Tomorrow. The book was first
printed as “Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Reform” in 1898, and was
reprinted as Garden Cities of Tomorrow in 1902. Howard addressed the
population and pollution that came about during the industrial revolution
by creating garden cities.
The concept of the three magnets, an illustration of the garden city,
and the diagram of how the plan will work.
Source: scodpub.wordpress.com
- Howard’s umbrella
concept was to create a 5,000-acre central city of 58,000 people with
1,000-acre garden cities of 30,000 people (each) surrounding it so that
anthropogenic activities and growth would be controlled. (If 1 acre = 0.4
hectares, then the central city would be about 2,000 has. and the garden
city would be 400 has. That’s like a city as big as
Marikina surrounded by garden cities as big as UP Diliman. Those
would be really dense cities.) These cities had greens and spaces all over,
and would be connected by roads and railways for mobility. The logic
behind it was the three magnets, where he gave value to the
relationship between town and country (in Philippine terms, urban and
regional areas).
The garden city was continued by Howard’s
followers, among them Sir Raymond
Unwin, who was the architect-planner for Letchworth, Sir Frederic
James Osborn, who championed garden cities, and Louis de
Soissons, who was the architect for Welwyn. Unwin also wrote the
book Nothing Gained by Overcrowding.
Contemporary
Radiant
City
- Created the Radiant
City, where he designed very heavily with cubist aesthetics.
With the objective to decongest an entire city, he sought to house 3
million people in 60-storey buildings, box-type houses, and orderly and
rational city blocks. While this plan was modernist or futuristic and very
aesthetic, it was critiqued to be socially disadvantageous and
unrealistic for settlements because there were too many standards that
catered to what was only temporary. It also became a planning paradox
in the sense that congestion was being solved by more congestion.
- Le Corbusier also
wrote the books Urbanisme and The City of Tomorrow and
Its Planning.
Sources: adsttc.com and rosswolfe.wordpress.com
Broadacre
City
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)
- Champion and proponent
of urban decentralisation, and involved communities in his plans
- Designed the Broadacre
City, a 1,000-hectare city complete with socio-economic amenities. This
planned city included social services in the forms of schools, trains, and
museums, as well as employment in the forms of markets, offices, nearby
farms, and industrial areas. The one big criticism on this plan was that
Wright included a helicopter in it.
Radburn and Superblock
The Quadruple Block Plan (left) and the Broadacre
City (right). Sources: mediarchitecture.at and metropolismag.com
- These two go together
because of their plan of Radburn, a garden city in New Jersey.
Radburn was designed to separate vehicles from pedestrians. It also used
the concept of a superblock and exhibited cul-de-sacs (meaning dead ends).
- Radburn’s gardens and
paths. Also, the plan showing the separation of people from cars. Sources:
Wikipedia and flickr.com,
- The superblock was
created by Henry Wright. This was a series of homes surrounded by green
pathways.
- Clarence Stein, on the
other hand, initiated plans to produce greenbelt resettlements all over
the US. He wrote the book Toward New Towns for America.
Neighborhood Unit
Clarence Perry (1872-1944)
- Perry made the concept
of the neighbourhood unit. Similar to the superblock, it is bounded
by major streets and caters to its community with a church, a school and
shops. This concept highly values open spaces. This unit is very small, at
only 200 sqm. up to 2 sqkm.
Source: Wikipedia
Regional Planning
Sir Patrick
Geddes (1954-1932)
- Introduced the notion
of region and became the Father of Regional Planning. This came up
from his being a biologist, sociologist, and geographer all at the same
time; he dissected the planning environment
by analysing the occupational activities, used observation,
and combatted the gridiron tradition with “conservative surgery” in
planning.
Source: spur.org
- Also introduced the
term conurbation, which means “an aggregation of continuous
network of urban communities.” Or simply, “A large area consisting of
cities that have grown so that there is very little room between them.”
(Merriam Webster)
- Geddes emphasized the
relationships of people and cities, thus the city-region term.
- He also used the
rational planning method of Survey Analysis
- Wrote the book Cities
in Evolution
Sir Leslie
Patrick Abercrombie (1879-1957)
- Created the post-war
plans for London, and combatted sprawling by resettlement
- Made the London
Country Plan (1944) and the Greater London Plan (1943)
Source: thesemaphoreline.wordpress.com
Organic
City
Lewis Mumford (1895-1990)
- A
historian-sociologist who studied cities and architecture
- From his 23 books, the
most prominent in city planning is The City in
History, which pointed out how technology and nature could be harmonious.
This also gave the concept of an organic city and rationalised
how planning has various disciplines.
- Mumford was friends
with City Beautiful advocates Frank Lloyd Wright, Clarence Stein, and
Frederic Osborn. Mumford and Wright exchanged transatlantic letters
on professional and personal matters.
Regional
Conservationism
Benton McKaye (1879-1975)
- Originator of the
3,500 km Appalachian
Trail in the eastern US
- Was a forester and
conservationist, and co-founded the Wilderness
Society. He championed regional conservationism
- The Appalachian Trail
extends from Georgia to Maine. It is the home to at least 2,000 plant and
animal species. Millions of people take a shot at this hike-only trail.
Sources: atc.civicore.com
and daveallenphotography.com
·
Several of our great urban thinkers were good
friends and colleagues. And it was from there that they created the Regional Planning Association of America, with Clarence Stein as
the founder. The group meticulously assessed the city, shared knowledge and
ideas, and rallied political action. The RPAA lasted ten years (1923-1933).
City
Functional Movement
Zoning, freeway and parkway
Edward Bassett (1863-1948)
- Urban planner and
lawyer who was the Father of American Zoning. He was the first to use
zoning as a means of implementing land use in New York. He wrote books
about zoning.
- Also coined the
term freeway and parkway
Linear City
Don Arturo Soria y Mata (1844-1920)
- Made the concept
of the Linear City, which has many
parallel and specialised functions.
Source: Wikipedia
- The linear city gears
away from the usual centric urban forms. The lines help control the
expansion of a city.
Source:
prezi.com
Industrial
City
Tony Garnier (1869-1948)
- Followed Soria y
Mata’s linear city and created the concept of a linear, industrial
city. He envisioned the plan to cater to 35,000 residents, and followed
the principles of function, greeneries, open space, and exposure to the
sunlight.
- The industrial city is
linked by circular patterns
- He also already used
the concept of zoning and labeled spaces into leisure, industry, work, and
transport.
Sources: aria.archi.fr and
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com
Thomas Adams (1871-1940)
- As an architect, he
worked primarily on low-density residences or garden suburbs
- Founded the British
Town Planning Institute, became the Town Planning Advisor to the Local
Government Board, then moved to Canada and yet again became an adviser to
the Commission of Conservation
- Wrote the book Rural
Planning and Development
- Pushed for planning
legislation by mandate, local plans, zoning, building regulations, and
recognised the responsibility of a licensed or professional planner.
(This stems all the way to our present laws.)
City Efficient Movement
Ekistics
Constantinos Apostolos Doxiadis (1914-1975)
- Jumping some millennia
after ancient Greece, another Greek planner-architect, best known as
Konstantinos, studied the science of human settlements, known to us today
as ekistics. This branch of science is vast and looks into the
culture, economies, and society in varying scales, let’s zone in on
the principles most used in the practice of urban design and estate
planning.
Source: skyscrapercity.com
Urban
and Regional Planning
Francis Stuart Chapin (1888-1974)
- As a sociologist and
educator, he stressed the importance of quantifying social
activities in an evolving city through statistics.
- He was the first to
write the textbooks on urban and regional planning:
Source: Amazon
Ira Lowry
- Published A Model of
Metropolis, which is a computer model for spatial organization of
anthropogenic activities in a metropolitan area. The model generates an
assessment that can be the basis for urban policy decisions.
- Lowry worked with
Robert Garin on a model. This model came up after a series of research on
land use and transportation. Population densities, transport zones, and
land use forecast techniques were already being done.
Source: Wikipedia
- The model became a
tool for urban and regional planning. Simply, it looks at
the relationship and logic to the spatial arrangement of human activities.
- In this model we learn
about gravity modelling (in transport planning, trip
distribution), which means, in English, the farther the distance, the
more interaction declines. That’s also more commonly known to us as distance
decay.
Urban
Renewal
William Levitt (1907-1994)
- Father of American
Suburbia / The King of Suburbia / The Inventor of the Suburb
- Mass produced houses
that were affordable
Suburbanization was also when people put
the car on the pedestal. This created gated subdivisions that catered to people
with cars. As a result, urban sprawl became a disease.
Catherine Bauer
Wurster (1905-1964)
- An advocate of social
and public housing. She authored the American Housing Act of 1937 and was
an adviser to five presidents.
- Wrote the book Modern
Housing
- She also worked with
Lewis Mumford
Robert Moses (1888-1981)
- Known as the Master
Builder of New York, because of his plans that had parkways, expressways,
and housing development all over the city
- The catch with Moses’
grand masterplans is that they require the destruction of existing
communities and neighbourhoods to be built. This was an irony in doing
supposedly public works.
- The urban renewal
under Moses was also done through gentrification, which means
that renewal and rebuilding for investments and “improvements” really
displaced the poorer residents. This was a problem of social
exclusion, which is, in fact, just a step beyond racism. Social
exclusion drove away the poor, black neighbourhoods, and the “smaller”
people of the community.
Robert Moses was one of the most
controversial figures in the history of urban planning.
Advocacy and Equity
Planning
The problem of social exclusion gave
rise to Advocacy and Equity Planning, where planners advocated for
and sided with those who were socially excluded.
Paul Davidoff (1930-1984)
·
Father of Advocacy Planning. He paved the way
to stand against the destructive effects of urban renewal
Saul David
Alinsky (1909-1972)
·
Founder of modern community organizing
·
Worked with the poorer communities, and
influenced neighbourhood organisations
Sherry Arnstein (d. 1997)
·
Social and health worker
·
Published an article on the ladder of citizen participation, which gave not only a
voice but power to the citizens. This addressed how citizens were being
victimised, and led the way to participatory planning.
New
Urbanism
Jane Jacobs (1916-2006)
“Cities have the capability of providing
something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by
everybody.”
— Jane Jacobs, The Death and
Life of Great American Cities
·
An urban activist who was strong and vocal
against urban renewal; she fought for new urbanism
·
Wrote the powerful book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, which was an open attack
on urban renewal. In this book she provided insight into the decline of
neighbourhoods in New York, and gave a voice to how planning should be
for all people, including thriving slums and the communities that
were thought to be eyesores to a city, and which were scheduled for destruction
to build Robert Moses’ expressways.
·
Her book and activism led to the eventual
fall of urban renewal towards city diversity, mixed-use, dense
neighborhoods, and vibrant communities.
·
Also wrote the book The Economy of
Cities
Environmental
Planning
Rachel Louise
Carson (1907-1964)
·
A marine biologist
·
Wrote the powerful book Silent Spring, a haunting compilation
and narrative of research about the detrimental and even lethal effects of pesticides
and fertilisers on the living environment. This book launched a global
environmental movement. (It will also scare the hell out of you when you
read it. It changed many aspects of my lifestyle.)
Ian McHarg (1920-2001)
·
Was called an “architect who valued a site’s
natural features” (New York Times)
·
Transformed efforts of traditional planning
into environmental planning by using the
technique of sieve mapping or overlay, which took into account
the varied features of the environment.
·
Wrote the book Design with
Nature, which triggered responsible planning of landscapes, respecting natural
features
Most of the data herein
were courtesy of littlemissurbanite.blogspot.com
