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Urban Design: The Beginnings
Urban Design: The Beginnings
THE BEGINNINGS
SETTLEMENT DESIGN
Agricultural Societies Rectilinear Plotting
LAYOUT
Grid (or Rectilinear) product of the farmer Circular (Fencing) product of the herdsman -- defensive role Radiocentric when circular settlements enlarge -- fortress cities (i.e. Paris)
ANCIENT GREECE
LANDSCAPE powerfully assertive HIGH PLACES fortified hilltop
-- sacred precinct
THE STREET not a principal element but as a leftover space for circulation PLACE OF ASSEMBLY market (agora)
ANCIENT ROME
URBAN DESIGN Greek:
as a leftover space for circulation -- Romans: street are built first; buildings came later market (agora) -- Romans: market, theater, and arena
MEDIEVAL ERA
DECLINE OF ROME Dark Ages, but not for urban design URBAN SETTINGS Military strongholds, castles, monasteries, towns MILITARY STRONGHOLDS Acropolis and Capitoline Hill CASTLES built atop hills, enclosed by circular walls; radiocentric growth MONASTERIES citadels of learning, laid out in rectilinear pattern MEDIEVAL TOWNS
-- like Greek towns, small and finite in size -- lacks geometry -- became parts of larger territorial states -- growth and population created the need for marketplaces
REBUILDING FERRARA
-- Palazzo Diamenti most famous structure -- Biaggio Rossetti architect and town planner regarded as
one of the worlds earliest modern urban designers
-- Rossettis plan:
1. Street widening, new buildings, wall improvement 2. Enlarge the town 3. Carry on with the plan
DOMENICO FONTANA architect commissioned by Pope Sixtus V FONTANAS PLAN streets were visually accented using OBELISKS OBELISKS - as stakes, as GUIDEPOSTS for the whole city
- as SCALE REFERENCE POINTS for successive designers
PALLADIAN INFLUENCES George Washington and Thomas Jefferson FOUR BOOKS OF ARCHITECTURE
examples of plazas (the modern forum)
RENAISSANCE PLAZA
one of the elements of urban design par excellence -- but did not tie whole city together -- Rossettis Ferrara (street system); Fontanas Rome (guidepost system)
ITALY
FRANCE
-- roots from large HUNTING FORESTS -- ROND POINTS high ground intersections
RICHELIEU
application of rond points idea -- 1630, landscape design of palace started -- Jacques Lemercier architect -- Western worlds master of landscape architecture
ITALIAN
RENAISSANCE LENOTRE AND VERSAILLES LENOTRES MAJOR CLIENT Louis XIV, the Sun King of France VERSAILLES Lenotres greatest work, Started in 1670, completed by 1710
-- Goose Foot/ patte doie -- three roads in a single view
1707-1709 laws banning use of combustible matls, led to extensive use of bricks
London & Westminster Improved -- heralded the Golden Age of building
-- ADELPHI TERRACE-- work of the Adam brothers; built along the River Thames
proposals for new plazas -- Place de la Concorde 1757, finished by 1770 French Revolution new plan for Paris called Plan des Artistes -- 1748, emphasis on plaza 1793, emphasis on street Champs Elysees improvement -- Arch of Triumph assigned Baron Georges Eugene Haussmann
ROBERT OWEN
OWENITE COMMUNITIES
England and United States New Harmony in Indiana, by Owens son Brook Farm in Massachusetts by New England transcendentalists Icarus in Red River, Texas, by Frenchman named Cabet Icarus failed, Cabet joined theMormons in search for the promised land and helped lay out Salt Lake City -- Phalanstery -- The New World of Industry and Society published in 1829 Victoria -- National Evils and Practical Remedies published in 1849
ROBERT PEMBERTON Happy Colony in New Zealand DR. BENJAMIN RICHARDSON Hygeia in United States THOMAS JEFFERSON Jeffersonville
OLIVE
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French architect, anticipated the 20th c. Garden City Vesinet, France (1859)
TONY GARNIER
French architect, anticipated modern day zoning -- Une Cite Industrielle (1901-04) -- Plan is incredibly detailed -- imaginary site (high plateau and level valley along a river) -- residential on plateaufactories on valley -- dam for hydroelectric power -- hospital on high hill -- smelting factories and mines at respectful distances -- locations for sewage plant, abattoir, bakery, and civic center -- testing grounds for cars and even airplanes!
OTHER VISIONARIES
Edgar Chambless, American vehicles running on rooftops -- Motopia proposed in England -- Eugene Henard, French, published Les Villes de lAvenir (1910) may have influenced Le Corbusier
ANTONIO SANTELIA
Italian futurist -- La Citta Nuova enormous metropolis -- inspired by the complex plans for the New York Grand Central area Japanese architects -- underwater cities, biological cities,cities changing their own forms, cities built as pyramids
Edward Bellamy, published in 1887 Looking Backward, 2000-1887 -- H.G. Wells (1902-1911)
CHIEF SPOKESMEN
- Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (French) - John Ruskin (English) - Henry David Thoreau (American)
American conservationist -- the founder of modern conservation -- Man and Nature published in 1862, an introduction to ecology
pioneer of the American park system also a social reformer, concerned w/ moral disintegration in large formless cities also a farmer, landscape design as olution to social ills (i.e urban park) Central Park of New York City won in 1859 San Francisco, Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, Montreal, Boston Public Parks and the Enlargement of Towns published in 1870 Cities planned for two generations ahead -- maintain sufficient breathing space -- design embraces the whole city completed Olmsteds Boston park system
CHARLES ELIOT
GEORGE KESSLER -- layout of Kansas City park system JENS JENSEN -- designed Chicagos original park system ALPHAND -- Haussmanns landscape architect
-- the French Olmsted
DANIEL SCHREBER --
a physician and educator -- Schrebergarten small gardens for children; later, used by elderly -- popularized the idea of the urban playground in Europe ARCHAEOLOGY became a science in 19th century CAMILLO SITTE, Viennese architect -- An Architects Notes and Reflections upon Artistic City Planning published in 1889
PATRICK GEDDES
Scottish city planner. established tool for analytical approach -- Cities in Evolution published in 1915 -- coined the term connurbation -- laid out some 50 cities in India and Palestine
MARSH -- interrelationship between MAN and NATURE GEDDES -- interrelationship between PEOPLE and CITIES CONNURBATION - the waves of population inflow to large cities, followed
by overcrowding and slum formation, and then the wave of backflow
WORLDS FAIRS
as works of civic art -- application of latest technologies; faade architecture; promise of America come to life -- as urban renewal operations-- Jackson Park Chicago Worlds Fair, San Francisco Marina, Treasure Island, SF
McMILLAN COMMISSION
-- AIA natl conference in Washington D.C. (1901) -- Daniel Burnham, Augustus St. Gaudens, and Frederick Law Olmsted among present -- plan for improvement of central Washington -- reviving the original LEnfant plan
CIVIC CENTERS
city hall, county court house, library, museum, opera house, and a plaza
PUBLIC WORKS
BRIDGES, designed as pieces of sculpture -- RIVERS, made into classical garden terraces -- COLLEGES and UNIVERSITIES, as visions of classical world -- RAILROADS, built Roman basilicas and baths
CITY AS A WHOLE --
Daniel Burnham father of American city planning -- plans for Chicago, San Francisco, Manila, etc. -- Make no little plans they have no power to stir mens blood -- last use of French Renaissance principlesapplied at the largest scale possible Roland Park, Baltimore (1892): start of commuter suburb -- Country Club, Kansas City -- Forest Hills Garden, L.I., New York: commuter suburb for Manhattan (1911)
MANY DEVELOPMENTS
American city planning profession -- Zoning introduced in 1916 -- Many lessons from abroaD -- England and garden city movement -- English architect-planners lectured in US-- English books in city planning
SUPERBLOCK CONCEPT
Answer to problem of through traffic -- Island of green, bordered by houses and skirted by peripheral automobile roads -- Best examples -- Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles; Chatham Village, Pittsburgh -- Community-level development -- One of the most important designs conceived for the modern residential community
G. R. Taylor -- Metropolitan growth through colonization, Reinforces Ebenezer Howards belief -- Satellite Cities, A Study of Industrial Suburbs (1915) -- The Building of Satellite Towns (1925)
REGIONAL PLANNING
ROOTS OF REGIONAL OUTLOOK Howard & Taylor: satellite colonization
-- Radburn demonstrated satellite colonization -- Marsh and Geddes laid the groundwork -- Henry Wright and Benton MacKaye: championed the regional outlook
BENTON MACKAYE
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Originally, a forester The New Exploration, A Philosophy of Regional Planning published in 1928 Envisioned the townless highway and highwayless towns Showed NY City as the entry and exit portal for the entire US industrial empire New Exploration the exploration of the wilderness and conservation had to be expanded to include cities
ACHIEVEMENTS IN EUROPE
ENGLISH NEW TOWN MOVEMENT
Sir Anthony Barlow headed commission The Report of Royal Commission of Distribution of Industrial Population (1940) -- Sir Patrick Abercrombie and J.H. Forshaw The County of London Plan (1943) -- New Towns Plan of Hook; Plan of Cumbernauld
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
Londons Barbican area -- Garden cities in France -- Dourges 1st garden city in France (1919) -- Longueau, Tergnier, Lille-le-Deliverance -- Berlin, Germany Martin Machler -- Baku in Russia -- West Kungsholmen, Stockholm -- Tapiola, Helsinki in Finland -- Amsterdam South, Amsterdam in Holland -- Other countries Italy, Switzerland, Israel
WALTER GROPIUS Took same approach to architecture & urban planning RICHARD NEUTRA Rush City Reformed LE CORBUSIER -- Fused ideas of modern architecture and city form
-- Spokesman for the International Movement -- Une Ville Contemporaine 1922, traceable to Henards and Garniers ideas -- Plan Voisin (Neighborhood Plan) 1925; La Ville Radieuse 1935
-- Le Plan de Paris 1937 When Cathedrals Were White 1947 -- Chandigarh, India designed the entire city
Concerning Town Planning 1948 Lewis Mumford critical of Le Corbusier Helped organize the Congres International dArchitecture Moderne (CIAM Conceived the CIAM grid graphic file system for recording pertinent information in an urban study and for explaining a plan -- CIAM grid four component sections: work, residence, circulation, leisure -----
MARS Group
The English CIAM organization -- Proposed a plan for rebuilding London -- Sixteen finger corridors all connected by a major circulation spine and encircling circulation loop
CONSTANTINE DOXIADIS
Addressed the urban problem on a worldwide scale -- Major designs are made for countries where economy and productive system can be coordinated by policy and decree -- Best work is in newly developing nations of Africa and Middle East -- Architecture in Transition (1963) explains Doxiadiss total view -- Magazine Ekistics shows Dixiadiss many plans and programs -- Ekistics grid system for recording planning data and ordering planning process -- Town planning as a science which includes planning and design, and contribution of sociologist, geographer, economist, politician, anthropologist, ecologist, etc. -- EKISTICS the science of human settlements
CHARLES ABRAMS
Housing as one prime field of endeavor for solving urban problems -- Mans Struggle for Shelter in an Urbanizing World (1964)
BUCKMINSTER FULLER
-- Inventory of World Resources Human Trends and Needs (1963)
LEWIS MUMFORD
-- Authored some twenty books and innumerable articles -- The City in History published in 1961, summary of Mumfords thought