Evidence of urban planning exists since antiquity. In ancient Greece the first settlements grew to be cities were following no particular urban plans mainly with the exception of their acropolises. However excess population growth in these city states lead to the colonization wave of the mediterranean during what is known as classical antiquity. The colonies were founded by their metropolises after carefully selecting their locations, providing access to natural resources (minerals, fertile lands, water) and trading routes. These cities were planned usually following the Hippodamian plan of city layouts. The Hippodamian plan was first introduced by Hipodamus of Miletus who rationalized the functions of the city, its underlying street network and the land uses. He proposed a city of three centres, a political, a commercial and a religious, each one of them providing with specialized functions to the city’s population. Not all plans lead to the successful growth of cities. Famous is the case of Megalopolis in southwestern Peloponnese, which had been planned to become a mega city of its time, as it can be inferred by its name. Although a functioning street network laid the foundations for urban development and monumental public buildings were built, like the biggest known ancient theatre, the city failed to attract dwellers and ended its lifespan never to become something more than an insignificant town of the periphery. In Roman antiquity city plans incorporated systematically the provision of clean water thus leading to the creation of the Roman aqueducts that can be seen standing all over Europe even today. During dark ages in most of western Europe city planning reduced to plans regarding the fortifications of the cities, includi...
... middle of paper ...
...as focusing only in the aesthetics of a city. His book helped the Progressive movement to take shape. Progressives argued that planning should deal with all major problems of the American cities and proposed a system of zoning. In the beginning the zoning was focusing on building sizes however a more modern approach deals with land use, population and housing densities, parks thus leading in to more complex zoning systems. (Fleissig & Jacobsen, 2002). In modern era, the zoning played a crucial role in the flourishing of the urban planner profession. Zonings in a lot of countries need to be justified by a rational plan and the outcome of the plan can be justified in court if necessary. Thus trained planners with experience are needed to carry on the task. The major zoning classes are the industrial, residential and commercial, but those classes can be refined further.
According to Park Dixon Goist (1977). “city Planning emerged as a movement and then a profession in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century“ which was formed by a number of related interests such as included landscape architects, architects, progressive politics, housing reform, the city beautiful movement, the Garden city or the new towns idea, regionalism and zoning. (Goist, 1977, page 121). The idea of city planning therefore emerged at the time when the industrial revolution was at its peak and people were flocking from the villages into cities for better jobs and pay. This was the time when the Chicago Exposition had just hit the exhibition forum and the Garden City concept by Ebenezer Howard and others were in competition.
At the time Jane Jacobs was writing The Death and Life of Great American Cities, city planning was not a process done by or for the people who lived in them. Residents were rarely consulted or involved in decision making, rather it be left to few elites who dictated their vision of the city for everybody else to conform to.
There are many things that shape a city such as culture, demand, and the vision of the city from the designer, but none are more instant and long lasting then disasters. London is one city that in this it is apparent and thus it is the topic for this essay. In order to demonstrate that the impact that disasters have on a city are the greatest shaping tools, I will focus of the Great London fire of 1666 and the Great Stink of 1858 and compare them to the Industrial revolution of 1760. I will give a short background history of the disasters combined with the direct effects that the disaster had on the city then continue to how the city then changed to combat that type of disaster.
Cities by John Reader, the acclaimed historian attempts to dive readers deep into the territory of urban historians, depicting and analyzing the greatest cities of planet earth. From the earliest examples of cities to the ultra modern cities, 7000-9000 years later, of Mumbai or Tokyo, Reader paints the picture loud and clear. Cities around the globe are home to half of the entire planets population! Those living in cities, consume nearly 75% of all natural resources in the entire world. From the ruins of the earliest cities to the present, Reader will explore how cities develop and thrive, how they can decline and die, how they remake themselves. In the beginning of chapter two, Reader states, “The first cities are said to have arisen from rural communities whose intensified farming practices produced surpluses large enough to free craft workers and other specialists from working on the land (Reader 10).” With that being said, the first cities were basically an intensification of agriculture. He starts with extreme detail describing the “oldest-known cities” from around 9000 years ago. Starting with the claimed first city Çatal Hüyük. This was a large Turkish neolithic site, has been described as the world's first city. Stretching back over 9000 years, at times up to 10,000 people might have lived there. As Reader stated, the site was discovered in 1958 by the British archaeologist James Mellaart. He was unsure in categorizing Catal Huyuk as a city or a town. From what we think as of a city today, like New York or Paris, classifying Catal Huyuk as a city can be difficult. Catal Huyuk was a settlement in southern Anatolia, which existed from approximately 7500 BC to 5700 BC. Certainly it is a site of immense historic and social...
With the influx of people to urban centers came the increasingly obvious problem of city layouts. The crowded streets which were, in some cases, the same paths as had been "naturally selected" by wandering cows in the past were barely passing for the streets of a quarter million commuters. In 1853, Napoleon III named Georges Haussmann "prefect of the Seine," and put him in charge of redeveloping Paris' woefully inadequate infrastructure (Kagan, The Western Heritage Vol. II, pp. 564-565). This was the first and biggest example of city planning to fulfill industrial needs that existed in Western Europe. Paris' narrow alleys and apparently random placement of intersections were transformed into wide streets and curving turnabouts that freed up congestion and aided in public transportation for the scientists and workers of the time. Man was no longer dependent on the natural layout of cities; form was beginning to follow function. Suburbs, for example, were springing up around major cities. This housing arrangem...
Gates, Charles. Ancient Cities: The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece, and Rome. London: Routledge, 2003. Print.
Location, location, location -- it’s the old realtor 's mantra for what the most important feature is when looking at a potential house. If the house is in a bad neighborhood, it may not be suitable for the buyers. In searching for a house, many people will look at how safe the surrounding area is. If it’s not safe, they will tend stray away. Jane Jacobs understood the importance of this and knew how cities could maintain this safety, but warned of what would become of them if they did not diverge from the current city styles. More modern planners, such as Joel Kotkin argue that Jacobs’s lesson is no longer applicable to modern cities because they have different functions than those of the past. This argument is valid in the sense that city
... cities could be and they helped revolutionize urban planning. Even today his ideas about urban and regional planning “remained influential as a way to accommodate work, home, and recreation in close proximity to each other” (Gale Encyclopedia).
The Romans also saw a need for well-planned cities. They used the same basic layout as they would for an army encampment. Water would flow into a cistern through the aqueducts to be dispersed in the cities plumbing. The cities were laid out in small sections, each section having its own fountain. The wealthy citizens would have also had hot and cold running water. The Romans also made sure that the streets could accommodate heavy traffic. By allowing for extra traffic the Roman army could move through a city more easily and it allowed for future expansion.
During the last century Copenhagen has seen major changes in the physical construct of the city but who was involved and what changes have occurred? When did these changes occur? Where were the main areas of development? Why was this change needed? And also, was it a successful development? Main case studies for this discussion include Copenhagen’s post-war master plan for it’s city looking at how it seamless integrated its transport systems, pedestrian walkways and businesses along with housing and zooming in further to the Ørestad district and its development which includes various architecture projects by practices such as BIG. By beginning to find answers to these questions through different sources and analysing them not only through words but also by illustrations and diagrams, an understanding of Copenhagen’s development can be begun to be made. Before these questions can be answered a step back should be made reflecting Copenhagen’s history.
Garden city is a method of urban planning in which self-contained communities are surrounded by greenbelts (invisible line designating a boarder around a certain area, preventing development of the area and allowing wildlife to return and established) containing areas of residences, industry and agriculture.
In Ernest W. Burgess’s “The Growth of the City: An Introduction to a Research Project,” (1925), the author delves deep into the processes that go into the construction of a modern city or urban environment. Burgess lists its following qualities: skyscrapers, the department store, the newspaper, shopping malls, etc. (p. 154). Burgess also includes social work as being part of a modern urban environment. This is supported by his construction model based on concentric circles that divided Chicago into five zones. The first was called a center loop meant for a business district. Secondly, there was an area for business and light manufacture. Third, there was a “zone for working men’s homes” (p. 156). The fourth is the residential area of high-class apartment buildings. The fifth is where suburban houses are located.
Frank Lloyd Wright was perhaps the most influential American architect of the 20th century and one of the greatest to ever live. What was well known about Wright was that he was deeply ambivalent about cities and metropolis centers. His key criticism of large cities was that the advancing technologies had rendered the cities, which were created industry and immigration in the late 19th and early 20th Century, completely obsolete. He famously quoted that, “ The present city…has nothing to give the citizen…because centralization have no forces of regeneration”. Instead, Wright envisioned decentralized settlements (otherwise known as suburban neighborhoods) that would take advantage of the mobility offered by the automobile, telephones, and telegraphic communication. Because of the rise of the suburban complexes in the post WW2 era, this is where Wright first got the reputation has being a prophet for the architecture world.
Sociologist … explained that open pattern of suburb is because of seeking environment free noise, dirt and overcrowding that are in the centre of cities. He gave examples of these cities as St. John’s wood, Richmond, Hampstead in London. Chestnut Hill and Germantown in Philadelphia. He added that suburban are only for the rich and high class. This plays into the hands of the critical perspectives that, “Cities are not so much the product of a quasi-natural “ecological” unfolding of social differentiation and succession, but of a dynamic of capital investment and disinvestment. City space is acted on primarily as a commodity that is bought and sold for profit, “(Little & McGivern, 2013, p.616).
There have been many significant movements throughout urban planning history which have influenced the way that planning theory is shaped and thought. Combined Modernist and Neoliberal planning theories have influenced the erection of a vast amount of planning project that have left an imprint on the way that urban planning is practiced today. In this paper, I will begin by describing the components of modernist and neoliberal planning practices. Then, I will outline a brief history of the project and explain how the Los Angeles South Central Farm was influenced by both modernist and neoliberal planning theories. Lastly, I will analyze this project through two different critical perspectives, neo-Marxism and critical race planning. These critical perspectives will enable us to understand the planning practices that were implemented in this project and will helps us explain the planning theories achievements and failures in this case study.