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Growth of Towns. Building and Town Planning. Origin of Towns: . In the cultural evolution of mankind we come across mainly three stages such as ‘stone’, Bronze and Iron Ages.
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Growth of Towns Building and Town Planning
Origin of Towns: • In the cultural evolution of mankind we come across mainly three stages such as ‘stone’, Bronze and Iron Ages. • According to the type of materials and weapons used at the time The Ages have different periods in different parts of the world. • The earliest form of dwellings of ‘Savage’; hunter were rock-caves. • Next job he did was to change the face of the jungle and create the huts of reeds and tents, to protect against weather, wind, beast and enemies.
Origin of Towns: • He started living a settled life mostly on the banks of rivers, which he found to be life giving source – water for drinking and rich fertile land for cultivation. • Man is primarily a social creature. • On account of his nature, he always preferred to live in groups, forming camps, hamlets villages. • Human settlements like these as the population increased expanded into towns and towns in to cities and finally cities turned into highly populated metropolitans like Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai Delhi etc.
Types of Towns: • The factors that distinguish one town from another are • (i) Location (ii) Function (iii) Shape and (iv) Size • Hill stations, river banks, sea fronts suggest their respective location. • Pilgrim towns, health resorts, education, fishing, industrial, commercial and political towns indicate their function. • The shape or pattern of the town is determined by the type of road system which depends upon topographical features. • A town is known as linear, rectangular, radial, star, circular or radial and circular according to their road system.
Methods of External Growth: • The towns behave like living creature and have their own methods of growth on account of new industries, factories, educational institutions aided by transport facilities etc. • The growth of the towns can be classified in two ways. • (i) Growth according to origin • Natural Growth • Concentric Spread • Satellite growth • Ribbon development • Scattered growth • Planned Growth • (ii) Growth according to direction • Horizontal Growth • Vertical Growth
Natural Growth • Town is the result of evolution, rather than pre-thought or pre planned development. • The towns have developed as a matter of chance than design. • Here the primary factors are availability of water, rich soil, immediate comfort and convenience of the people, rather than other amenities like schools, playgrounds, hospitals, theatres, transport system, commerce and industries. • There are four types of natural growth • (i) Concentric Spread , (ii) Satellite growth, • (iii) Ribbon development, (iv) Scattered growth
(i) Concentric Spread: • Town develops in the form of concentric rings, which nucleus as town since the natural tendency of the people to keep the centre, nucleus or heart of the town as near as possible. • Such town soon suffers from improper houses, concentration of people in the heart of the town, congestion of the traffic and accidents.
(ii) Satellite growth: • The satellite growth implies dependency on the parent city but still possessing its own identity.
(ii) Satellite growth: • When a town reaches a certain size, satellite devolution must take place, to break the suburban sprawl beyond that size. • Since its periphery falls away from the heart of the parent city, it becomes less convenient and uncomfortable for the distant people. • A number of satellite towns have been created in India since independence, such as Faridabad, New Delhi, Noida near Delhi, Marimalai near Chennai. Navi Mumbai near Mumbai etc.
(ii) Satellite growth: • Features of the Satellite town: • Also a full town in true sense but depends to certain extent on the parent city for higher education, employment etc. • It is independent in its economic, social and cultural activities. • Pure residential units with civil amenities like small shopping centres, dispensary, primary or nursery school etc. • Here no industries are permitted, hence people will have to depend on parent city for any workshop and employment facilities.
(ii) Satellite growth: • Must be linked with parent city by easy transport facilities like buses, local trains etc. • Usually there is only one arterial road for communication. • It may or may not consist of zoning. • Generally located in an open country beyond the green belt of the parent city. • The size and development should be controlled and not allowed to grow more than its parent city. Otherwise it would grow to become a rival to the parent city and would create the same problems of control in future.
(iii) Ribbon Development: • The development is in form of a ribbon or line i.e. a single row of houses along the bus stops, bus routes, railway lines, railway stations etc.
(iii) Ribbon Development: • In the beginning this growth is very small along the road side but soon it occupies whole of the area. • It happens especially in newly developing towns where rule and zoning regulations have not been strictly enforced. • Ribbon development has become a regular feature where we find overcrowding of all types of buildings such as schools, factories, petrol pumps etc. • This type of development is more dangerous from traffic point of view.
(iii) Ribbon Development: • Disadvantages of ribbon development: • Everybody wants to take advantage of the frontage of the main road. • The interior is therefor left underdeveloped, causing wastage of valuable land. • Overcrowding on the roadside. Streets become narrow and give rise to accidents. • All types of buildings creep in at the frontage, such as schools, factories, bus stops, petrol pumps, theatres, commercial complexes etc. with no regard to zoning regulations.
(iii) Ribbon Development: • All these affect health conditions of the residents. • The town spreads far and wide which is costly to maintain. • Future improvements become very costly. Ribbon development is the inverse of planning and is not desirable. • Hence it is necessary to nip it in the bud or check its development, int its early stage.
Scattered growth: • Here the town shows erratic growth, scattered here and there in a very irregular way, without any order. • It results in to traffic congestions, slums and lack of open spaces.
Planned growth • In this case, the town develops on pre-determined line as prepared by the town planner. • The development is in orderly fashion. • The following points shall be considered for the planned growth of the town. • (a) Selection of Site for the town: • The physical features play an important role in selecting the site for the town. The important factors to be considered for selection of site for an ideal town are. • Availability of good surroundings, climatic conditions, contours of the area, streams and lakes, fertile land etc. • Facilities of drainage, sewage disposal . • Availability of water sources, electric power, means of communication, transport etc.
Planned growth • (b) Features to be embodied in the plan: • Areas for residence, public, commerce, and industry based zoning. • Essential public services like water supply, drainage, electricity, telephone, gas services etc. • Public amenities like post offices, police station, petrol pumps, fire brigade stations, dairies, etc. • Educational amenities like schools, colleges etc. • Recreational amenities like parks, gardens, play grounds, stadiums etc. • Good network of roads • Provision of future expansion.
Planned growth • The important points to be considered in the planning of the modern towns. • Public utility services should be liberally provided. • Efficient and speedy communication arrangement should be made. • Plenty of open space such as parks, play grounds and recreation centre should be provided. • Industries should be properly located on the leeward side of the town.
Planned growth • Residential area should be planned in peaceful surroundings taking full advantages of the natural features. • Public buildings should be properly located to impress the visitors. • The concept of town planning as applied for the planned growth can be very well observed in the planning of the recent new towns in India such as Gandhinagar and Chandigarh, the capitals of Gujarat and Punjab respectively.
Growth according to direction • The growth of towns considering the direction takes place in two ways • Horizontal growth • Vertical growth
Horizontal Growth • The city grow horizontally in all directions, to accommodate the growing population. • It is clear that such horizontal growth is economical at places where the land is cheap. • The advantages of horizontal growth: • Since the building has only one or two story, the wall could be made thinner and foundation shallow using the load bearing structures. this results in saving the money.
Horizontal Growth • It does not require high technical personnel. • It is possible to have roof ventilation and maximum use of roof lighting. • There is a lot of economy in space and cost since there is no necessity of a lift or surrounding columns or walls. • The density of the population is generally low. • The marginal space surrounding the building can be used for garden.
Horizontal Growth • The disadvantages of horizontal growth: • It requires more land for the same space area. • The foundation cost per unit area used is more, since area is spread throughout. • Uneconomical where land is costly. • There is absence of group living.
Vertical Growth: • Here city grows vertically which is done by adding more floors to the existing buildings or by constructing high rise or multistoried buildings. • This type of growth is suitable where land is costly. • The advantages of vertical growth: • Same area for foundation, foundation cost per unit area is much less. • Saving in land • Economical where land price is high. • Plenty of open space for gardens, playgrounds, etc.
Vertical Growth: • Economy in construction cost. • Good aspect to the dwellers at the height because of the landscaped area underneath. • Development of sense of group living by sharing the common facilities like lift, passages, club house etc. • The disadvantages of vertical growth: • The density of the population is high. • Because of the modular nature of the design of the high rises it looks monotonous. No choice for personal likes and dislikes. • In case of scarcity of the shared resources like water, often leads to the disputes and quarrel among the residents.
Vertical Growth: • Without proper maintenance problems of leakages will takes place. • High density in smaller areas will lead to traffic congestion and parking problems. • In case of fire, the occupants living in upper floors find it difficult to escape. • Incase of high velocity wind it causes down drafts which may knock the pedestrian off their feet. • Getting up and down is tiresome in case of failure of lifts.
