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The City Edge PDF
The City Edge PDF
by SPIRO
KOSTOF
ANUJA KANANI
1404
INTRODUCTION
b) The walled edge- nature of physical boundary, its evolution in time and
place, factors that cause modifications, its consequent impact on the urban
fabric.
c) Meeting the water- the fluid edge, harbour towns, how do port cities differ
from in land cities, nature of such a geographical edge.
d) On the periphery-the changes in physical form of the edge, its political and
social repurcussions, formation of suburbs, industrial regions.
e) The open city- dissolution of the hard edge, the idea of a fuzzy boundary,
extensions to city, engulfing the surroundings.
f) The soft edge of suburbia- nature of suburbs, the growth pattern, new forms
of urbanization, formation of complete communities at the edge, called
edge cities.
THE CITY EDGE
Sketches of proportion
between ditch and
wall
THE CITY EDGE
the wall will have had an internal and an external pomoerium. This was a
strip of clear ground immediately inside or outside the wall.
double curtained wall : in between space is called the killing ground where
the besieged get a clear target of their attackers
THE CITY EDGE
A star fort or trace italienne is a fortification in the style that evolved during
the age of black powder, when cannons came to dominate the battlefield,
and was first seen mid-15th century in Italy.
Star fortifications were further developed in the late fifteenth and early
sixteenth century in response, primarily, to the French invasion of the Italian
peninsula. The French army was equipped with new cannons and bombards
that were able to easily destroy traditional fortifications built in the Middle
Ages.
Towards the 17th century, the bastioned wall with its associated features
such as pincers, ravelins etc became a must, more out of a political stunt of
show of power rather than need for defense. The city was completely,
cruelly cut off from the countryside. This thwarted the growth of European
cities to a large extent.
Fortification plan
THE CITY EDGE
As the power of cannons grew during the 16th and 17th century,
medieval walls became obsolete as they were too thin to offer any
realistic protection against prolonged bombardment. Most walls
were torn down, the material was used in building of towers.
The intramural zone was the least desirable area to build. This
gave opportunity for squatter settlements and makeshift shanties
come against the wall.
In China, the earlier walls that were built out of earth were
massive affairs. The poor built shelters attached to it, as well as
carved niches which were cave-like in nature.
Even the rich were attracted to the intramural zone: There were multiple
functions that the bastioned wall served, if we take a look through the pages
of history, from formation of suburban districts to the building of pleasure
gardens and palaces on top of them. The Zwinger palace in the city of
Dresden in Germany is one such example.
The unbuilt zone in between the curtain walls and outside it, was occupied by
lesser important urban functions and sects of society such as the artisans, the
tannery, the horse and cattle markets and so on. Also contained in it were
religious buildings which came up too late for the extremely dense core.
Geographers call this zone as the urban fringe belt. It stands for a collection
of mixed land uses, with large scale and low density built pattern which is
drastically different from the tightly knit urban fabric of the core.
As the city grows, new fringe belts are developed further out, in patterns which
are not necessarily concentric manner or sequential growth. The development
and growth pattern of fringe belts are irregular in most European city plans.
Stages of development of fringe belts: one leapfrogging the other- creating irregular pattern of growth
THE CITY EDGE
Map of Siena,Italy : late 17th century ad. The urban fringe outside the original city core is
obviously seen.
Mural traces
On the periphery
Planned extensions
There were built outer ring of walls, and in cases such as Florence and Siena,
but took centuries to reach it. After the 17th century, large planned estates,
with parks and monuments occurred outside the periphery.
In the industrial age, the privileged refused to move out of the historic core,
which resulted in the urban extensions becoming exile zones with workers
and industries girdling the city.
CONCLUSIONS