PANGASINAN STATE UNIVERSITY

URDANETA CITY CAMPUS, URDANETA CITY, PANGASINAN

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE

ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT

RESEARCH WORK NO. RSW – MT – 01

DATE ISSUED: MARCH 02, 2023

TITLE: ―HISTORY AND ORIGINS OF

URBAN PLANNING‖

STUDENT NAME: DATE DUE: FINAL

COURSE AND TITLE:
MARCH 09 RATING
APL 423 - PLANNING 3 GUMALLAOI, JUDELLE V. :
2023
INSTRUCTOR: COURSE/YEAR/SECTION: DATE
SUBMITTED:
AR. ALVEN T. BACTAD, uap BS-ARCHITECTURE 4-a MARCH 02
FACULTY INSTRUCTOR 2023
 URBAN PLANNING

Urban planning is the integration of the disciplines of land-use planning and transport
planning, to explore a wide range of aspects of the built and social environments of urbanized
municipalities and communities. The focus is the design and regulation of the uses of space within the
urban environment. This involves their physical structure, economic functions, and social impacts. In
addition to the design of new cities or the expansion of existing ones, a key role of urban planning is
urban renewal, and re-generation of inner cities by adapting urban-planning methods to existing cities
suffering from long-term infrastructural decay.

Urban planning involves not just the science of designing efficient structures that support the
lives of their inhabitants, but also involves the aesthetics of those structures. The environment deeply
affects its inhabitants, and for human beings the impact is not simply physical and social, but also
involves the emotional response to beauty or lack thereof. Thus, while ancient cities may have been
built primarily for defense, the glorification of the ruler soon became a prominent feature through the
construction of impressive buildings and monuments. Today, urban planners are aware of the needs of
all citizens to have a pleasant environment, which supports their physical and mental health, in order
for the city to be prosperous.

Urban planning is concerned with the ordering and design of settlements, from the smallest
towns to the world's largest cities. Shown here is Central, Hong Kong's central business district.
 In theory, urban planning is a process of elaborating solutions that aim both to improve or
requalify an existing urban area, as well as to create a new urbanization in a given region. As a
discipline and as a method of action, urban planning deals with the processes of production, structuring
and appropriation of urban space. In this sense, its main objective is to point out what measures should
be taken to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants, including matters such as transport, security,
access opportunities and even interaction with the natural environment.

In the urban planning process, therefore, problems arising from urbanization are dealt with,
such as pollution, traffic jam, urban voids, ecological impacts, making it essential in the current context
in which much is discussed about the future of cities and the aspirations of sustainability and mobility
as a way of fighting climate change.
Urban planning is essentially a multidisciplinary activity, which can count on sociologists,
historians, economists, geographers, in addition to urban planners. In its process, local authorities are
also included, whether from government, private companies or international organizations. When
related to a government, urban planning can generate a document that contains all the bases and rules
for the development of a given region, what we know as a master plan.

Humankind has been on the constant journey of uplifting their standards of living. This species
is known to carefully analyze its surroundings and bring about the required changes for maximum
betterment.

For an improved strategy that helps lead lifestyles, it is essential to pay extra attention to crucial
aspects. One such significant section is urban planning. It is a process that requires examining and
strategizing the proper use of elements like water, land, resources, and so forth.

In simple terms, it is related to curating an infrastructure that is best suitable for a sustainable
lifestyle. In this article, we will learn about urban planning and some of the essential segments of its
history.

What Do You Understand By Urban Planning? 

As mentioned above, urban planning is related to curating a fruitful infrastructure that clearly defines
the vital resources available to humankind. Urban planning is both a technical as well as a political
process that requires ample amounts of knowledge.
 history

The history of urban planning is a technical and political process concerned with the use of
land and design of the urban environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and
out of urban areas such as transportation and distribution networks.

The history of urban planning runs parallel to the history of the city, as planning is in evidence
at some of the earliest known urban sites.

The idea of urban planning is present from the first signs of civilization. The idea of urban
planning has been present since the first signs of civilization. In ancient Greece, for example, theories
and ideas about the ideal use of land and the location of roads and buildings were developed, as well as
in pre-Columbian civilizations, which built their cities considering urban planning with sewage and
running water systems, such as Tenochtitlan, Mexico. However, its concept was only made official in
the 19th century, as a result of the industrial revolution that brought new dynamics to the urban
environment, creating the demand for a clear design for the functionality of cities.
It was in this period that some famous examples emerged, such as the Cerdá
Plan in Barcelona (1860), one of the first major milestones of what was called "urbanization". Born
from the urgency of transforming the city, the plan created by the engineer and urban planner Ildefonso
Cerdá followed an ideology of ―humanist urbanism‖, opening streets, requiring green areas within the
blocks, defining maximum heights and ensuring community facilities at certain distances, in addition to
moving industrial zones away from downtown.
PRE-CLASSICAL ERA

The pre-classical era witnessed several cities being laid down according to a strategic plan.
Many of these cities tended to develop organically over time. Some of the most prominent cities
designed in this period were Harappan, Minoan, and Egyptian civilization. If we talk about the first
recorded urban planning description, it goes back to The Epic of Gilgamesh.

The streets of many cities known to humankind were built and laid out in the forms of rigid
right angles and grid patterns. Some archaeological evidence also suggests that many houses were
designed to shield from the noise and improve the standard of living. Additionally, most of the homes
have their very own water well. This suggested the remains for sanitary purposes. Furthermore, some
archaeologists also interpret that these cities had well-organized drainage systems as well as
agricultural land.

The cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley Civilization (in modern-day
Pakistan and northwest India) are perhaps the earliest examples of deliberately planned and managed
cities. The streets of these early cities were often paved and laid out at right angles in a grid pattern,
with a hierarchy of streets from major boulevards to residential alleys. Archaeological evidence
suggests that many Harrapan houses were laid out to protect from noise and enhance residential
privacy; also, they often had their own water wells, probably for both sanitary and ritual purposes.
These ancient cities were unique in that they often had drainage systems, seemingly tied to a well-
developed ideal of urban sanitation.[1] Ur, located near the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in modern-day
Iraq, also evidenced urban planning in later periods.
MEDIEVAL EUROPE 

The disintegration of the west Roman Empire dates back to the 5th century. Since then, the
general improvement is noted to have appeared in the 10th and 11 centuries. This time was interpreted
as politically stable and economically beneficial. It was then when trade and craft flourished, and
monetary benefits were revived in the economy. During this era, hundreds of towns were built.
Moreover, many of the pre-existing towns were expanded. Without a doubt, these new towns have
played a significant role in maintaining the geographical structures of Europe.

The Greek Hippodamus (c. 407 BC) has been dubbed the "Father of City Planning" for his
design of Miletus; Alexander commissioned him to lay out his new city of Alexandria, the grandest
example of idealized urban planning of the ancient Mediterranean world, where the city's regularity
was facilitated by its level site near a mouth of the Nile. The Hippodamian, or grid plan, was the basis
for subsequent Greek and Roman cities.

Many European towns, such as Turin, preserve the remains of these schemes, which show the
very logical way the Romans designed their cities. They would lay out the streets at right angles, in the
form of a square grid. All roads were equal in width and length, except for two, which were slightly
wider than the others. One of these ran eastwest, the other, northsouth, and intersected in the middle to
form the center of the grid. All roads were made of carefully fitted flag stones and filled in with
smaller, hard-packed rocks and pebbles. Bridges were constructed where needed. Each square marked
by four roads was called an insula, the Roman equivalent of a modern city block.
THE RENAISSANCE EUROPE

The star-shaped fortification had a formative influence on the patterning of the Renaissance
ideal city. This was employed by Michelangelo in the defensive earthworks of Florence. This model
was widely imitated, reflecting the enormous cultural power of Florence in this age: "The Renaissance
was hypnotized by one city type which for a century and a half—from Filarete to Scamozzi—was
impressed upon all utopian schemes: this is the star-shaped city."[3] Radial streets extend outward from
a defined center of military, communal, or spiritual power. Only in ideal cities did a centrally planned
structure stand at the heart, as in Raphael's Sposalizio of 1504.

The unique example of a rationally-planned quattrocento new city center, that of Vigevano,
1493-1495, resembles a closed space instead, surrounded by arcading. Filarete's ideal city, building on
hints in Leone Battista Alberti's De re aedificatoria, was named "Sforzinda" in compliment to his
patron; its 12-pointed shape, circumscribable by a "perfect" Pythagorean figure, the circle, takes no
heed of its undulating terrain. The design of cities following the Renaissance was generally more to
glorify the city or its ruler than to improve the lifestyle of its citizens.

Such ideas were taken up to some extent in North America. For example, Pierre L'Enfant's 1790
plan for Washington, D.C. incorporated broad avenues and major streets that radiated out from traffic
circles, providing vistas toward important landmarks and monuments. All the original colonies had
avenues named for them, with the most prominent states receiving more prestigious locations. In New
England, cities such as Boston developed around a centrally located public space.

The grid plan also revived in popularity with the start of the Renaissance in Northern Europe.
The baroque capital city of Malta, Valletta, dating back to the sixteenth century, was built following a
rigid grid plan of uniformly designed houses, dotted with palaces, churches, and squares. In 1606, the
newly founded city of Mannheim in Germany was laid out on the grid plan. Later came the New Town
in Edinburgh and almost the entire city center of Glasgow, and many new towns and cities in Australia,
Canada, and the United States. Arguably the most famous grid plan in history is the plan for New York
City formulated in the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, a visionary proposal by the state legislature of
New York for the development of most of upper Manhattan. William Penn's plan for Philadelphia was
based on a grid plan, with the idea that houses and businesses would be spread out and surrounded by
gardens and orchards, with the result more like an English rural town than a city. Penn advertised this
orderly design as a safeguard against overcrowding, fire, and disease, which plagued European cities.
Instead, the inhabitants crowded by the Delaware River and subdivided and resold their lots. The grid
plan however, was taken by the pioneers as they established new towns on their travels westward.
Although it did not take into account the topography of each new location, it facilitated the selling of
parcels of land divided into standard-sized lots.
ENLIGHTENMENT EUROPE

In contrast to the Great Fire of London, after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, King Joseph I of
Portugal and his ministers immediately launched efforts to rebuild the city. The architect Manuel da
Maia boldly proposed razing entire sections of the city and "laying out new streets without restraint".
This last option was chosen by the king and his minister in spite of its emphasis on commerce and
industry as opposed to religious and royal structures. Keen to have a new and perfectly ordered city, the
king commissioned the construction of big squares, rectilinear, large avenues and widened streets – the
new mottos of Lisbon. The Pombaline buildings were among the earliest seismically protected
constructions in Europe.
Another significant urban plan from the Enlightenment period was that of Edinburgh's New
Town, built in stages between 1767 and 1850. The Age of Enlightenment had arrived in Edinburgh,
and the outdated city fabric did not suit the professional and merchant classes who lived there. A design
competition was held in January 1766 to find a suitably modern layout for the new suburb. It was won
by 26-year-old James Craig, who proposed a simple axial grid, with a principal thoroughfare along the
ridge linking two garden squares. The New Town was envisaged as a mainly residential suburb with a
number of professional offices of domestic layout. It had few planned retail ground floors, however it
did not take long for the commercial potential of the site to be realised.
MODERN URBAN PLANNING (1800 – onwards)
From 1800 onwards, urban planning developed as a technical and legal occupation and in its
complexity. Regent Street was one of the first planned developments of London. An ordered structure
of London streets, replacing the mediaeval layout, had been planned since just after the Great Fire of
London (1666) when Sir Christopher Wren and John Evelyn drew plans for rebuilding the city on the
classical formal model. The street was designed by John Nash (who had been appointed to the Office of
Woods and Forests in 1806 and previously served as an adviser to the Prince Regent) and by developer
James Burton. The design was adopted by an Act of Parliament in 1813, which permitted the
commissioners to borrow £600,000 for building and construction. The street was intended for
commercial purposes and it was expected that most of the income would come from private capital.
Nash took responsibility for design and valuation of all properties Construction of the road required
demolishing numerous properties, disrupting trade and polluting the air with dust. Existing tenants had
first offer to purchase leases on the new properties.
An even more ambitious reconstruction was carried out in Paris. In 1852, Georges-Eugène
Haussmann was commissioned to remodel the Medieval street plan of the city by demolishing swathes
of the old quarters and laying out wide boulevards, extending outwards beyond the old city limits.
Haussmann's project encompassed all aspects of urban planning, both in the centre of Paris and in the
surrounding districts, with regulations imposed on building façades, public parks, sewers and water
works, city facilities, and public monuments. Beyond aesthetic and sanitary considerations, the wide
thoroughfares facilitated troop movement and policing.
A concurrent plan to extend Barcelona was based on a scientific analysis of the city and its
modern requirements. It was drawn up by the Catalan engineer Ildefons Cerdà to fill the space beyond
the city walls after they were demolished from 1854. He is credited with inventing the term
'urbanisation' and his approach was codified in his Teoría General de la Urbanización (General Theory
of Urbanisation, 1867). Cerdà's Eixample (Catalan for 'extension') consisted of 550 regular blocks with
chamfered corners to facilitate the movement of trams, crossed by three wider avenues. His objectives
were to improve the health of the inhabitants, towards which the blocks were built around central
gardens and orientated NW-SE to maximise the sunlight they received, and assist social integration.

Proposals were also developed at the same time from 1857 for Vienna's Ringstrasse. This grand
boulevard was built to replace the city walls. In 1857, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria issued the
decree ordering the demolition of the city walls and moats. During the following years, a large number
of opulent public and private buildings were erected. Similarly, Berlin finalized its "Bebauungsplan der
Umgebungen Berlins" (Binding Land-Use Plan for the Environs of Berlin) in 1862, intended for a time
frame of about 50 years. The plan not only covered the area around the cities of Berlin and
Charlottenburg but also described the spatial regional planning of a large perimeter. The plan resulted
in large areas of dense urban city blocks known as 'blockrand structures', with mixed-use buildings
reaching to the street and offering a common-used courtyard, later often overbuilt with additional court
structures to house more people.

Planning and architecture continued its paradigm shift at the turn of the 20th century. The
industrialised cities of the 19th century had grown at a tremendous rate, with the pace and style of
building often dictated by private business concerns. The evils of urban life for the working poor were
becoming increasingly evident as a matter for public concern. The laissez-faire style of government
management of the economy, in fashion for most of the Victorian era, was starting to give way to a
New Liberalism that championed intervention on the part of the poor and disadvantaged beyond urban
planning as a primarily aesthetic and technical concern as in the major urban planning programmes in
European cities. Around 1900, theorists began developing urban planning models to mitigate the
consequences of the industrial age, by providing citizens, especially factory workers, with healthier
environments.

Modern zoning legislation and other tools such as compulsory purchase and land readjustment,
which enabled planners to legally demarcate sections of cities for different functions or determine the
shape and depth of urban blocks, originated in Prussia, and spread to Britain, the US, and Scandinavia.
Public health was cited as a rationale for keeping cities organized .

MODERNISM

In the developed countries of (Western Europe, North America, Japan, and Australasia),
planning and architecture can be said to have gone through various stages of general consensus. First,
there was the industrialized city of the nineteenth century, where control of building was largely held
by businesses and the wealthy elite. Around 1900, there began to be a movement for providing citizens,
especially factory workers, with healthier environments. The concept of garden cities, an approach to
urban planning founded by Sir Ebenezer Howard led to the building of several model towns, such as
Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City, the world's first garden cities, in Hertfordshire, Great Britain.
However, these were principally small scale in size, typically dealing with only a few-thousand
residents.

It was not until the 1920s that Modernism began to surface. Based on the ideas of Le Corbusier
and utilizing new skyscraper-building techniques, the Modernist city stood for the elimination of
disorder, congestion, and the small scale, replacing them instead with pre-planned and widely spaced
freeways and tower blocks set within gardens. There were plans for large-scale rebuilding of cities,
such as the Plan Voisin, which proposed clearing and rebuilding most of central Paris. No large-scale
plans were implemented until after World War II however.

The Athens Charter was the result of the 1933 Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne
(CIAM). The proceedings went unpublished until 1942, when Le Corbusier published them in heavily
edited form. Both the conference and the resulting document concentrated on "The Functional City."
As later documented by Le Corbusier, CIAM IV laid out a 95-point program for planning and
construction of rational cities, addressing topics such as high-rise residential blocks, strict zoning, the
separation of residential areas and transportation arteries, and the preservation of historic districts and
buildings. The key underlying concept was the creation of independent zones for the four "functions":
living, working, recreation, and circulation.

These concepts were widely adopted by urban planners in their efforts to rebuild European
cities following World War II, for instance Mart Stam's plans for postwar Dresden. Throughout the late
1940s and 1950s, housing shortages caused by war destruction led many cities around the world to
build substantial amounts of government-subsidized housing blocks. Planners at the time used the
opportunity to implement the Modernist ideal of towers surrounded by gardens. [Brasilia], a fine
example of the application of the Athens charter, followed it virtually to the letter.

Constructed between 1956 and 1960, Brasília is the capital of Brazil. The city and its district are
located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a
population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the fourth largest city in Brazil.
It is the only twentieth-century city listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The city was planned and developed in 1956 with Lúcio Costa as the principal urban planner
and Oscar Niemeyer as the principal architect. In 1960, it formally became Brazil's national capital.
The locating of residential buildings around expansive urban areas, of building the city around large
avenues, and dividing it into sectors, has sparked a debate and reflection on life in big cities in the
twentieth century. The city's planned design included specific areas for almost everything, including
accommodation—Hotel Sectors North and South. However, new areas are now being developed as
locations for hotels, such as the Hotels and Tourism Sector North, located on the shores of Lake
Paranoá. When seen from above, the main planned part of the city's shape resembles an airplane or a
butterfly.
GARDEN CITY MOVEMENT

The first major urban planning theorist in Britain was Sir Ebenezer Howard, who initiated the
garden city movement in 1898. This was inspired by earlier planned communities built by industrial
philanthropists in the countryside, such as Cadburys' Bournville, Lever's Port Sunlight and George
Pullman's eponymous Pullman in Chicago. All these settlements decentralised the working
environment from the centre of the cities, and provided a healthy living space for the factory workers.
Howard generalised this achievement into a planned movement for the country as a whole. He was also
influenced by the work of economist Alfred Marshall who argued in 1884 that industry needed a supply
of labour that could in theory be supplied anywhere, and that companies have an incentive to improve
workers living standards as the company bears much of the cost inflicted by the unhealthy urban
conditions in the big cities.
Howard's ideas, although utopian, were also highly practical and were adopted around the world
in the ensuing decades. His garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities
surrounded by parks, containing proportionate and separate areas of residences, industry, and
agriculture. Inspired by the Utopian novel Looking Backward and Henry George's work Progress and
Poverty, Howard published his book Garden Cities of To-morrow in 1898, commonly regarded as the
most important book in the history of urban planning. His idealised garden city would house 32,000
people on a site of 6,000 acres (2,428 ha), planned on a concentric pattern with open spaces, public
parks and six radial boulevards, 120 ft (37 m) wide, extending from the centre. The garden city would
be self-sufficient and when it reached full population, another garden city would be developed nearby.
Howard envisaged a cluster of several garden cities as satellites of a central city of 50,000 people,
linked by road and rail.
He founded First Garden City, Ltd. in 1899 to create the first garden city at Letchworth,
Hertfordshire. Donors to the project collected interest on their investment if the garden city generated
profits through rents or, as Fishman calls the process, 'philanthropic land speculation'. Howard tried to
include working class cooperative organisations, which included over two million members, but could
not win their financial support. In 1904, Raymond Unwin, a noted architect and town planner, along
with his partner Richard Barry Parker, won the competition run by the First Garden City, Limited to
plan Letchworth, an area 34 miles outside London. Unwin and Parker planned the town in the centre of
the Letchworth estate with Howard's large agricultural greenbelt surrounding the town, and they shared
Howard's notion that the working class deserved better and more affordable housing. However, the
architects ignored Howard's symmetric design, instead replacing it with a more 'organic' design.
Welwyn Garden City, also in Hertfordshire was also built on Howard's principles. His successor
as chairman of the Garden City Association was Sir Frederic Osborn, who extended the movement to
regional planning.

The principles of the garden city were soon applied to the planning of city suburbs. The first
such project was the Hampstead Garden Suburb founded by Henrietta Barnett and planned by Parker
and Unwin. The scheme's utopian ideals were that it should be open to all classes of people with free
access to woods and gardens and that the housing should be of low density with wide, tree-lined roads.

In North America, the Garden City movement was also popular, and evolved into the
"Neighbourhood Unit" form of development. In the early 1900s, as cars were introduced to city streets
for the first time, residents became increasingly concerned with the number of pedestrians being
injured by car traffic. The response, seen first in Radburn, New Jersey, was the Neighbourhood Unit-
style development, which oriented houses toward a common public path instead of the street. The
neighbourhood is distinctively organised around a school, with the intention of providing children a
safe way to walk to school.

The Tudor Walters Committee that recommended the building of housing estates after World
War I incorporated the ideas of Howard's disciple Raymond Unwin, who demonstrated that homes
could be built rapidly and economically whilst maintaining satisfactory standards for gardens, family
privacy and internal spaces. Unwin diverged from Howard by proposing that the new developments
should be peripheral 'satellites' rather than fully-fledged garden cities.

NEW TOWNS

Ebenezer Howard's urban planning concepts were only adopted on a large scale after World
War II. The damage brought on by the war provoked significant public interest in what post-war
Britain would be like, which was encouraged by the government, who facilitated talk about a 'Better
Britain' to boost morale. Post-war rebuilding initiatives saw new plans drafted for London, which, for
the first time, addressed the issue of de-centralisation. Firstly, the County of London Plan 1943
recognised that displacement of population and employment was necessary if the city was to be rebuilt
at a desirable density. Moreover, the Greater London Plan of 1944 went further by suggesting that over
one million people would need to be displaced into a mixture of satellite suburbs, existing rural towns,
and new towns.

The New Towns Act 1946 resulted in many New Towns being constructed in Britain over the
following decades.

New towns were built in the United States from the 1960s – examples include Reston, Virginia;
Columbia, Maryland; Jonathan, Minnesota and Riverside Plaza. This construction effort was combined
with extensive federal government grants for slum clearance, improved and increased housing and road
construction and comprehensive urban renewal projects. Other European countries such as France,
Germany, Italy and Sweden also had some successes with new towns, especially as part of post-war
reconstruction efforts.
NEW URBANISM

Various current movements in urban design seek to create sustainable urban environments with
long-lasting structures, buildings and a great liveability for its inhabitants. The most clearly defined
form of walkable urbanism is known as the Charter of New Urbanism. It is an approach for
successfully reducing environmental impacts by altering the built environment to create and preserve
smart cities that support sustainable transport. Residents in compact urban neighbourhoods drive fewer
miles and have significantly lower environmental impacts across a range of measures compared with
those living in sprawling suburbs. The concept of Circular flow land use management has also been
introduced in Europe to promote sustainable land use patterns that strive for compact cities and a
reduction of greenfield land taken by urban sprawl.

In sustainable construction, the recent movement of New Classical Architecture promotes a

sustainable approach towards urban construction that appreciates and develops smart growth,
walkability, architectural tradition, and classical design. This is in contrast to modernist and short-lived
globally uniform architecture, as well as opposing solitary housing estates and suburban sprawl. Both
trends started in the 1980s.

Critics of New Urbanism have argued that its environmental aspect is too focused on transport
and excessive individual mobility. They say that the real problem with the unsustainable nature of
modern cities is not just about cars and too much driving - it is about the entire urban metabolism of the
city (of which auto-mobility is less than half of the overall ecological footprint and accounts for about
half of the GHG emissions/carbon footprint). They have also argued that land-use planning can do little
to achieve sustainability without regulating the design and associated technology of the actual
development within a zoned area. Distances and density are relatively unimportant, they claim; it is the
total metabolism of the development that determines the environmental impact. Also, they say that the
emphasis needs to shift from sustainability to resilience, and the spatial scope from the city to the
whole urban region. A further criticism is that the New Urbanist project of compacting urban form is a
difficult and slow process. In the new global situation, with the horizontal, low-density growth
irreversibly dominant, and climate change already happening, they say it would be wiser to focus
efforts on the resilience of whole city-regions, retrofitting the existing sprawl for sustainability and
self-sufficiency, and investing heavily in 'green infrastructure'.
BENEFITS OF URBAN PLANNING 

Urban planning plays a major role in the social-economic level as a political connection of the
society. This type of planning requires the proper utilization of resources in order to extract maximum
benefit from them. Below, we have mentioned a few benefits of urban planning, depicting its
importance in today’s society.

1. Connectivity 

Urban planning resulted in better connectivity of towns, cities, neighborhoods, and so forth.
This resulted in enhanced land values of the well-connected cities. Furthermore, it also resulted in
enhancing people’s safety as well as security. This is so because urban planning facilitated better
surveillance and prominent health benefits.

2. Adaptability 

The proper use of urban planning increased the capacity of buildings as well
as neighborhoods and thus led to an adequate use of spaces. This, in turn, increased the adaptability of
land resources. Therefore, urban planning resulted in more fruitful use of economic spaces like
buildings. It promoted the diverse use of public spaces and encouraged individuals to utilize non-
renewable resources for better living standards properly.

3. User participation 

Improved urban planning boosted the public consultation process. It encouraged individuals to
participate in urban design projects and give their opinions through numerous surveys and design
workshops. Therefore, planning promoted user participation. This, in turn, boosted a proper fit between
users as well as the urban design. The participants were encouraged to come out and give their opinion
about the effective use of resources. This boosted the decision-making process and provided a sense of
participants to the individuals.

4. Better standards of living 

Urban planning directly affected the standards of living. Increased use of urban planning
emphasized a more realistic approach in society. This led to the enhancement of economic spaces.
Therefore, urban planning encouraged more audience participation in cultural as well as community
activities. Better standards of living also meant several health benefits along with strategic use of the
public space. Furthermore, urban planning also resulted in the enhanced personal safety of individuals.

ASPECTS OF PLANNING

In developed countries, there has been a backlash against excessive man-made clutter in the
visual environment, such as signposts, signs, and hoardings. Other issues that generate strong debate
among urban designers are tensions between peripheral growth, increased housing density, and planned
new settlements. There are also unending debates about the benefits of mixing tenures and land uses,
versus the benefits of distinguishing geographic zones where different uses predominate. Regardless,
all successful urban planning considers urban character, local identity, respect for heritage, pedestrians,
traffic, utilities, and natural hazards.
Aesthetics

Planners are important in managing the growth of cities,

applying tools like zoning to manage the uses of land, and growth
management to manage the pace of development. When examined
historically, many of the cities now thought to be most beautiful are the
result of dense, long-lasting systems of prohibitions and guidance about
building sizes, uses, and features. These allowed substantial freedoms,
yet enforced styles, safety, and materials in practical ways. Many
conventional planning techniques are being repackaged using the
contemporary term smart growth.

Safety

Historically within the Middle East, Europe, and the rest of the
Old World, settlements were located on higher ground (for defense)
and close to fresh-water sources. Cities have often grown onto coastal
and flood plains at risk of floods and storm surges. If the dangers can
be localized, then the affected regions can be made into parkland or
Greenbelt, often with the added benefit of an open-space provision.

Extreme weather, flooding, or other emergencies can often be

greatly mitigated with secure emergency-evacuation routes and
emergency-operations centers. These are relatively inexpensive and
unintrusive, and many consider them a reasonable precaution for any
urban space. Many cities also have planned, built safety features, such
as levees, retaining walls, and shelters.

City planning tries to control criminality with structures designed from theories such as socio-
architecture or environmental determinism. These theories say that an urban environment can influence
individuals' obedience to social rules. The theories often say that psychological pressure develops in
more densely developed, unadorned areas. This stress causes some crimes and some use of illegal
drugs. The antidote is usually more individual space and better, more beautiful design in place of
functionalism.

Oscar Newman’s defensible space theory cites the Modernist housing projects of the 1960s as
an example of environmental determinism, where large blocks of flats are surrounded by shared and
disassociated public areas, which are hard for residents to identify with. As those on lower incomes
cannot hire others to maintain public space such as security guards or grounds keepers, and because no
individual feels personally responsible, there was a general deterioration of public space leading to a
sense of alienation and social disorder.

Slums

The rapid urbanization of the twentieth century resulted in a significant amount of slum
habitation in the major cities of the world, particularly in developing countries. There is significant
demand for planning resources and strategies to address the issues that arise from slum development.
 The issue of slum habitation has often been resolved via a
simple policy of clearance. However, there are more creative
solutions such as Nairobi's "Camp of Fire" program, where
established slum-dwellers have promised to build proper houses,
schools, and community centers without any government money,
in return for land they have been illegally squatting on for 30
years. The "Camp of Fire" program is one of many similar projects
initiated by Slum Dwellers International, which has programs in
Africa, Asia, and South America.

Urban Decay

Urban decay is a process by which a city, or a part of a city,

falls into a state of disrepair and neglect. It is characterized by
depopulation, economic restructuring, property abandonment, high
unemployment, fragmented families, political disenfranchisement,
crime, and desolate urban landscapes.

During the 1970s and 1980s, urban decay was often

associated with central areas of cities in North America and parts of
Europe. During this time period, major changes in global
economies, demographics, transportation, and government policies
created conditions that fostered urban decay. Many planners spoke of "white flight" during this time.
This pattern was different than the pattern of "outlying slums" and "suburban ghettos" found in many
cities outside of North America and Western Europe, where central urban areas actually had higher
real-estate values. Starting in the 1990s, many of the central urban areas in North America experienced
a reversal of the urban decay of previous decades, with rising real-estate values, smarter development,
demolition of obsolete social-housing areas, and a wider variety of housing choices.

Reconstruction and renewal

Areas devastated by war or invasion represent a unique

challenge to urban planners. Buildings, roads, services, and basic
infrastructure, like power, water, and sewerage, are often severely
compromised and need to be evaluated to determine what can be
salvaged for re-incorporation. There is also the problem of the
existing population, and what needs they may have. Historic,
religious, or social centers also need to be preserved and re-
integrated into the new city plan. A prime example of this is the
capital city of Kabul, Afghanistan, which, after decades of civil
war and occupation, has regions that have literally been reduced to
rubble and desolation. Despite this, the indigenous population
continues to live in the area, constructing makeshift homes and shops out of whatever can be salvaged.
Any reconstruction plan proposed, such as Hisham Ashkouri's City of Light Development, needs to be
sensitive to the needs of this community and its existing culture, businesses, and so forth.
Transport

Transport within urbanized areas presents unique problems.

The density of an urban environment can create significant levels of
road traffic, which can impact businesses and increase pollution.
Parking space is another concern, requiring the construction of large
parking garages in high-density areas which could be better used for
other development.

Good planning uses transit oriented development, which

attempts to place higher densities of jobs or residents near high-
volume transportation. For example, some cities permit only
commercial and multi-story apartment buildings within one block of
train stations and multilane boulevards, while single-family dwellings and parks are located farther
away.

Suburbanization

In some countries, declining satisfaction with the urban

environment is held to blame for continuing migration to smaller
towns and rural areas (so-called urban exodus). Successful urban
planning supported Regional planning can bring benefits to a much
larger hinterland or city region and help to reduce both congestion
along transport routes and the wastage of energy implied by
excessive commuting.

Environmental factors

Environmental protection and conservation are of utmost importance to many planning systems across
the world. Not only are the specific effects of development to be mitigated, but attempts are made to
minimize the overall effect of development on the local and global environment. This is commonly
done through the assessment of Sustainable urban infrastructure. In Europe this process is known as
Sustainability Appraisal.

In most advanced urban- or village-planning models, local context is critical. Gardening and other
outdoor activities assume a central role in the daily life of many citizens. Environmental planners are
focusing on smaller systems of resource extraction, energy production, and waste disposal. There is
even a practice known as Arcology, which seeks to unify the fields of ecology and architecture, using
principles of landscape architecture to achieve a harmonious environment for all living things. On a
small scale, the eco-village theory has become popular, as it emphasizes a traditional, 100-to-140-
person scale for communities.

Light and sound

The urban canyon effect is a colloquial, non-scientific term referring to street space bordered by
very high buildings. This type of environment may shade the sidewalk level from direct sunlight during
most daylight hours. While an often-decried phenomenon, it is rare except in very dense, hyper-tall
urban environments, such as those found in Lower and Midtown Manhattan, Chicago's Loop, and
Kowloon in Hong Kong.

In urban planning, sound is usually measured as a source of pollution. Another perspective on

urban sounds is developed in Soundscape studies emphasizing that sound aesthetics involves more than
noise abatement and decibel measurements.

Sustainable development and sustainability

Sustainable development and sustainability have become important concepts in urban planning,
with the recognition that current consumption and living habits may be leading to problems such as the
overuse of natural resources, ecosystem destruction, urban heat islands, pollution, growing social
inequality, and large-scale climate change. Many urban planners have, as a result, begun to advocate
for the development of sustainable cities. However, the notion of sustainable development is somewhat
controversial. Wheeler suggested a definition for sustainable urban development to be as "development
that improves the long-term social and ecological health of cities and towns." He went on to suggest a
framework that might help all to better understand what a "sustainable" city might look like. These
include compact, efficient land use; less automobile use yet with better access; efficient resource use,
less pollution and waste; the restoration of natural systems; good housing and living environments; a
healthy social ecology; sustainable economics; community participation and involvement; and
preservation of local culture and wisdom.

EVOLUTION OF URBAN PLANNING

An understanding of the evolution of the purpose of cities is needed to explain how urban
planning has developed over the years. Originally, urban living was established as a defense against
invaders and an efficient way to circulate foodstuffs and essential materials to an immediate
population. Later, as production methods developed and transportation modes improved, cities, often
serving as governmental centers, became good locations for industry, with finished goods being
distributed both locally and to surrounding areas. Still later, cities became valued for their cultural
attractions to residents and visitors alike. Today, people may just as well prefer to live in cities with
well-planned neighborhoods as they would the suburbs.

The traditional planning process focused on top-down processes where the urban planner
created the plans. The planner is usually skilled in either surveying, engineering, or architecture,
bringing to the town-planning process ideals based around these disciplines. They typically worked for
national or local governments. Changes to the planning process over past decades have witnessed the
metamorphosis of the role of the urban planner in the planning process. The general objectives of
strategic urban planning (SUP) include clarifying which city model is desired and working towards that
goal, coordinating public and private efforts, channeling energy, adapting to new circumstances, and
improving the living conditions of the citizens affected. Community organizers and social workers are
now very involved in planning from the grassroots level. Developers too have played roles in
influencing the way development occurs, particularly through project-based planning. Many
developments were the result of large- and small-scale developers who purchased land, designed the
district, and constructed the development from scratch.
Conclusion 

Urban planning has played a significant role in the betterment of the standards of living.
Additionally, urban planning has been a part of society for a very long time now.

After carefully examining the various aspects of urban planning, we have briefly summarised
the entire information in the above-mentioned article. We have talked about urban planning, its various
elements, along some benefits. We trust that this article would be beneficial and provide you with
adequate information related to urban planning.

THE BEGINNING OF URBAN PLANNING IN THE PHILIPPINES

HISTORY OF PLANNING IN THE PHILIPPINES

BARANGAY COMMUNITIES

Pre-Hispanic Filipinos were predominantly migrants of Malayan and Indonesian stock. The
communities settled as separate kinship groups within their defined territories that obtained the
character of villages. Their houses were therefore, scattered singly or in small cluster along river
shallow water. Prior to the coming of Spaniards in the 16tth century, a few villages were becoming
what reed termed as supra-barangays. Notable among those were the settlements of Manila and Cebu.
in the case of Manila, it already had a homogeneous population of 2,000 inhabitants at the Rajah
Soliman-a bamboo barricaded town resisting Dutch and Chinese invaders. It was razed to the ground in
the battles between the native and a Spanish Exploration in 1570. It was soon to be rebuilt and made
the center of Spanish colonial activities.

COLONIAL YEARS

By the middle of 16th century, the archipelago experienced its exploitation by a European
colonial power and for over the centuries, Spanish molded and cripples the island with its hard policy
of Gold, Cross and Sword. It will be noted that religion and the Spanish government based on
economic exploitation determined the settlement patterns in the islands.
The Spanish form of settlement provided for effective control of the pueblos (town). The natives were
introduced to the gridiron arrangement – plaza complex. The dominant structures were the church and
the town hall around the town plaza. Street were laid out so as to provide a continuous route for
religious processions. Around the edifice revolved the residence of the Spaniards, the principalia and
the masses. The clergy learned from the resettlement projects in Hispanic America that compact
villages provided a framework for rapid Christian induction and societal organization. From a Gamboa-
barricaded outpost, Manila turned into Intramuros, a fortified walled city. As the city took its place in
the economic scheme of the galleon trade several pattern of decentralization and locality concentration
came into being south of the city a group of wealthy Filipinos occupied the settlement of Malate and
soon Japanese settlers were found in San Miguel and Paco. By 1650, approximately 15,000 Chinese
occupied Parian, the settlement relegated to them by the Spaniards more than 7,000 Spaniards lived in
Intramuros and 20,000 Filipinos settled throughout the outlying sectors. Towards the end of the 19th
century, road building programs were initiated by the Spaniards government. The Manila-Dagupan
railway lines was constructed Similar other settlements were built by the Spaniards throughout the
island. Fort Del Pilar in Zamboanga, Davao, Ilocos, Visayas, etc.

AMERICAN ERA

The American were able to do a lot more than the Spaniards for the physical and political
development of the Philippines in less than 5 decades. The Americans saw the urgent need for guiding
the urban growth and physical development of the country. They concentrated in planning cities were
growth was inevitable.

In 1904, Daniel Burnham together with Pierce Anderson, surveyed Manila, Baguio and other
Cites. By this time Manila submitted in 1905 included the ff:

1. Development of the waterfront of recreation of parks and parkways so as to give the proper means of
recreation to every quarter of the city;
2. Street system securing direct and easy communication from one district to another;
3. Location of building sites for various activities;
4. Development of waterways for transportation;
5. Summer resorts

The plan was accepted and the office of consulting architect was created the following year by
Phil. Commission Act. #1495

PLANNING IN THE PHILIPPINES

PRE-COLONIAL TIMES:

Like other cities in the world the earliest Filipino communities developed out of the need for their
inhabitants to band together.

They were formed for security, or to be close to critical resources like food and water. Most of the
earliest towns were by the coast for the fisherfolk or were where there was abundant agricultural land
for the farmers.

The basic socio-political unit was the barangay, consisting of 30 to 100 families; decentralized; located
along coast lines and riverbanks; agricultural and fishing villages

SPANISH COLONIAL TIMES:

Manila became capital

1573 – Laws of the Indies pronounced by King Philipp II – Spanish town planning influenced by the
Romans and the Piazza planning of Italian Renaissance

1596 – spatial segregation along racial and social lines – Indios and Chinese have separate districts;
Parian or market – spatial concentration of merchants and artisans to regulate the exchange of goods
1600s to 1700s – process of Hispanization through the founding of cabeceras (poblaciones) and visitas
(barrios); natives living on the unplanned fringes of the neighborhood; debajo de las campanas

Laws of the Indies:

- In 1573, King Philip II proclaimed the Laws of the Indies that established uniform standards and
planning procedures for colonial settlements.
- These laws provided guidelines for site selection, layout and dimensioning of streets and squares, the
location of civic and religious buildings, open space, cultivation and pasturing lands, and even the main
procedural phases of planning and construction.

The Plaza Complex:

- a result of several ordinances of the Laws of the Indies.
- The plaza is surrounded by important buildings such as the Catholic church, municipal hall,
Marketplace and merchant’s stores, elementary school, the homes of the ―principalia‖, and other
government buildings

Intramuros - the walled City of Manila

- 1.2 sq. KM in area; perimeter is 3.4 KM
- home of the Spanish (except for the friars & the high ranking officials)
- decentralization occurred and settlements were built in Malate, San Miguel, and Paco, among other
areas

early 1600s – Manila became the first primate city in Southeast Asia.

1650 – chapels or small churches in the cabecera were built to attract tenacious natives from the barrios
(hinterlands) through fiestas and processions

1790s – opening of the Manila- Acapulco galleon trade; emergence of semi-urban places in the
provinces

1850s-late 1800s – Chinese dominated central commercial business districts in al settlements;

commercial shops on the ground floors of centrally located houses; no more spatially segregated
peripheral clusters of Chinese.; decentralized residential pattern for Spaniards

THE AMERICAN PERIOD:

1890s – other port cities continue to become regional urban centers; bridges were built along postal
routes facilitating transport in Luzon.

1903 – City of Manila was incorporated covering Intramuros and 12 fast-growing suburban towns.

The American Agenda:

- guide urban growth and physical development
- put more emphasis on other values such as sanitation, housing, and aesthetic improvements.

1905 – Manila and Baguio Plans of Daniel Burnham introduced the City Beautiful western type of
town planning.

Burnham’s Design for Manila:

- Designed with grand avenues & a strong central civic core
- Included a civic mall to house national buildings (only the Finance
&Agriculture buildings were built)
- Fronted Manila Bay like most Baroque plans fronted a large body of water

1910 – rebuilding of settlements complete with hygiene and sanitary facilities and drainage systems
called sanitary barrios.

1920s - Barrio Obrero or the working class district evolved as government response to the needs of
low-income labor families in urban areas.

1928 – zoning ordinance for Manila promulgated but took effect only in 1940; zoning became popular
in America in the 1920s.

Manila as the First Chartered City:

- On July 31, 1903, by virtue of Act No. 183, the city of Manila was incorporated
- Manila encompassed Intramuros, and the towns of Binondo, Tondo, Sta. Cruz, Malate, Ermita, Paco,
and Pandacan.
- The population then was 190,000 people

Growth of Manila:
The Arrabales
Quiapo- the illustrado territory; the enclave of the rich and powerful. Also the manifestation of folk
religiosity.
Binondo- the trading port developed by the Chinese and Arabs
Sta. Cruz- the main commercial district with swirls of shops, movie houses, restaurants, etc.
San Nicolas- also a commercial town built by the Spanish with streets of ―specialized‖ categories (i.e.
ceramics, soap, etc.)
Sampaloc- centered on two churches (Our Lady of Loreto and Saint Anthony of Padua). Also known as
the first ―University Town‖.

FURTHER SUBURBANIZATION:

After the war - RA 333 designated Quezon city as new Capital and master planning it by the Capital
City Planning Commission.

In 1939, Commonwealth Act No. 457, authorized the transfer of the capitol to an area of 1572 hectares

A master plan of Quezon City was completed in 1941 by Architects Juan Arellano, Harry T. Frost,
Louis Croft, and Eng. A.D. Williams

―City beautiful‖ plan reflected the aspirations of an emerging nation and the visions of a passionate
leader

Constitution Hill:
- In 1946, a search committee was formed to find a new site
- a 158 ha area in the Novaliches watershed was selected and called Constitution Hill and National
Government Center
- The three seats of government were to form a triangle at the center of the complex
- It included a 20 hectare civic Space referred to as the Plaza of the Republic

1950s - National Planning Commission (later on as NEDA) was established.

RA 2264 – local Autonomy Act of 1959 empowered LGUs to enact zoning ordinances and subdivision
rules; all towns and cities required to form planning boards to craft development plans under the
guidance of the NPC

1987 Constitution and Local Government Code of 1991 – devolved powers to LGUs; local autonomy;
developments plans under the supervision of NEDA.

HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS:

Philippine Homesite and Housing Corporation

- Precursor of the National Housing Authority
- Built homes for the masses (―the projects‖, i.e. proj.4, proj. 6, etc.)

Philamlife Homes
- icon of middle class suburbanization
- Master Plan designed by Architect and Planner, Carlos P. Arguelles, based on suburban developments
in California with modifications

BLISS (bagong lipunan sites and services)

- Walk-up developments for government sector

Bibliography

Wikipedia. (n.d.). History of urban planning. Retrieved from Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_urban_planning#Enlightenment,_Europe_and_America_(170
0%E2%80%931800)

Encyclopedia, N. W. (n.d.). Urban planning. Retrieved from New World Encyclopedia:

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Urban_planning#The_Renaissance

Planning , T. H. (n.d.). The History Of Urban Planning . Retrieved from International Journal of Research:
https://internationaljournalofresearch.com/2021/04/30/the-history-of-urban-planning%E2%80%AF/

PUP. (n.d.). PLANNING IN THE PHILIPPINES:. Retrieved from PUP Class:

http://pupclass.blogspot.com/2008/06/module-4-planning-3-history-part-3.html