TOWN PLANNING

Module I
Origin and evolution of Human settlements: Development of Town planning in the historical perspective-Town planning in
ancient, medieval, renaissance, industrial & post-industrial age- Town planning in India -ancient, medieval, colonial and
modern. Development of new towns and cities-Chandigarh and Navi Mumbai.Contributions to modern town planning
thoughts: by-Patrick Geddes, Ebenezer Howard, C A.Doxiadis, Lewis Mumford, Le Corbusier and Clarence Stein.

Origin and evolution of Human settlements:

1. Prehistory
PALEOLITHIC( 2-3 million yrs ago)
NEOLITHIC (10,000 yrs ago)
2. History
ANCIENT AGE
MEDIEVAL AGE
MODERN AGE
CONTEMPORARY AGE

Development of Town planning in the historical perspective

1. PALEOLITHIC (2-3 million yrs. ago)

 Homo Habilus invented the herth, assembled in caves around fire to perform rites-beginning of community.
 Nomadic hunters made temporary shelters using available materials
TERRA AMATA, FRANCE
 Group of 21 huts, oval in shape
 Built using twigs and leaves around a central hearth inside
 Beginning of human settlements-man taking control over natural environment

2. NEOLITHIC (10,000 yrs. ago)

 Transition to agriculture inspired the earliest forms of urbanism in Southwest Asia
 Neolithic Revolution: Farming developed around many parts of the world at the same time- Mesopotamia, Egypt,
India, China, Americas.
 Larger settlements with higher population with more permanent materials- supported by Agriculture, trade &
transportation.
 Technological improvements-plow, potter’s wheel, textile making, metallurgy.
JERICHO, ISRAEL (8000 BC)

 Fortified settlement, with a stone wall enclosing a group of circular huts having conical roofs
CATAL HAYUK, ANATOLIA
  Unfortified, dense compact settlement with rectangular mud brick houses, no streets. bldgs. show diversification
as houses, shrines and workshops

Town planning in ancient

MESOPOTAMIA (3500 BC)
 "Mesopotamia" is a Greek word meaning, "Land between the Rivers". Mesopotamia is one of the cradles of
human civilization. Here, the earliest cities in world history appeared in Sumer, the southern delta area.

UR, SUMERIA

 Each city built a set of double walls and at least one towering temple as the centre of its surrounding agricultural
estates.
 Sacred enclosure- Temenos, religious centre of the city surrounded by massive walls & dominated by the
ziggurat.
 Temenos also included temples, palaces and government buildings.
 Houses were single-story structures of mud brick, with several rooms wrapped around an open court.
 Streets show organic pattern.
BABYLON

 The city was surrounded by 450’ high walls & a moat. City had 8 massive gates connected by streets.
 The river Euphrates flowed through the middle of the city.
 The palace, temple & ziggurat located inside the temenos.
EGYPT

 Egypt known as “Gift of Nile”-linear network of settlements along bank of Nile.

 N-S axis of Nile & E-W axis of Sun give rise to orthogonal geometry of fields and cities.
 Religion was the major factor that controlled their life- Tombs, temples, palaces were the most important
structures
 Egyptian city reflects the social structure of Egypt – common man & slaves lived in mud brick houses while upper
class lives in villas with gardens
 Towns generally had a boundary wall with only one or two entrances through the wall itself.
 Houses and towns built on a more elevated plain. These hills are called tells.
 The main street was normally placed through the centre of the town with smaller streets coming off at right
angles
 Temple districts on the other hand were better planned.
 The houses of the poorer classes in the towns were simple courtyard bldgs.
 Nobles and the upper classes of Egyptian society occupied much larger surroundings.
 Market places did not exist inside or outside the walls of the towns.
 The economy of Egypt did not require them.
CITY OF AMARNA

 365 miles south of Cairo, on eastern side of Nile River

 City of Akhetaten –the heretic king of Egypt.
 Central city housing the so called Royal palaces, the Great temple complex.
 A workers village was located on eastern part outside the main city.

 ANCIENT TOWNS
 The classical civilization of Ancient Greece emerged into the light of world history in the 8th century BC.
 In this landscape of mountains and sea many small territories, each with its own dialect, cultural peculiarities,
and identity developed.
 These "city-states" were fiercely independent of each other
GREEK CITIES
 Early cities had an organic pattern, following the undulating topography of the region.
 The city was surrounded by high, wide walls, fortified gateways at regular intervals.
 The high hills had the sacred precinct- often temples located here, the city grew around the foot of the hills. E.g.:
Acropolis in Athens
 The market place or Agora was the centre of urban activity, surrounded by shops/civic buildings.
 The residential areas were irregular in form with courtyard houses with no windows opening to the streets.
 Outside these wall was another public space, the gymnasium, the theatre, built into a hillside and semi-circular in
shape.
 Surrounding the city was the farmland of the city-state
AGORA

 Agora was located at the centre of the town & often occupied 5% of the city area with all major streets leading to
it.
 In planned cities agora was square or rectangular with colonnaded porticos of bldgs. Around them.
 Agora was the centre of commercial and political life-surrounded by shops & civic bldgs.
 ACROPOLIS

 Typical Greek city was built around a fortified hill, called an "acropolis".
 Here was located the city's chief temple, the city's treasury, and some other public buildings.
PRIVATE DWELLINGS
 The house was basic unit of city and was placed facing south.
 There was little difference between the houses of the town- democratic nature of society.
 Streets were paved with drains, water was carried from wells.
HIPPODAMUS (5TH CENTURY B.C)

 Greek city planning concepts were formally organised by Hippocampus of Miletus.

 The grid-iron form served as the basis of the city while dwellings formed the basic unit.
 Agora & Acropolis formed the 2 focal points of the city
 Each city had a finite size –a population of 10,000 –ideal size for a ‘polis’ or city.
 When population exceed this limit a ‘neopolis’ was started near the mother city.
ROMAN CITIES

 Romans continued the legacy left by the earlier architects of the Greek world.
 Romans were also great innovators & engineers who built well planned cities &monumental structures such as
temples, basilica, aqueducts, amphitheatre, and stadia using concrete.
  Early cities like Rome located on the banks of river Tiber had an organic growth around 7 hills
 The Roman town was a pattern of grid-iron streets, developed for military defense and civil convenience and
wrapped in a wall for defense.
 In the Roman system the main north-South Street was called the cardo and the main east-West Street the
decumanus.
 These two streets were always wider than others and acted as the axes of the plan.
 Rest of the space was divided into squares were blocks of flats, insulae, were built.
 Public bldgs. -monuments, columns, and triumphal arches, large variety of temples, thermae, theatres and
arenas.
 The provision of clean water for consumption and bathing was made by building the Roman aqueduct.

 Water supply network through a system of pipes, fountains.

 Well-developed system of roads with underground sewers and drains.
 The private dwellings which could range from a humble courtyard houses, multi-storey apartments (insulae) to a
great villas of nobles.
THE FORUM
 Near their crossing in the centre of a town were located the forum, the major temples, the main ceremonial
and administrative buildings, and other structures central to the life of the community such as the major
bathing establishments.
Town planning in MEDIVAL PERIOD
 MEDIVAL TOWNS (500 AD- 14OO AD)

 It shows the radial & lateral pattern of irregular road ways with the church plaza as the principal focal point
of the town.
 The time span between falls of the Roman Empire (500 AD) till the start of renaissance (14th cen.)
 Economy was rooted in agriculture and the feudal system was the new order.
 Wars among the rival feudal lords were frequent.
 For protective measures, towns were sited in irregular terrain, occupying hill tops or islands.
 Towns assumed informal & irregular character.
 Castle was surrounded by wall & moat as a protective elements.
 Church plaza became a market place.
 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
 Early medieval town was dominated by church or monastery & castle of lords.
 Towns were human in scale, immediate, tangible with sequential views.
 Medieval towns characterized by congestion, overcrowding, filth & squalor.
 Epidemics like plague & fire hazard was common in 13th & 14th century.
 ‘Bastide’ is a French term and means literally ‘small fortress’.
Originally it referred to the planned new towns which were built in southwest France during the early part
of the 13th century.
 Now is accepted as the general term for all planned, colonial towns (new towns) of the medieval period
including French, English, Welsh and German examples.
Bastides have pre-determined plan forms.
Grid-iron system and rectilinear plot sub-division form the basis of their layout.

Renaissance
RENAISSANCE TOWNS (1300-1600AD)

IDEAL CITY CONCEPT

 Marks the return of classical theories in art, architecture & city planning.
 Leon batista Alberti & Leonardo davinci proposed the idea of star shaped ideal city-with radial streets from a
centre point-(resist cannon fire better)
 Formalism was grafted over congested medieval towns.
Many towns were rebuilt in order to improve circulation, sanitation and defense.
 Formal plazas were carved out & adopted monumental scale & form of classical roman cities.
 Monumental forms, axis, symmetry & sculptural buildings returned to the city.
 15th century Rome was an overcrowded pilgrim town with problems of transportation, water supply &
sanitation.
 In 1585 pope Sixtus V commissioned Dominico Fontana with restructuring the city of Rome.
 Marked out shrines as focal points with tall obelisks & connected them through a network of wide streets-
establishing a framework for cities growth.

 Formal open spaces like Plazas and squares were carved out of congested city of Rome
 Many 16th century cities like London & Paris followed the idea of monumental plaza as an urban open
space.
BAROQUE CITY
 From French gardens came idea of long vistas meeting at acute angles at one point-Patte d'oie
 In garden of Versailles(1670) , Andre Le Notre used this idea as a frame work to link together a palace,
gardens & a town- making the vast landscape comprehensible to eye.
 These ideas were transferred to baroque city design -substituting houses for trees, grand avenues for long
axes-incorporating plazas surrounded by classical bldgs.
 +3, the baroque city was formed
 E.g.: London & Paris
 In 1666 came plague & great fire which nearly destroyed the city. several proposals with sketch-plans for
radical reorganization of the City's streets were put forward
 Sir Christopher Wren's design, inspired by the Gardens of Versailles, imagined a well-ordered London with
vistas and wide, straight streets.
 In the following years city was rebuilt incorporating many ideas like avenues, parks, plazas, squares, streets
changing the face of the city.
  After the fire, regulations came such as restricting use of combustible materials, bldg. heights, setbacks,
need for open spaces, better sanitation &sewage.
 By the 1800s, the population of Paris had grown into an overcrowded medieval city.
 In 1853, under Napoleon III, Haussmann began the process of renovating France's capital city – surgery of
Paris.
 His basic instructions were to bring light and air into the central districts, improve the sanitation and living
areas, and make Paris a more beautiful city.
 Haussmann's interventions included the destruction of old, medieval neighbourhoods, widening of streets,
building large parks and public squares, and addition of fountains and sewer lines
 Earlier streets were winding, narrow, dark and unhealthy with medieval structures.
 Haussmann created large network of avenues known as ‘boulevards’ that connected the districts.-new
building along these followed a common character.
 Haussmann’s efforts went well beyond beautification, modernizing the city so as to enable the efficient
transportation of goods as well as the rapid mobilization of military troops

Industrial age
Planned Industrial Towns

 1859-Vesinet in France was planned as a town incorporating characteristics of French gardens & English
Parks- forerunner of Garden cities.
 1887, W.H. Liver Company built Port Sunlight, a workers community near Liverpool.
 1889- Cadbury ,chocolate company built , Bourneville , a garden community for workers in Birmingham
 Tony Garnier, ’Une cite Industrialle’-ideal industrial town for a pop. of 32,000 people-concept of zoning
 1882, Spanish Architect, Soria y mata, proposed the concept of a linear city- houses &buildings are set
alongside a linear network of roads & utility systems ,surrounded by gardens
Post-industrial age
FACTORY TOWNS
 In 1769 James Watt created an improved version of the steam engine that ushered in the Industrial
Revolution in Britain-drastic changes in industrial & transportation sectors.
 In 1825, first steam railroad began its operations in England.
 Mechanical production increased & trade expanded –the factory was the new magnet- attracting rural
labours to the city.
 Explosive growth of industrial towns due to migration. Manchester, as an example, experienced a 6 times
increase in its population between 1771 and 1831
 Giant sprawling cities developed during this era, exhibiting the luxuries of wealth and the meanness of
poverty in sharp juxtaposition.
 Working class lived in ‘slums’- dilapidated, over crowded tenements without proper light, ventilation &
sanitary facilities like bathroom, toilet or running water.
 Air, water & land city became polluted- epidemics like cholera often broke out.
 The wealthy moved away from the cities because they thought the "slum" was unhygienic and unpleasant.
 This led to the beginning of suburbs, or socially segregated neighbourhoods in the outskirts.
IDEAL TOWNS
 18th & 19TH century saw the emergence of many visionary ideas with a concern for the life of workers.
Claude-Nicolas Ledoux in his visionary plan for the Ideal City of Chaux, (1776), proposed an ideal city were
workers lived close to the factory in an informal grouping of houses among gardens.
 His ideas were realised in the design of the Royal Salt works of Arc-et-Senans, France.
 Robert Owen was a Welsh social reformer and one of the founders of utopian socialism and the
cooperative movement.
 He proposed that ideal communities of about 1,200 people should be settled on land from 1,000 to 1,500
acres (4 to 6 km2).
 While mainly agricultural, it should possess all the best machinery, should offer every variety of
employment, and should, as far as possible, be self-contained townships.
 In response to existing conditions of urban squalor, regulatory laws (such as Great Britain’s Public Health Act
of 1848 and the New York State Tenement House Act of 1879) set minimal standards for housing for
workers.
PARK MOVEMENT
 Early 20th century, efforts to improve the urban environment emerged from recognition of the need for
recreation.
 Parks were developed to provide visual relief and places for healthful play or relaxation.
 New York’s Central park, envisioned in the 1850s and designed by architects Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law
Olmsted became a widely imitated model.
 supporters of the parks movement believed that the opportunity for outdoor recreation would have a
civilizing effect on the working classes, who were otherwise consigned to overcrowded housing and
unhealthful workplaces
Town planning in India
Town planning in India is an ancient science starting from
1. Indus valley
2. Vedic Period
3. Medieval period
4. Modern age
Ancient India
Indus Valley Civilisation
The Indus Valley Civilisation  (3300–1900 BCE) also known as Harappan civilisation extending from what today is
northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India. It flourished in the basins of the Indus River
 As of 1999, over 1,056 cities and settlements had been found, of which 96 have been excavated mainly in the
region of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra Rivers and their tributaries.
 The major urban centres of Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, Ganeriwala in modern-day Pakistan; and Dholavira, and
Rakhigarhi in present-day India
 The Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply
systems, and clusters of large non-residential buildings
 The Indus Valley Civilization (also known as the Harappan culture) has its earliest roots in cultures such as that of
Mehrgarh, approximately 6000 BCE.
 Mehrgarh is a Neolithic (7000 BCE to c. 2500 BCE) site to the west of the Indus River valley were farming and
herding in South Asia started. The culture migrated into the Indus Valley and became the Indus Valley civilisation.
 Trade networks linked this culture with related regional cultures and distant sources of raw materials, including
lapis lazuli and other materials for bead-making.
 Early Harappan communities turned to large urban centres by 2600 BCE, from where the mature Harappan phase
started
 Vast agricultural lands, rivers, forest surrounded each city.
Town planning
  A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture is evident in the Indus Valley Civilization.
 The two greatest cities, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, emerged in 2600 BCE along the Indus River valley in
Punjab and Sindh
 the knowledge of urban planning and efficient municipal governments which placed a high priority on
hygiene
 Urban planning included the world's first known urban sanitation systems. Within the city, individual homes
or groups of homes obtained water from wells.
 Waste water from bathrooms was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets.

 Houses built using burnt bricks opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes.
 All the houses had access to water and drainage facilities.
 The cities were constructed in a highly uniform and well-planned grid pattern, suggesting they were planned by a
central authority.
 There was a citadel in the centre, but no large monumental structures like palaces or temples were built.
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
 The twin cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa formed the hub of the civilization.
 Both cities were a mile square with 40,000 population, with defensive outer walls.
 An orthogonal street layout was oriented toward the cardinal directions.
 The street layout shows an understanding of the basic principles of traffic, with rounded corners to allow the
turning of carts easily.
 These streets divided the city into 12 blocks. Except for the west-central blocks, the basic unit of city planning
was the individual house.
 A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture is evident in the Indus Valley Civilization.
 The two greatest cities, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, emerged in 2600 BCE along the Indus River valley in Punjab
and Sindh
 the knowledge of urban planning and efficient municipal governments which placed a high priority on hygiene
 Urban planning included the world's first known urban sanitation systems. Within the city, individual homes or
groups of homes obtained water from wells.
 Waste water from bathrooms was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets.
Mohenjo-Daro
 Mohenjo-Daro was the largest of both with an area covering 200 hectares and a population of 35,000 to 40,000.
 The citadel was built on a raised platform 45’ above the plains
 The streets ran in cardinal directions meeting at the right angles to each other.
 Secondary and tertiary streets ran between the built up areas were narrow
 Distinct zoning areas like Trade and commerce, Residential areas, cultural spaces
 Religious, institutional and Cultural spaces around the Monastery and Great bath in the west
 Trade and Administration in south. Agriculture and Industries in north.
 The granary was the largest structure in Mohenjo-Daro, and in Harappa there were about six granaries or
storehouses. These were used for storing grain.
 The great bath was another important structure in Mohenjo-Daro. The floor of the bath had five layers. There
were changing rooms around. Tar and gypsum mortar between the bricks made sure no water leaked out.
 A palace-like building that looked like an assembly hall for the city government or for people to meet.
 Underground drains were built on either side of the roads. They were covered with stones which could be
removed in order to clean them.
 The granary was the largest structure in Mohenjo-Daro, and in Harappa there were about six granaries or
storehouses. These were used for storing grain.
 The great bath was another important structure in Mohenjo-Daro. The floor of the bath had five layers. There
were changing rooms around. Tar and gypsum mortar between the bricks made sure no water leaked out.
 A palace-like building that looked like an assembly hall for the city government or for people to meet.
 Underground drains were built on either side of the roads. They were covered with stones which could be
removed in order to clean them.
 The granary was the largest structure in Mohenjo-Daro, and in Harappa there were about six granaries or
storehouses. These were used for storing grain.
 The great bath was another important structure in Mohenjo-Daro. The floor of the bath had five layers. There
were changing rooms around. Tar and gypsum mortar between the bricks made sure no water leaked out.
 A palace-like building that looked like an assembly hall for the city government or for people to meet.
 Underground drains were built on either side of the roads. They were covered with stones which could be
removed in order to clean them.
 The granary was the largest structure in Mohenjo-Daro, and in Harappa there were about six granaries or
storehouses. These were used for storing grain.
 The great bath was another important structure in Mohenjo-Daro. The floor of the bath had five layers. There
were changing rooms around. Tar and gypsum mortar between the bricks made sure no water leaked out.
 A palace-like building that looked like an assembly hall for the city government or for people to meet.
 Underground drains were built on either side of the roads. They were covered with stones which could be
removed in order to clean them.

Harappa
 Area of 150 hectares for a population of 23000
 Centre of tread with towns raised over mud brick platforms
 Citadel mound & lower town surrounded by massive wall
 large open areas inside gateway used as market or checkpoint for goods
 No division of society is reflected in plan of the city.
 Public bldgs., markets, houses & craft workshops are found in the same city.
 The granary was the largest structure in Mohenjo-Daro, and in Harappa there were about six granaries or
storehouses. These were used for storing grain.
 The great bath was another important structure in Mohenjo-Daro. The floor of the bath had five layers. There
were changing rooms around. Tar and gypsum mortar between the bricks made sure no water leaked out.
 A palace-like building that looked like an assembly hall for the city government or for people to meet.
 Underground drains were built on either side of the roads. They were covered with stones which could be
removed in order to clean them.
Vedic Age
 Indus valley culture collapsed due to various reasons such as drying up of rivers, floods or Aryan invasion around
2000 BC
 New agricultural settlements came up in the Gangetic plain during Vedic age
 These settlements slowly evolved as towns or ‘Nagara’references in Vedic hymns about architecture & planning
of towns.
 Traditional Vedic towns had temple as focal point- where the sacred & secular mingle
 Layout of towns in Vedic age was ideally based on social hierarchy of caste system.
  Can be seen in traditional temple towns like Madura, Sree Rangam etc.
 Several treatises were developed during Vedic period for planning of towns such as:
 Sthapatya Vedas as part of Atharva Veda-layout of a city
 smriti sasthra- street layouts
 Vaastu sasthra- on Architecture,planning,construction and design of bldgs., site selection, water sources, planting
trees
 Arthasathra- governanace & environmental management
 Manasara silpa sasthra- Grama vidhana & Nagara vidhana
 Mayamata
 Viswakarma

Town planning in Arthasasthra

 A city should be centrally located for trade & commerce.
 The site should be near a perennial water body.
 Shape can be circular, square or rectangular according to topography
 Wall around town -6 dandas high & 12 dandas wide followed by moats of 14’,12’,and 10’ wide
 Three roads in E-W and three roads in N-S shall divide the town.
 The main roads should be 8 dandas wide and other roads 4 dandas wide
 1 well for 10 houses

Medieval
 Medieval period in India was a transitional time and it was not possible under the unstable political conditions for
the planned and systematic urban growth.
 Only fortress towns under the patronage of chieftains and petty rulers could grow.
 Towns along the main routes of travel, and by the river-side had trade in food grains, cloth, swords, carpets,
perfumes and several other handicraft articles.
 Small urban centres was the ‘rule’, and only capitals were having busy life. Jaunpur was the capital city under the
rule of Firozshah.
 It was only under the rule of Akbar that the disturbed urban life was reconstituted and redeveloped. All centres –
‘dasturs’ (districts) as well as ‘parganas’ (tehsils) beside capitals in nature were also ‘garrison towns’ where
armies were invariably stationed for protection.
 Medieval towns, whether in India or anywhere else, were walled, encircled by an outside moat. The town
resembled “an island when its gates were locked at sundown”.
 Medieval town site was usually governed by physically significant terrain; it was either on a hill flanked on the
other side by a water body, or it was guarded by a ring of mounds.
 Medieval town used to have its first nucleus often as a fortress of walled property of a landlord, its internal roads
being controlled to connect the market place lying directly before the gate of the castle or place of worship.
Nucleus of the town was “the stage on which were enacted the daily drama of buying and selling, religious
pageant, tournament and procession”.
 Urban centres of the medieval times were surrounded by agricultural land, and farmers and labourers commonly
were having their dwellings near or outside the town limit. The areas within the walls of a town near its bound
were occupied by artisan castes engaged in handicrafts.
TOWN PLANNING IN SHAHJAHANABAD
SPATIAL STRUCTURE
 Urban spatial structure of Shahjahanabad was different from that of the other MughalCapitals, because it was
planned and built by one concentrated planning effort.
 Creation of architectural expression of what has often been called the patrimonialsystem in its climax.
 The shurafaur ignited from the qasbah garrison posts & admn. settlements in which
 Islamic scholars also met their clients & where an integrative or even syncretistscultured prevailed –usually
established around a tomb or a waqf.
 The shurafa usually were situated to the west of the place, along one of the two boulevards at Chandni Chowk, &
originated from the employer’s palace, thus furnishing the city with an unequivocal structure.
 Those professional groups delivering fresh agrarian products to the city must have settled along the southern and
south‐south‐western rim of the city walls (Delhi gate & Turkman gate): this is where institutions, such as Masjid
gadarion (shephered’s mosque), Masjid Kasai (butcher’s mosque) were located. They all represent “low ranking
traders”.
  The closer to the core of the city the more socially recognized are the professional settled there: weavers,
producers of wool, traders of saddle‐ horses, oil‐ extractors & manufacturers of straw goods, each of them
represented by their respective mosques.
PLANNING OF SAHAJAHANABAD
 The city was planned according to Hindu planning principles of shilpashastra from vastushastra.
 The site was placed on a high land as in the Shastra and was karmukha or bow shaped, for this ensured its
prosperity.
 The arm of the archer was Chandni Chowk.
 The string was Yamuna River.
 The junction of the two main axes is the most auspicious point in the whole region and was therefore the red
fort.
THE CITY FORM‐ MORPHOLOGY ELEMENTS:-
 The urban infrastructure was laid out in a geometric pattern.
 Shows traces of both Persian and Hindu traditions of town planning and architecture with the Persian influence
largely accounting for the formalism and symmetry of the palaces gardens and boulevards
STREETS
 The streets in Mughal capital were usually narrow and crooked.
 However, the major streets in the new capital were designed as wide and straight.
 The Fort was visible from any place on the street. This perspective view marked a new concept of town planning
for the Mughal capital.
 Chandni Chowk is 1.4km in length and jogged right at the Fatehpuri Begum Mosque.
 It was built as the central axis of the city.
CITY WALLS
 The layout o the city walls was based on a geometrical planning; i.e. to say, a polygonal planwith gateways.
 The four main gates were Delhi Darwaza on south, the Ajmeri Darwaza on thesouth-west, the Lahori Darwaza on
the west and the Kashmiri Darwaza on the north.
 Theseimportant gates were positioned according to the basic network of the city, being laced on thecardinal
points.
 The graphic representation of the city was indicated geometric planning and thegeometric placement of the main
gates.
Colonial
 Planning and architecture was used in Indian port cities to express power and authority, by examining the two largest Indian
port cities; Bombay and Madras throughout the colonial period.
 The earliest planning activity on the shorelines of India can be seen in the defence work carried out in the 17th century.
 Of all the early architectural activities in the port cities, defence was undoubtedly of paramount importance surrounded as the
cities were by the hostile local powers on the one hand and by European rivals on the other
 As Port towns became more established, they encapsulated the sheer essence of the British Empire, by creating spaces of
imported knowledge, technology and economic investment, while exporting goods to British consumers and expanding trade
networks into the hinterland
 As a reflection of imperial thought in regards to the role of British planners and architects in the development of India’s port
cities, it is clear that infrastructure networks were pivotal in providing a healthy economic foundation in which trade and
commerce could thrive.
 Installations and services that signalled power, scale and value of city – or harbour – output. To make these water stations
productive, states, cities and businesses invested in docks, quays, canals, railroads and locks
 Although there were initial problems with the relative success of port building in Madras there were several successful
attempts at creating the basis for an enclosed dock by 1910, featuring various expansions after this period.
 As in Bombay there was also simultaneous network infrastructure built, “linking Madras docks directly to Bombay and Calcutta
by 1856.”
 The ports infrastructure was so successful that from 1881 to 1910 registered port cargo grew from 0.5 million tonnes 1 million
tonnes
 Commercial planning was not the only factor in the British expression of power, as “it was always essential to make visible
Britain’s imperial position as ruler, for these structures were charged with the explicit purpose of representing empire itself
 British colonial planning took a different approach come the turn of the 20th century, where it can be argued that the
articulation of British power was exercised to an intrusive extent.
 This took the form of slum clearance, in addition to road widening and social housing blocks for labourers.
 the most common town planning activity falls under Road improvements, slum clearance and housing, examples of which are
Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Lagos and Singapore
 Organized efforts for town planning started during British period in late 19th century.
 During 1890 s city of Bombay was hit by a series of epidemics like cholera, malaria & plague due to existing unhygienic
congested living conditions.
 1898, The Bombay Improvement Act was passed recognizing the connection between disease transmissions and overcrowding
  Bombay improvement trust was created in 1898 with the goal of improving the city.
 In 1911 Calcutta improvement Act was passed & Calcutta improvement trust was created
 The Municipal Act of 1920 created municipal bodies to provide municipal services & civic amenities to towns.
Modern
 A prosperous town is normally situated along a sea or river coast.
 India was the centre – piece of the British Empire on account of – limit less material resources, insatiable
markets, and enormous man power resource.
 These attributes funded Britain industrialisation making India- the Jewel in the Crown.
 Both the architectural style for British buildings in India and town planning ideas were imported from British.
THE FIRST HILL STATIONS:-
 As in the case of cantonments, hill stations were a distinctive feature of colonial urban development.
 The founding and settling of hill stations was initially connected with the needs of the British army.
 Shimla (present-day Shimla) was founded during the course of the Gurkha War (1815-16); the Anglo-Maratha
War of 1818 led to British interest in Mount Abu; and Darjeeling was wrested from the rulers of Sikkim sin 1835.
 Hill stations became strategic places for billeting troops, guarding frontiers and launching campaigns against
enemy rulers.
 The temperate and cool climate of the Indian hills was seen as an advantage, particularly since the British
associated hot weather with epidemics.
 Cholera and malaria were particularly feared and attempts were made to protect the army from these diseases.
 The overwhelming presence of the army made these stations a new kind of cantonment in the hills.
 These hill stations were also developed as sanitariums, i.e., places where soldiers could be sent for rest and
recovery from illnesses.
 Hill stations were important for the colonial economy.
 With the setting up of tea and coffee plantations in the adjoining areas, an influx of immigrant labour from the
plains began.
 This meant that hill stations no longer remained exclusive racial enclaves for Europeans in India.

Development of new towns and cities

Chandigarh
CHANDIGARH
• Since Punjab was divided into two p j parts, the capital was left inPakistan therefore Punjab in India required new capital
• The first masterplan for the new capital was assigned toAmerican engineer and planner Albert Mayer, who was afriend of
Clarence Stein of Radburn fame in New Jersey.
• He worked on the masterplan with his closest assistant,Matthew Nowicki, until the latter died in a plane crash in1950. His
duties were to take the form of architecturalcontrol.
• The master plan which albert Mayer producedfor Chandigarh assumes a fan‐shapedoutline, spreading gently to fill the
sitebetween the two river beds.
• At the head of the plan was the Capitol, theseat of the state government, and the CityCentre was located in the heart of the
city.
• Two linear parklands could also be noticedrunning continuously from the northeast head ofthe plain to its southwestern tip. A
curvingnetwork of main roads surrounded theneighbourhood units called Super blocks.
• First phase of the city was to be developed on thenorth‐eastern side to accommodate 1, 50,000residents and the second phase
on the Southwesternside for another 350,000 people.
• The neighbourhood units were to contain schoolsand local shopping centres.
• The flatness of the site allowed almost complete freedom increating street layout and it is of interest to note that theoverall
pattern deliberately avoids a geometric grid in favourof a loosely curving system.
• The death of nowicki necessitated the selection of a newarchitect for Chandigarh. When Mayer resigned, the Indianauthorities
put together a new, European planning team.
• Thetwo appointed administrators, verma and thapar, decided onthe renowned Swiss architect, le Corbusier, whose name
wassuggested by the British architect’s Maxwell fry and his wifeJane drew.
• As the most economical and readily availablematerial for building at Chandigarh was locally madebrick.
• The flat roof was employed throughout inChandigarh housing because of its usefulness as asleeping area
• 70% of the building would be private in all thesectors.
• Residential plots ranging in dimensions from 75 sq.Yards to 5000 sq. yards.
• Le‐Corbusier was responsible for the general outlines of themaster plan and the creation of the monumentalbuildlings,while
pierre jeanneret,maxwell fry and jane drewwere charged with the task of developing the neighbourhoodsectors with their
schools, shopping bazaars, and the tracts ofgovernment housing.
• In the program presented to the architects, 13 categories ofhouses were specified, each corresponding to a level ofgovernment
employment.
• Small windows openings have been consistently employed
 • The city of Chandigarh e c y o a d ga was the culmination of LeCorbusier’s life.
• This city is like the man. It is not gentle. It is hard andassertive.
• It is not practical; it is riddled with mistakesmade not in error but in arrogance.
• It is disliked by small minds, but not by big ones. It is unforgettable. The man who adored the Mediterraneanhas here found
fulfilment, in the scorching heat of India.
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
• It was bound by two seasonal choes, or rivulets, thepatiali Rao and the Sukhna in the northwest and thesouth east respectively.
It extends in the northeast rightup to the foothills of the shivaliks.
• The region experiences extremes in the climate. Thetemperature could rise to 45 degrees in summer anddrop to freezing point
in winter.
• The direction of the prevalent winds is southeast to thenorthwest in summer and northwest to the southeast inwinter.
THE BIOLOGICAL ANALOGY
• the head was the Capitol,
• the City Centre was the heart and
• The institutional area and the university waslimbs.
INDUSTRY
• Despite his bias against p g industry, Le Corbusier was persuaded to set aside 235 hectares for non‐Polluting, light industry on
the extreme south eastern side near the railway line as far away from the Educational Sector and Capitol as possible. Of this,
136 hectares were to be developed during the first phase.
• In the event of the city expanding southward, Le Corbusiersuggested the creation of an additional industrial area in
thesouthern part of the city where a second railway station couldbe established
SECTOR
• Le Corbusier and his team replaced superblocks with ageometric matrix of generic neighbourhood units,”sectors”.
• The new city plan represented a general city that could, like aroman military settlement, be placed on any flat piece of land.Le
Corbusier claimed that “the first phase of existence is tooccupy space” and the new plan allowed for such anexpansion.
• However, the city was planned to house a number of 1, 50,000inhabitants in its first phase, realized between 1951‐66, and500
000 in its” final stage”.
• The bus stops are provided each time at 200 meters from thecircus so as to serve the four pedestrian entrances into asector.
• Thus, the transit traffic takes place out of the sectors: thesectors being surrounded by four wall‐bound car roadswithout
openings (the V3s).
• And this (a novelty in town‐planning and decisive) was appliedat Chandigarh: no house (or building) door opens on
thethoroughfare of rapid traffic.
OPEN SPACES
• Some 800 hectares of green open space arespread over the approximately 114 squarekilometres of the Capital Project area.
• Major open areas include the Leisure Valley,Sukhna Lake, Rock Garden and many otherspecial gardens.
• In addition, the sectors are verticallyintegrated by green space oriented in thedirection of the mountains.
LANDSCAPING
• Landscaping proceeded p g p side by side with the construction ofthe city from the very inception. Three spaces were
identifiedfor special plantation: the roadsides, spaces around importantbuildings, parks and special features such as Sukhna
Lake.
• Le Corbusier’s contribution to landscaping was of categorisingtree forms. He made a simple analysis of the functional needsand
aesthetic suitability for the various areas, devoting specialattention to specific roads.
• Prominent flowering p g trees are gulmohar (Delonix regia),amaltas (Cassia fistula), kachnar (Bauhinea variegata), pinkcassia
(Cassia Javanica) and silver oak (Grevillea robusta).
• Among the conspicuous non‐flowering trees one finds kusum(Schleicheta trijuga) and pilkhan (Ficus infectoria) along
V3roadsides.
• These trees, noted for their vast, thick spreading canopiesform great vaulting shelters over many of the city’s roads.
• In all, more than 100 different tree species have been plantedin (Fieus religosa) Chandigarh.
HOUSING
• Lower category residential g y buildings are governed by amechanism known as “frame control” to control theirfacades.
• This fixes the building line and height and the use of buildingmaterials.
• Certain standard sizes of doors and windows are specified andall the gates and boundary walls must conform to
standarddesign.
• This particularly applies to houses built on small plots of 250square metres or less.
THE CAPITOL COMPLEX
• The area of the greatest symbolic significance in Chandigarh was thecapitol complex , which in its final form was based on the
design of a great cross axis
• The most important group of p g p the buildings constituting the capitol right,the parliament – left and in the background, the
secretariat
• In the foreground, the pool of the palace of justice
• The artificial hills in the front of the secretariat have not beencreated and laid out in accordance with Corbusier’s conceptions
• Although the scene is harmonies in effect, there are still missing thebuildings that belong here, such as , for instance, the
towers ofshadows
Navi Mumbai.
 The Navi Mumbai project area spread over approx. 343.7 sq.kms and contained 95 villages of Thane and Raigad Districts.
  To act as counter-magnet to Mumbai, the new city would have to provide the new inhabitants with all facilities, amenities, jobs,
etc. that shall equal if not better Greater Mumbai.
 The Navi Mumbai project began in 1971 with the formation of City and Industrial Development Corporation
    (CIDCO).
 The project was envisaged to be developed on a self-financing basis using land as a resource and to accommodate 2 million
people and 750,000 jobs.
The Board recommended establishment of Navi Mumbai at this place due to following
 Existing industrial sites in the Thana-Belapur area and Taloja.
 The imminent complete ion of the Thana Creek Bridge and
 The proposal of the Bombay Port Trust to establish a new port atNhava Sheva.

 The Navi Mumbai project area spread over approx. 343.7 sq.kms and contained 95 villages of Thane and Raigad Districts.
 To act as counter-magnet to Mumbai, the new city would have to provide the new inhabitants with all facilities, amenities,
jobs, etc. that shall equal if not better Greater Mumbai.
 The Navi Mumbai project began in 1971 with the formation of City and Industrial Development Corporation
    (CIDCO).
 The project was envisaged to be developed on a self-financing basis using land as a resource and to accommodate 2 million
people and 750,000 jobs.
 CIDCO prepared the Draft Development Plan for Navi Mumbai which was approved by the State Government in August 1979
and came into force with effect from March 1980.
 In the Development plan, land-use zoning and development regulations are used as tools for environment control.
 A development (structure plan) plan model is favoured with broad land use zones indicating the uses permitted within each
zone.
 Polycentric nodal pattern of development was adopted, to avoid a Mumbai like situation of activity concentration caused by a
mono-centric development model.
The Navi Mumbai project area is spread over approx.343.7 Sq.Kms. Navi Mumbai lies on mainland on eastern shore of Thane creek. The
length of the city is almost same as that of Mumbai. Navi Mumbai is one of the largest planed cities in the world. The city limit s stretch
from Airoli nearThane in North to Uran in South. The Navi Mumbai project area includesPanvel and Uran towns, gaothans of 95 villages in
Thane and Raigad districts, Private Land, MIDC area, MESB area, Defence lands, and Salt Panes, forest and government land. Except
government land and salt panes other lands were small and of irregular shapes, therefore, land assembling was a difficult task. Inherent
value of the land was very low because of its physical condition, quality and total lack of infrastructure in the area.
The Planning Philosophy
 For any development absolute control and ownership of land is the most essential and basic requirement, as land is the main
resource fordevelopment.
 The first step is to identify all the land that needed to beacquired for development of Navi Mumbai. By February 1970,
thegovernment notified for acquis it ion of private owned land coveringeighty six villages and measuring 159.54 km² within the
present limits ofNavi Mumbai under Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act (MR &TP Act), 1966.
 Land belonging to nine other villages, measuring 28.70 km², was additionally designated in August 1973 for inclusion in
theproject area.
 The entire private land was to be acquired by thegovernment and placed at the disposal of development authorityConsidering
the massive scale of this project the government felt need ofestablishment of separate authority which could focus on
development ofnotified area and speed up the development process, thus CIDCO wasestablished and immediately appointed
as New Town DevelopmentAuthority for the project.
Polycentric Approach for development
 The success of Navi Mumbai lies in the approach adopted while it’s planning. Considering the massive scale of Navi Mumbai
project and to avoid a Mumbai like situation of activity concentration caused by a mono-centric development model, the
planners adopted polycentric nodal pattern of development.
 The polycentric approach based on principle of decentralization. It avoids concentration of population, and activities in a
particular area rather itworks like ‘bunch of grapes’ and focused on decentralization and balance distribution of residential
areas, job centres, wholesale markets, non-polluting industries and population density and other activities indifferent nodes /
areas of the city. Each node should be self-contained in respect of physical as well as social infrastructure; however all
thesenodes should be well connected with each other through efficienttransportation and communication network. Well
known examples of polycentric cities are Ruhar area in Germany, Stoke-on-Trent in the UK.
 Today the Ruhar area is a large city that grew from dozen smaller cities,the Stoke – on - Trent is federation of six smaller towns.
As a result thesecities have no single centre, but several.
 Other examples are Ranstad inNetherlands or Greater Boston in United States.
Contributions to modern town planning thoughts
Patrick Geddes
1. GEDDISIAN TRIAD – Patrick Geddes
 Father of moderntown planning
 First to linksociological conceptsinto town planning
 “Survey before plan”i.e. diagnosis beforetreatment
Planning concepts
 Rural development, Urban Planning and City Design are not the same and adopting a common planning process is disastrous
 Conurbation-waves of population inflow to large cities, followed by overcrowding and slum formation, and then the wave of
backflow.
 The whole process resulting in amorphous sprawl, waste, and unnecessary obsolescence.
The sequence of planning is to be:
 Regional survey
 Rural development
  Town planning
 City design
2. Patrick Geddes – Outlook Tower
 Took over ‘Short’sObservatory’ in 1892.
 Spectacular views thesurrounding city region.
 A tool for regional analysis, index museumand the ‘world’s firstsociological laboratory’.
 It represents the essence of Geddes’sthought ‐ his holism, visual thinking,and commitment to understandingthe city in the
region.
 Now the tower is home to the PatrickGeddes Centre for Planning Studies,where an archive and exhibition arehoused.
3. NEIGHBORHOOD UNIT
 The neighbourhood is the planning unit for a town.
 evolved due to the advent of industrialrevolution and degradation of the cityenvironmentcaused due tohigh congestion,heavy
traffic movement through the city,insecurity to school going children,distant location of shopping and recreationactivities; etc.
PRINCIPLES OF NEIGHBORHOOD UNIT
 Unit of Urban Planning
 Street System
 Facilities
 Population
 Sector
 Size and Density
 Neighbourhood
 Walkways
 Protective Strips
Ebenezer Howard
GARDEN CITY – Sir Ebenezer Howard
 Garden City most potent planning model in Western urban planning
 Created by Ebenezer Howard in 1898 to solve urban and rural problems
 Source of many key planning ideas during 20th century
THE CONCEPT
 ‘Garden City’ – animpressive diagram ofTHE THREE MAGNETSnamely the townmagnet, countrymagnet with theiradvantages
anddisadvantages and thethird magnet withattractive features ofboth town and countrylife.
 Naturally peoplepreferred the third onenamely Garden City
Core garden city principles
 Strong community
 Ordered development
 Environmental quality
These were to be achieved by:
 Unified ownership of land toprevent individual landspeculation and maximisecommunity benefit
 Careful planning to providegenerous living andworking space whilemaintaining natural qualities
 Social mix and goodcommunity facilities
 Limits to growth of eachgarden city
 Local participation indecisions about development
Affordability
 Howard wanted garden city for allincomes
 Most originally for those of modestincomes
 Their attractiveness as livingenvironments has often madethem become more popular withbetter off people
C A.Doxiadis
 Doxiadis was a Greek architect and town planner known as the father of Ekistics.
 He graduated in architectural engineering from the Technical University of Athens in 1935.In 1937 he was appointed Chief
Town Planning Officer for the Greater Athens Area.
 One of his best-known town planning works is Islamabad
Ekistics
• Doxiadis proposed ekistics as a science of human settlement and outlined its scope, aims, intellectual framework and relevance.
• Ekistics concerns the science of human settlements including regional, city, community planning and dwelling design.
• The term 'ekistics' was coined by ConstantinosDoxiadis in 1942, ultimately derived from the noun οἶκος meaning house, home
or habitat.
• The study involves every kind of human settlement, with particular attention to geography,  ecology, human  psychology, 
anthropology,  culture, politics, and occasionally aesthetics.
• As a scientific mode of study, ekistics currently relies on statistics and description
• The goal of ekistics is to develop a methodology and models to study any kind of human settlements, of any size, location,
population, in order to draw general conclusions in each case.
• Ekistics studies how human settlements (polis) are inhabited by humans and provides a conceptual framework for better
understanding of human settlements
 • The foundation of concept is in nature, which contains ecological systems, within which humans form social networks (society)
and build shells which are the physical structures providing comfortable living conditions and networks the systems which
facilitate functioning of these settlements.
Five ekistic elements

• The whole range of human settlements is a system of 5 elements: nature, anthropos (man), society, shells( buildings), and
networks.
The five principles of Ekistics
• According to Doxiadis “In shaping his settlements, man has always acted in obedience to five principles”.
• Maximization of man’s potential contacts with the elements of nature (such as water and trees), with other people, and with
the works of man (such as buildings and roads).
• Minimization of the effort required for the achievement of man's actual and potential contacts. He always gives his structures
the shape, or selects the route, that requires the minimum effort.
• Optimization of man's protective space, which means the selection of such a distance from other persons, animals, or objects
that he can keep his contacts with them (first principle) without any kind of sensory or psychological discomfort.
Ekistics logarithmic scale- ELS
• Doxiadis introduced a Logarithmic scale that is composed of 15 ekistics units for explaining different scales of human
settlements.
• The scale division is such that the basic or the elementary unit of the scale is the man himself.
• The units then combine and the collection of those units according to the population size develops into a hierarchy of the units.
• Doxiadis’book Action for human settlements (p. 186, 1976) explains the ideal future ekistics units which were calculated by him
till the year 2100.
According to Doxiadis
• study of human settlements should be comprehensive and should have an interdisciplinary scope related to 5 ekistics elements.
• Any study of human settlements shall refer to ekistics units of scale from man to ecumenopolis, the 15 levels in ekistics
logarithmic scale.
• Time dimension must be integrated in analysis and design of human settlements from past to present to distant future.
• The city must be treated as a dynamic settlement for which the concept of Dynapolis allows for growth & change.

Lewis Mumford
He was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic, who analysed the effect of  technology
and urbanisation on human societies throughout history.
• Mumford taught at a number of prestigious universities & served as the architectural critic for The New Yorker magazine for
over 30 years.
• A lifelong opponent of large-scale public works, much of his writings concern the effect of buildings on the human condition
and the environment.
• His 1961 book,  ‘The City in History’, received the National Book Award. 
• Lewis Mumford is recognized as one of the greatest Urbanists of the 20th Century.
• A key idea, introduced in Technics and Civilization (1934) was that technology was twofold:
• Polytechnic, which enlists many different modes of technology, providing a complex framework to solve human problems.
• Monotechnic, which is technology only for its own sake, which oppresses humanity as it moves along its own trajectory.
• Mumford commonly criticized modern America's transportation networks as being "monotechnic" in their reliance on cars.
•  Automobiles become obstacles for other modes of transportation, such as walking , bicycle and public transit, because the
roads they use consume so much space and are such a danger to people.
Three epochs of civilization
• Discussed in  ‘Technics & civilisation’ is Mumford's division of human civilization into three distinct epochs (following concepts
originated by Patrick Geddes):
1. Eotechnic (the middle ages)
2. Paleotechnic (the time of the industrial revolution) and
3. Neotechnic (later, present-day)
 • One of the better-known studies of Mumford is of the way the Mechanical clock was developed by monks in the  Middle ages
as the key invention of the whole Industrial Revolution contrary to the common view of the steam engine  holding the prime
position.
Urban civilization
• The city in History won the 1962 U.S. National Book Award for Non- fiction. 
• In this influential book Mumford explored the development of urban civilizations.
• Harshly critical of urban sprawl, Mumford argues that the structure of modern cities is partially responsible for many social
problems seen in western society.
• Mumford argues that urban planning should emphasize an organic relationship between people and their living spaces
• Mumford uses the example of the medieval city as the basis for the "ideal city," and claims that the modern city is too close to
the Roman city (the sprawling megalopolis) which ended in collapse; if the modern city carries on in the same vein, Mumford
argues, then it will meet the same fate as the Roman city.
• The suburb served as an asylum for the preservation of illusion. Here domesticity could prosper, oblivious of the pervasive
regimentation beyond. This was not merely a child-centered environment; it was based on a childish view of the world, in
which reality was sacrificed to the pleasure principle.
• Mumford also had an influence on the American environmental movement. His work contains "some of the earliest and finest
thinking on Bio-regionalism, anti-nuclearism, biodiversity, alternate energy paths, ecological urban planning and appropriate
technology.
•

Le Corbusier
LE CORBUSIER’S CONTRIBUTION TO TOWN PLANNING
 CIAM
 LA VILLE CONTEMPORAINE (CONCENTRIC CITY) – PLAN VOISIN
 LINEAR INDUSTRIAL CITY
 LA VILLE RADIUSE (RADIANT CITY)
 CHANDIGARH
CIAM 1928
The organization was hugely influential. It was not only engaged in formalizing the architectural principles of the Modern Movement, but
also saw architecture as an economic and political tool that could be used to improve the world through the design of buildings and
through urban planning.
It affirmed that town planning is the organization of functions of collective life – this applies to both rural and urban settlements
Four functions of any settlement
• dwelling
• work
• recreation
• Transportation, which connects the first three with one another.

• Le Corbusier organized in CIAM, Assembly of Constructors for anArchitectural Renewal (ASCORAL) which systematically studied
theproblems of construction, architecture and city planning.

• It resulted in the publication of ‘The Three HumanEstablishments’. The examination of working conditions in amechanistic
society led to the recognition of the utility andnecessity of three unit establishments indispensable forhuman activity :
• The Farming unit – the cooperative village : a unit foragricultural production
• The linear industrial city
• The radio concentric city ‐ same as Radiant city (VilleRadieuse) for the exchange of goods and services.(modifications of la ville
contemporaine)
LA VILLE CONTEMPORAINE(CONCENTRIC CITY) 1922
City for 3 million people was proposed by Le Corbusier in 1922, which was based on four principles:
• Decongestion of the centre of the cities
• Augmentation of the density
• Enlargement of the means of circulation
• Increase in the number of parks and open spaces
THREE ZONES
• CENTRAL CITY
• PROTECTED GREEN BELT
• FACTORIES & SATELLITE TOWNS
CENTRAL CITY
• Rectangle containing two crossaxial highways
• At its heart was a six‐level transportinterchange – centre for motor, raillines (underground and main‐linerailways) and roof of
which is airfield
• 24 cruciform skyscrapers ‐ 60storeyed office building withdensity 1200 ppa and covers 5% ofthe ground
• Surrounding skyscrapers wasapartment district – 8 storeybuildings arranged in zigzag rowswith broad open spaces withdensity
of 120 ppa
 • The buildings in the central area were raised on stilts (pilotis) so as to leave panoramas of unbroken greenery at ground level
• The general impression was more of a city in a park than of a parkland in the city
• The city espoused space, speed, mass productionand efficient organisation, but also offeredcombination of natural and urban
environments
PLAN VOISIN 1925
• Le Corbusier reworked certain elements of the Ville Contemporaine & applied to a section of Paris
• 18 double cruciform 60– storey skyscrapers,placed in anorthogonal street gridand park‐like greenspace
• three clusters of luxuryapartments
• Heavy traffic would proceed at basement level
• lighter traffic at ground level
• fast traffic should flow along limited‐access arterialroads that supplied rapid and unobstructed cross‐citymovement
• Pedestrianised streets, wholly separate from vehiculartraffic and placed at a raised level.
• The number of existing streets would be diminished bytwo‐thirds due to the new arrangements of housing,leisure facilities and
workplaces, with same‐levelcrossing points eliminated wherever possible.

Clarence Stein.
 Walking distance radius is one mile.
 In the figure A, elementary school is the centre of the unit and within a one half mile radius of all residents in the
neighbourhood, local shopping centres located near the school.
 Residential streets are suggested as CUL‐DE‐SACS to eliminate through traffic and park space flows into the neighbourhood
RADBURN’s planning
 1929 Radburn Created
 25000 people
 149 acres
 430 single houses
 90 row houses
Factors that influenced
 Rapid Industrialisation afterWorld War I
 Migration of Rural to Cities
 Dramatic growth of Cities
 Housing Shortage
 The need to provide housingand protect from motorisedtraffic
 SEPARATION of pedestrian and vehicular traffic
 SUPER BLOCK large block surrounded by main roads
 houses grouped around smallCUL ‐DE SACS accessedfrom main road, Living,Bedroom faced gardens &parks, service areas to
ACCESSROADS
 remaining land ‐ PARK AREAS
 WALKWAYS ‐ designed suchthat pedestrians can reachsocial places without crossingautomobile street
FINANCIAL PLANNING
 Parks without additionalcost from Residents
 Savings from minimisingroads ‐ requires less roadarea
 25% less area gave 12‐15% of total park area