MESOPOTAMIAN

Town Planning: The discovery of the Sumerian city of Ur has shed light on the
lives of the early Mesopotamians. The Mesopotamian cities fell short in terms
of town planning as compared to the Harappan centres but followed a
uniform pattern nevertheless. The city was divided into three parts - the
sacred area, the walled city on a mound and the outer town. The sacred area
consisted of the temple tower or the ziggurat  dedicated to the patron god of
the city. There were also smaller temples of other gods. This area also had the
storehouse as well as the offices. People resided in the walled city and the
outer town areas. Houses were constructed along the streets, and each house
had a central courtyard with rooms attached around it.

city of ur
ANCIENT EGYPT

Ancient Egypt never developed any major cities

The cities that did emerge were the result of the need for effective administration or the clustering of
facilities around an important religious center

SETTLEMNET PATTERNS

Most cities grew around administration, the clustering of facilities, an important religious center or
construction site.

Only a few were planned and organized, and were created as tributes by the pharaoh to the gods or as
monuments to their greatness.

Example –

1. akhetaten – the layout was divided into 3 areas, with

 the main temple
 the royal palace in the middle
 3 city quarters laid out for development
 
2. Maadi
3. Memphis
4. Thebes

ZONING OF CITIES

The central city houses

 The royal palace

 The great temple ( the per-aten)
 Various official buildings (police, taxes, etc.)
 Layout radiates from the royal tomb like sun rays emitting from the sun
 Illuminates a certain spot on the desert at sunrise
 Residential areas away from the royal tomb
 Compared to the central city suburban settlements was made organic
 Orientation of the houses parallel to the river nile
 Remarkably uniform residences
The residential areas consist of

 The north city or suburb

 The main or south city
 The workers village

Growth of the residential areas

 Spaces between the earliest large houses was gradually filled up with smaller clusters of homes
 Peasasnts would have lives in simple mud-brick homes
 Craftworkers lived in 1 or 2 storey flat-roofed dwellings made of mud bricks

El Amarna (akhetaten) – most complete example

The city has a fairly organic layout, with hints of planning: the line of the Royal Road seems to have
formed an axis al ong which key buildings such as the North Palace, the temples and palaces of the
Central City, and the Kom el-Nana complex were laid out, and it is probably not a coincidence that
the axis of the Small Aten Temple lines up with the mouth of the Royal Wadi.

residential areas of Akhetaten developed in a fairly piecemeal manner, the smaller houses built
abutting one another, often fitting into cramped spaces, and with thoroughfares developin g in the
areas between

 four main zones: the Central City, Main City, North Suburb, and North City. The Central City,
located roughly opposite the Great and Royal Wadis, was the official hub of Akhetaten. It contained
the two main temples (the Great Aten Temple and Small Aten Temple), two of the royal residences
(the Great Palace and King’s House), and further ceremonial, administrative, military, industrial, and
food-production complexes. The Main City was the largest residential zone, extending southwards
from the Central City, the North Suburb its smaller counterpart to the north. At the far north end of
the bay, the North City and its en virons contained housing areas and two additional royal
residences (the North Palace and North Riverside Palace), and associated administrative/storage
complexes. The North City palaces were connected to the Central City by a north-south roadway,
now known as the Royal Road, which probably served, at least in part, as a ceremonial route for the
royal family.
GREEK

Greeks built small towns appropriate for human scale with natural borders.

Parts of the town were planned according to geometrical patterns and others according to defensive
measures.

The Old cities were of an organic pattern whereas the new cities were in grid pattern.

The consisted of gridded roads with rectangular house blocks and the important roads were parallel to
the shore (straight and wide). The outline of town not necessarily rectangular)
Roman

They cloned many of Greeks urban design concepts.

The cities were of a grid pattern.

They were divided into neighborhoods and quarters by the creation of 2 perpendicular streets. The 2
major and central intersected roads were cardo (North-South) and deco Manus (East-West) and the
forum (central public space) was created at the intersection of the 2 major roads.

MEDIVAL

Towns assumed informal & irregular character.

Roads generally radiated from church plaza& market plaza to gates with secondary lateral roadways
connecting them.

Irregular pattern in planning was devised to confuse enemies; as enemies unfamiliar with town.

Open spaces, streets, plazas developed as an integral part of site.

Streets were used for pedestrian while wheels were restricted to main roads.

 NOERDLINGEN

A Cathedral
B Moat

it shows the radial & lateral pattern of irregular road ways with the church plaza as the principal focal point
of the town.

RENAISSANCE

The city had a Hierarchical settlement. It consisted of straight streets, as direct routes made it easy for
carriage travel.

The city was divided into traffic spaces, residential spaces and pedestrian spaces.

Elaborate system of landscape design to tie the city together

Palmanova - Italy’s only completed radial town and considered as renaissance “ideal city”.

The plan was inspired by Vitruvius. The star like pattern is derived from the principles of military
fortification design.