HUMAN

SETTLEMENTS

City Growth and Spatial Patterns

Human Settlements
 As defined by Doxiades, human settlement
consists of Man and his physical environment
(natural or man-made) … the geographic
limits of the Earth’s surface.

 Unlike a shell or structure which has 3

dimensions (height, width, length), human
settlement has a 4th dimension … time, in
order that it could carried out its functions.
Human Settlements
Human settlement could be subdivided into 5
elements :

1. Nature … the
foundation upon which
the settlement is
created and the frame
within which it can
function;
Human Settlements
2. Man

3. Society … with man, society

changes continuously as
functions (stand, sit, work,
relax, etc.) are created and
carried out through time;
Human Settlements
4. Shells are the
structures in
which Man lives
and carries out
his different
functions;
Human Settlements
5. Networks are either natural or man-made. It
facilitates the function of settlement …roads,
water supply, electricity, etc.
Human Settlements
Dioxiades’ Classification of Human Settlements
 Ekistic units … micro-space, middle scale and
macro-scale (logarithmic scale of settlement);
 Ekistic elements … nature, man, society, shells,
networks;
 Ekistic functions … living, sleeping, producing,
moving from place to place, etc.;
 Ekistic evolutionary phases … agricultural, nomadic,
urban, urban-industrial, etc.;
 Other categories according to needs and
possibilities.
What is Urban Space?

A social creation … the product of creative

activity. Once spatial relations are formed, there
is a seeming fixity … a life of their own.
In other words, urban space is a consequence
of the activities carried on within it, the
characteristics of the people who occupy it, the
form given to it by its physical structures, and
the perceptions with which people regard it.
Trends in Human Settlements

Prior to the 18th century, most cities of various

civilizations did not exceed 50,000 inhabitants.
With small populations and no mechanical
means of transportation, most cities of the past,
even the larger ones, did not exceed 2 kms and
could be crossed on foot in not more than 20
minutes. Thus, these towns were built on
human scale.
Trends in Human Settlements

For about 10,000 years, Man lived in villages,

and for more than 5,000 years in small urban
settlements whose size and slow growth
permitted the creation of continuous and
compact settlements, and endowed these with
values which remain important.

In almost all these settlements, the 5 elements

of human settlements were in complete
balance.
Trends in Human Settlements

However, at the start of the 18th century until

the 19th century, and especially in the 20th
century, the picture completely changed … the
elements of human settlements have
developed individually and turn, the balance
among them was lost.

Man developed demographically, culturally

and intellectually. Society grew and became
more complex.
Trends in Human Settlements
 Industrial Revolution brought large masses
of people to live within cities.
 More and more people live in metropolitan
areas, but even the most economically
successful of these regions manifest sharply
uneven development.
For instance, gentrified neighbourhoods
adjacent to low-income areas display the
emblems of affluence, and suburban
enclaves of privilege, increasingly set off by
walls and gates, sharpen the distinctions
between the haves and have-nots.
Trends in Human Settlements
 At the end of the 20th century, urban areas
are vastly different from the metropolises of a
hundred years earlier.
The old central cities contain a shrinking
proportion of regional wealth and population.
Although some cities are the command
center of the global economy or nests of
technological innovation, others have lost
economic function even while they still
encompass large populations.
Environmental pollution, traffic congestion,
racial and ethnic discrimination, and financial
crises afflict many urban cores.
 Megalopoli
Philippine
s

Regional
Hierarchy
Centers and
Metropolis of
Growth Corridors and
Special Regions Settlement
Provincial Capitals and
Chartered Cities
s
Capitals of island provinces and
Integrated Area Developments

Component cities

Urban barangays of Municipalities

Rural barangays of municipalities

Sitios
Settlement Pattern of Man

Urban Region

Conurbation / Megalopolis

Metropolis

City

Component City

Town
Village /
Barangay
Hamlet
Planning and Development of Cities and
Urban Areas

In the past, neighbourhoods were seen as places

where different social groups intermingled
harmoniously in a shared social order, containing
most of the relational webs which people depended
on for survival … now, our relational support systems
spread across many dimensions. Neighbours live in
different ‘life-worlds’.

The neighbourhood where we live may be little more

than a collection households connected only by
passing in the street.
Planning and Development of Cities and
Urban Areas

Faced with social diversity and for fear of meeting with

and mixing with different ‘others’, households may
make locational decisions which will help maintain
and reproduce particular lifestyles and life strategies
… encouraging new forms of urban planning and
development.

The challenge of sharing spaces is made more

complex these days … as people explore new lifestyle
ideas or try to cope with new limits to their material
resources, demands are generated for new housing
forms, in new types of location.
Planning and Development of Cities and
Urban Areas

The housing, retail and leisure industries respond to

these shifts by designing new products and offering
people new types of built structure in different
locations … and in turn, change the spatial structure
of urban regions.

As to how people use urban regions these days,

urban structure has become fluid, multi-nodal and
complexly-layered. This requires new efforts in
imaginative capacity and socio-spatial
understanding.
Types of Settlement
Patterns

Dispersed
Linear
Nucleated
Planned
Dispersed Pattern
 In rural areas
 On hills, mountains, flatlands, rolling plains
 Includes temporary camps of hunters and
herders
Nucleated Settlement
Nucleated Settlement
 Planned Settlement

Radiocentric Plan
Gridiron Plan
Settlement Functions
 Shelter (Residential)
 Service
 Trade and Commerce (Commercial)
 Production (Industrial)
 Administrative (Institutional)