MODULE 2 :PLANNING EFFORTS AND IMPACTS ON HISTORICAL CITIES

AGENDA

Planning efforts and impacts on historical cities

Ancient civilizations (Mesopotamia, China,
Egypt, Indus Valley, Mayan
Classical cities (Greek, Roman, Medieval, Neoclassical, Renaissance, Baroque, City Beautiful)
Indian cities – (Vedic/Indo-Aryan, Colonial, Dravidian, Mughal).

PREPARED BY AR ASHFAQ, Asst Professor BGSSAP

PREPARED BY AR ASHFAQ, Asst Professor BGSSAP
 Ancient civilizations, Mesopotamia
Although all the cities shared the same culture
Each city had its own government, rulers, warriors, it’s own patron god, and functioned like
An independent country
Mesopotamian cities were Ur, Uruk, Kish, Lagesh
At centre of each city was the temple: a ziggurat (a massive, tiered, pyramid-shaped structure).
The Sumerians worshipped multiple gods with a diverse rank of character and also represented them
In art.

Urban communities were mostly developed around the shrine

Square geometry governed buildings in the palace area, which was organized by means of a series
Of courts
Walled city .

In both the Sumerian and later Mesopotamian culture the most important buildings were given
additional durability by having weather resistant carvings on the brick wall and was often
raised on a platform to give it more dignity.
Planning of house
In contrast to the grand temple complexes, the houses were set in densely
packed neighborhoods.
Plans were roughly orthogonal, and houses were constructed around open
courtyards that provided light and fresh air to all the rooms.
To the street the houses presented a blank wall, thereby ensuring privacy.

PREPARED BY AR ASHFAQ, Asst Professor BGSSAP

 Mesopotamian City of Ur
• UR city is famous for ZIGGURAT
• It is one of the oldest settlement in the world
• It was a fertile land with rich alluvial soil laid down by the
twin rivers – Tigris & Euphrates
• It was enormously productive
• The river changed it course & the settlement came to an end
• In order to harness the power of flood ,an elaborate system
of canals , dams & flood plains were created
• Temples were placed on platform or stepped series of
platforms
• They are built out of core of mud brick with an outer skin of
fired bricks set in bitumen mortar to protect against flood
damage
• Good irrigation system gave abundant crops, not everybody
needed to work on farms
• The chisel workers made sculptures ,The GEM CUTTER made
gems and THE METAL WORKERS made weapons

PREPARED BY AR ASHFAQ, Asst Professor BGSSAP

 SHRINE

SCHOOL
COOK
HOUSE

SHOPS

PREPARED BY AR ASHFAQ, Asst Professor BGSSAP

 UR SETTLEMENT LAYOUT
PREPARED BY AR ASHFAQ, Asst Professor BGSSAP
• It is one of the earliest cities to be excavated
• Narrow winding streets indicate that the
wheeled cart could not have reached many of
the houses
• Narrow winding streets and irregular shape
of house plots also indicate an absence of
town planning
• There were no street drains but drainage was
found inside houses
• Light came into the rooms not from windows
but from door opening to the courtyards
• This would also give the family privacy
• Houses sloped inwards
• Rainwater channelled and collected at the inner
court yard
• This prevented unpaved roads from being slushy
after a down pour
• There was a town cemetery at UR in which
graves of ROYALS were buried
• Commoners have been buried under floors of
ordinary houses.
Ancient civilizations Indus Valley
 Ancient civilizations Indus Valley
The streets run roughly east-west and
•Indus valley Civilization – Planned town north-south and there seems to be some
•It fallows the grid iron pattern distinct districts developed, That suggests
•It spread across the 1 sq miles deliberate planning.
•Streets divided city into 12 blocks, each
About 800ft x 1200ft in extent An effort to shape the human
•Each block had separate group of soldiers for security environment to meet the physical and
social needs of the citizens

The two important part of Indus valley city

1 upper citadel (fortified area with extra security for very important public buildings)
2 Lower city – Residential area

• Citadel were constructed a little above the rest of the city usually 50ft high always
located towards west of the city
• Indus valley people were all Dravidians
• All important building were placed on the citadel like Tower, granary, storage space,
great bath, Stupa.
• They were defeated by Aryan and migrated later on to southern part of India.
• No identifiable religious structure
• Water was believed to be scared

•Lower town had the residential area with rectilinear street plan There was hierarchy
•The wide streets were towards NS and EW. They did not give access to the houses
•The narrow streets were meant for movement
•Irregular narrow shaded walkways because of tall building on either side
•Residential neighborhood was inwards looking
•Inward looking: very few opening on the exterior walls of the house for privacy
 Ancient civilizations Indus Valley

•Courtyard in the centre of the house. All windows are focused at the centre for ventilation
•Outward looking: ex shopping mall Give access to the activities inside the walls
•The main streets look on to blank walls
•Citadel on west side –Smaller but Higher
•Lower town on East side –Larger but Lower
 Ancient civilizations China

The characteristics of walled city are usually, rammed earth platforms on which
palaces, sand temple were built. Pounding which happens up to a height of 12-
14cm of earth.

The Rectilinear shape, position of gates and orderly division od space with in
late Neolithic villages clearly foreshadow the structure of early Chinese cities,
while house foundations suggest the use of classical Chinese beam and frame
construction easily adopted to the creation of large, public buildings.

Planned as an irregular oval, oriented and housed in population of 203 hundred

.
Houses were clustered in centre of the village, demarcated with ditch around.

Basic skills in construction gave rise to pit houses.

 Ancient civilizations Egypt
• The Nile River created a 13 mile wide fertile river valley in Upper
Egypt (surrounded by hundreds of miles of desert on both sides)

NILE RIVER IS THE LIFE LINE OF EGYPT TILL DATE

• It is one of the earliest agriculture which started/ evolved near
the Nile river. The land beside the river was very fertile and right
considered for agriculture
• NILE was the life line for the civilization for the agriculture
activity.
• Settlement were along the river and either side.
• Natural protection was available as it was surrounded by desert
and mountains on either sides. Prevented people coming and
invading
• They believed that soul would return the body after death. It
was a religious beliefs this lead to the construction of tombs.
• Political system based on the belief that the pharaoh was both
a king & a god.
• Egyptian temple designs emphasized order, symmetry, and
monumentality and combined geometric shapes with stylized
organic motifs.
• Temples & pyramid were given more importance

• Important feature of built form

• The most public area was a large courtyard, surrounded by a post
and lintel colonnade.
• The second area was the great hypostyle hall, with its dense
columns.
• Light & shadow were important features.
Light came through wall openings , gaps between columns , clerestory
windows
 Ancient civilizations Mayan
Maya cities were not formally planned, and were subject to irregular
expansion, with the haphazard addition of palaces, temples and
other buildings.

Most Maya cities tended to grow outwards from the core, and
upwards as new structures were superimposed upon preceding
architecture.

Maya cities usually had a ceremonial and administrative center

surrounded by a vast irregular sprawl of residential complexes.

The centers of all Maya cities featured sacred precincts, sometimes

separated from nearby residential areas by walls. These precincts
contained pyramid temples and other monumental architecture
dedicated to elite activities, such as basal platforms that supported
• The ceremonial center of the Maya city was
administrative or elite residential complexes. Sculpted monuments
where the ruling elite lived, and where the
were raised to record the deeds of the ruling dynasty.
administrative functions of the city were
performed, together with religious ceremonies.
City centers also featured plazas, sacred ball courts and buildings
• It was also where the inhabitants of the city
used for marketplaces and schools. Frequently causeways linked
gathered for public activities. Elite residential
the center to outlying areas of the city. Some of these classes of
complexes occupied the best land around the
architecture formed lesser groups in the outlying areas of the city,
city center, while commoners had their
which served as sacred centers for non-royal lineages.
residences dispersed further away from the
ceremonial center.
The areas adjacent to these sacred compounds included residential
• Residential units were built on top of stone
complexes housing wealthy lineages. The largest and richest of
platforms to raise them above the level of the
these elite compounds sometimes possessed sculpture and art of
rain season floodwaters.
craftsmanship equal to that of royal art.
ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS CLASSICAL CITIES
 Ancient civilizations -Greek
• ACROPOLIS upper city –a settlement, especially a citadel, built upon an area of elevated ground-
frequently a hill with precipitous sides, chosen for purpose of defense
• It’s a city of temple, where all major temples are of city are located
• It was built to glorify the god
Ancient civilizations -Roman
Roman colonial or camp plans were especially developed for military
engineers.
Such plan necessarily to be simple to set our & building block easy to
measure.
In this case Gird Iron plan proved to be successful.

Roman displayed crude symmetry & artistic rigidity in practice of

leveling a hill to make site confirm to the plan.
Roman plan was like a chees board system having principle streets
rounding across the length

Focal point of thAe city was their FORUM.

 Ancient civilizations-Medieval

• The medieval cities were protected by high walls. Inside the walls, streets were narrow and unpaved.
• There was usually a square in the center of the city . This square had the most important public
buildings: the cathedral, the town and the marketplace.
• Monarchs & nobles sometimes built urban palaces in these cities.
• Around the city centre were houses. There were also hospitals, schools & inns.
• There were a lot of religious buildings, such as churches or convents. https://images.app.goo.gl/5rHfR9xPTbzQiHuR9
Ancient civilizations -Neoclassical
Neoclassicism also influenced city planning; the ancient
Romans had used a consolidated scheme for city planning for
both defense and civil convenience, however, the roots of this
scheme go back to even older civilizations.

At its most basic, the grid system of streets, a central forum

with city services, two main slightly wider boulevards, and the
occasional diagonal street were characteristic of the very
logical and orderly Roman design.

Ancient façades and building layouts were oriented to these

city design patterns and they tended to work in proportion
with the importance of public buildings.

Many of these urban planning patterns found their way into

the first modern planned cities of the 18th century.
Exceptional examples include Karlsruhe and Washington, D.C.
Not all planned cities and planned neighborhoods are
designed on neoclassical principles.
 Ancient civilizations - Baroque
❑ THE COSMIC CITY A SPACIAL DIAGRAM OF SOCIAL HEIRARCHY.
Cosmic City: - Interpretation Of The Universe And Of Gods.
- Renaissance And Baroque Plans- Articulated Expression Of Power.
- Monumental Axis.
- Enclosure And Protected Gates.
- Regural Grids.
- Spacial Organisation By Heirarchy.
 Ancient civilizations - City Beautiful
• The city beautiful movement wanted to use the political & economic structures to create cities that were
beautiful spacious & orderly.
• The city needed to get away from the black soot of the cool & become more clean & classical.
• Improvement of lake front & parks
• Developing highway & railway system
• Arranging systematic streets
• Creation of civil centers of cultural institutions & government.
• Planning : A tool of finance capitalism; an agent of imperialism; an
instrument of personal totalitarianism

• Architecture: A symbol of power, concentration on monumental & the

superficial
• Complete lack of interest in wider social purposes on planning
• Planning for display, architecture as theater & design intended to impress
& control.