Urban Planning

1. Urban Planning TDJ3M/4M1 Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

2. URBAN PLANNING • Urban, city, and town planning are the disciplines of land use planning. • These explore a very wide range of aspects of the built and social environments of urbanized municipalities and communities. Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

3. Topics of Discussion • An Historical Look • Aspects of Planning • Sustainable Development & Sustainability Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

4. Looking back at history…The Far East • Urban planning as an organized profession has existed for less than a century • However, most settlements and cities reflect various degrees of forethought and conscious design in their layout and functioning. • The Pre-Classical and Classical ages saw a number of cities laid out according to fixed plans, though many tended to develop organically Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

5. Looking back at history…The Far East • Designed cities were characteristic of the totalitarian Mesopotamian, Harrapan, and Egyptian civilizations of the third millennium BCE. • Often paved and in a grid pattern, the streets of early cities such as Harappa, Mohenjo-daro (of modern day Pakistan and India) are perhaps the earliest examples of deliberately planned and managed cities. • Also included were a hierarchy of streets from major boulevards to residential alleys. Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

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7. Looking back at history…The Far East • Archaeological evidence suggests that many Harrapan houses were laid out to protect residence from noise and enhance residential privacy. • They often had their own water wells, most likely for both sanitary and ritual purposes. Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

8. Looking back at history…the Greeks • The Greek, Hippodamus (c. 407 BC) is considered the father of city plan- ning for his design of Miletus. • Alexander commissioned him to lay out his new city of Alexandria, the grandest example of idealized urban planning of the Mediterranean world. • His plans of Greek cities were characterized by order and regularity in contrast to the more intricacy and confusion common to cities of that period, even Athens. • He is seen as the originator of the idea that a town plan might formally embody and clarify a rational social order. Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

9. Looking back at history…the Greeks • The arrangement of private dwellings is considered to be more pleasant and more convenient for other purposes if it is regularly planned, both according to the newer and according to the Hippodamian manner; but for security in war [the arrangement is more useful if it is planned in] the opposite [manner], as it used to be in ancient times. For that [arrangement] is difficult for foreign troops to enter and find their way about when attacking. Aristotle Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

10. Looking back at history…the Romans • The ancient Romans used a consolidated scheme for city planning, developed for military defense and civil convenience. • The basic plan is a central forum with city services, surrounded by a compact rectilinear grid of streets and wrapped in a wall for defense. • To reduce travel times, two diagonal streets cross the squared grid corner-to-corner, passing through the central square Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

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12. Looking back at history…the Romans • A river usually flowed through the city, to provide water, transport, and sewage disposal. • You can still find many European towns, such as Turin, preserving the essence of these schemes. • All roads were made of carefully fitted stones filled with smaller hard-packed stones. • The city was surrounded by a wall to protect the city from invaders and other enemies, and to define the city limits. Outside the wall was farmland. Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

13. Looking back at history…the Romans • At the end of each main road, there would be a large gateway with watchtowers and a portcullis to cover the opening when the city was under siege. • A water aqueduct was build outside of the city’s walls. Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

14. Looking back at history… • The collapse of Roman civilizations saw the end of their urban planning, among many other arts. • Urban development in the Middle Ages, characteristically focused on a fortress or a fortified abbey, occurred “like annular rings of a tree” whether in an extended village or the center of a larger city. Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

15. Looking back at history…the Middle Ages • Since the new center was often on high, defensible ground, the city plan took on an organic character, following the irregularities of elevation contours, like the shapes that result from agricultural terracing. • A few medieval cities were admired for their wide thoroughfares and other orderly arrangements, but the judicial chaos of medieval cities prevented frequent or large-scale urban planning until the Renaissance. Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

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17. Looking back at history…the Renaissance • The city of Florence was an early model of the new urban plan, which rearranged itself into a star-shaped layout adapted from the new star fort, deigned to resist cannon fire. • This model was widely imitated, which reflects the enormous cultural power of Florence of that time. Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

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19. Looking back at history…the Renaissance • The star-shaped city plan, known as the “Sforzinda” had radial streets extending outward from a defined center of military, communal or spiritual power. • Outside of the city, the industrial suburbs remained disorderly and characterized by crowded conditions and organic growth. • The Italian town of Todi, was voted to be an ideal city and”most livable town in the world” by students of the University of Kentucky in 1990. • Other examples of planned cities in Italy are: Urbino, Pienza, Ferrara, San Giovanni Valdarno, and San Lorenzo Nuovo. Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

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21. Todi, Itlay Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

22. Looking back at history…the Last 200 Years • The industrialized city of the 19th century: where control of building was largely helped by businesses and the wealthy elite. • Around 1900, a movement began providing citizens, particularly factory workers, with healthier living environments. This gave birth to the concept of “garden cities”. • The world’s first garden city was in Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City, both of Hertfordshire, UK. • These cities were principally small scale in size, typically dealing with only a few thousand residents. Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

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24. Looking back at history…The Last 200 Years • In the 1920s, Modernism began to surface. • Based on the ideas of Le Corbusier and utilizing new skyscraper building techniques, the modernist city stood for the elimination of disorder, congestions, and the small scale. • Replacing them instead with preplanned and widely spaced freeways and tower blocks set within gardens. • There were plans for large scale rebuilding of cities, such as the proposal to clear and rebuild most of central Paris. Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

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26. Looking back at history…the Last 200 Years • No large-scale plans were implemented until after WWII. • Housing shortages in the late 40s and 50s were caused by war destruction, led many cities around the work to build substantial amount of government-subsidized housing blocks. • Planners at the time used the opportunity to implement the modernist ideal of towers surrounded by gardens. The most prominent example of an entire modernist city is Brasilia, constructed between 1959 and 1960 in Brazil. Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

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28. Looking back at history…the Last 200 Years • By the late 60s and 70s, many planners began to realize that the implementation of modernist clean lines and lack of human scale also tended to deplete vitality from the community. • This was “expressed” by high crime and social problems within many of these planned neighbourhoods. • In the 1970s, Modernism ended, and since then many of these tower blocks have been demolished and conventional housing has been built in its place. Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

29. Looking back at history…Today • Rather than attempting to eliminate all disorder, planning now concentrates on individualism and diversity in society and the economy. • This is the Post-Modernist era. • Minimally-planned cities still exist today—Houston is an example of a large city in a developed country, without a comprehensive zoning ordinance • Houston voters have rejected proposals for a comprehensive zoning ordinance three times since 1948. Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

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31. ASPECTS OF PLANNING • Aesthetics • Safety • Slums • Urban Decay • Reconstruction and Renewal • Transport • Suburbanization • Environmental Factors • Light and Sound Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1

32. Aesthetics • Dictionary definition: The study of the mind and emotions in relation to the sense of beauty.” • Towns and cities have been planned with aesthetics in mind; designed to appear attractive. Bath, England 18-century private sector development Developed by K. Milne for TDJ4M1