Slides For The Renaissance Era

RMIT Classification: Trusted
Lecture 5: The Revival of Urban Planning: The
Renaissance, 14th to 16th Centuries

Lecture Overview:
1. The Renaissance Era: When, Where and What?
2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main Features
3. Case Study: Palmanova, Italy
4. Conclusions
When was the Renaissance era?
The Renaissance period in urban planning history is

usually divided into several phases:
a) early renaissance (1350-1450) mainly in northern Italy

b) late renaissance (1450-1600) elsewhere in Europe

The French word - renaissance - means

a rebirth or revival of interest in the
ancient Greeks and Romans which
becomes the inspiration of fine art,
philosophy, architecture and urban
planning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI1OeMm
wYjU
You Tube: Film - History of Ideas: The

Renaissance - watch from 0.00 mins to
10.15 mins.

The renaissance is the start of a 600
year period in human history known as
the Humanist Enlightment where
human reason is used to make
scientific discoveries in key areas which
will displace God and the Roman
Catholic church as the source of human
wisdon about the world.
Medieval Era Church Mural of God

Holding Up the Universe, Pisa, Italy.
Like the cities of the medieval era, renaissance cities come to exhibit
an infinite variety of forms, partly due to where and why they were built.
Cities during this 200 year period would be found to have taken one of
the following three forms:
1) redevelopment of part of an old city by rebuilding the main

streets, public monuments and the city square;
2) adding new sections using the grid street pattern onto an
existing city usually outside the old defensive city walls;
3) creating an entirely new town or city that tried to adopt all
the main features of renaissance urban planning.
So what were the main features of renaissance urban planning?

2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main
Features
The grid layout – there was a

return to the grid but it was
modified by a new adherence to
mathematical-geometric designs
based on the principles of order,
rationality and symmetry. It was
an attempt to reproduce the
‘perfection’ that could be found in
nature or the environment.
These examples of ideal city forms appear

almost like refractions of nature – a flower or
an eye of a fly - as seen through a microscope.
The telescope and microscope were invented
during the renaissance era.
Features
Land allotments and subdivision –

practices developed in the late
medieval period were continued.
Property owners would be liable to

fines if they did not respect a
neighbours property or communal
land.
Size of land allotments in new towns

was regulated and standardized by
the arrival of master plans which
can show all the land sub-divisions.
Land allotments and subdivision: cont
A blue-print master plan could not only show

where different land uses were to be located
but it could also record land subdivision.
Here all the specifics could be spelt out

including street length and width, block size,
building location and orientation, plus sub-
divided parcels of land.
John Wren’s Map of a redesigned London, metal

plate engraving, 1668, after the Great Fire.

Land allotments and subdivision: cont San Giovanni, Italy
Features
Roads and its Surfacing – large

towns and cities now paved all
their streets as a way of
promoting cleanliness and to
beautify the city. Footpaths were
also occasionally introduced in
some large cities.
Features
San Giovanni,
Road and its Surfacing: cont: Italy.
The long and wide straight street was

now adopted again as part of the
renaissance revival of the cardo and
decumanus from ancient Roman colonial
towns.
In the case of the Florentine township of

San Giovanni, the decumanus was
disrupted by a central town square, that
contained two churches and a town hall.
In some northern Italian cities private

roads were also built to protect its rich
citizens from disease and other dangers.
2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era:
Main Features
The Vasari Corridor is an elevated enclosed, formerly secret passageway in renaissance
Florence, built in 1565 at the orders of Duke Cosimo de' Medici, that connected the Palazzo
Vecchio with the Palazzo Pitti by crossing the Arno River. It permitted the Duke and his family
to move about central Florence without having to use the streets that proposed the dangers
of disease and assassins.
7 6
5
2
4
3
1
Photos of the interior and exterior of the Vasari corridor.

Features
Building regulations – a concern

about beauty and symmetry leads
to tough building regulations.
They seek to control the height,
use of building materials, façade
design, building colour especially
those on the main streets and in
prominent public places.
Building bye-laws to control building

heights and setbacks around the Santa
Maria Novelle cathedral, Florence, Italy.
Features
Building regulations: cont
A related feature was the ‘new’ concern

with creating ‘perspective’ as is often
found in a painting.
Geometry was now added to the city

design process in order to standardize
the spatial layout of a new town, a new
neighbourhood or a re-modelled public
space.
This was made possible through the

introduction and use of master plans
that architects-artists had to submit to a
city council or a rich city patron.
Features
Building regulations: cont
The redesign of major straight streets

were to offer the citizen and visitor a
‘wow factor’ via the creation of a
visual vista.
Town Hall tower and the Uffizi Art Gallery, Florence, Italy.
Features
Water supply system – municipal

bye-laws were often passed to
prevent the contamination of fresh
water supplies from streams and
rivers. In northern Italy, aqueducts
and cisterns were either repaired
or built, plus extra wells were dug
and public fountains installed.
Arno River, Florence, Italy, was dammed

in several spots to capture more water.
Features
Removal of waste water and

sewerage – waste water now was
being better removed due to the
paving of streets. But sewerage
still proved to be a problem
because garderobes remained in
use where it fell onto the streets.
Cesspits and ditches would with
time overfill. Municipal bye-laws
tried to improve things especially in
the Northern Italian cities and
towns.
Features
Provision of public
facilities – municipal
councils and rich patrons
provided the essentials
such as water fountains,
underground storm water
drains, churches, a town
hall, clock tower, jail,
hospital, town defensive
walls and a central public
square.
Piazza San Marco, Venice.
2. Urban Planning
in the Renaissance
Era: Main Features
Piazza San Marco and Saint

Marks’ Basilica, Venice, Italy.
Provision of public space – the

paved central town or city square
is given renewed focus in this era.
The square is not used for retail
activity as seen in earlier historical
eras. It is designed as a public
meeting place for social, cultural
and political activities.
Private urban gardens were also

being built at this time but they
were only for their rich owners and
friends.
Town of Vigevano, Lombardy, Italy.

Provision of public space: cont.

It is important to note that the Renaissance era public square or piazza was also
designed to help civilize the lower classes who were to be inspired by its design
and the surrounding public buildings. This exhibited the humanist belief in the
potential of man to improve himself and his capacity to be influenced by urban
design (ie. a form of physical or environment determinism).
Piazza della Signoria, Florence,

Italy.
Public sculpture gallery and

tower clock in the Piazza della
Signoria, Florence, Italy.
Features
Urban Governance – there is an

expansion in the establishment of
municipal councils and communes –
Italian – to better regulate a growing
number of aspects of the built
environment.
Hazardous Land Uses and Protection

– hazardous land uses were forced to
locate next to or outside the city walls.
Cities found in both central and southern
Europe had to persist with defensive
walls, gates and moots. Venice was such
an example.
3. Case Study: Palmanova


Palmanova’s design consists of a
concentric city with three nine-sided ring
Palmanova is a town in north roads intersecting the main radiating
eastern Italy. It is an example of the streets. It is considered to be a fort town
designed to be a Venetian military station
ideal star shaped design of the Late
on the eastern frontier as protection from
Renaissance period built up by possible invasion by the then Ottoman
the Venetians in 1593. Empire.
Palmanova
Palmanova was located on a flat

rural plain that could be attacked from
several sides by an enemy. Hence,
the town plan adopted a star shape
military-design layout so that its
garrison of soldiers could defend the
town from any possible angle of
attack.
The town plan was thus a response to

its flat natural environment.
Photo taken by Kent

Middleton, 2019.
One of the main

entrance gates.
Notice the very heavy

fortifications on either
side of this gate.
Inside one of the huge defensive gates.

The town was built for military purposes

so this function helped define its internal
and external design.
It had an outer perimeter which took the

form of defences – outer earth ditch, moot
and its inner stone walls. The huge
entrance gates set-up the main vista’s into
the centre of the town via its radial
boulevards.
Palmanova’s
earth and stone
walls.
3. Case Study:
Palmanova
The earth walls and remains of a moot.
Photos taken by Kent Middleton, 2019.

The central public square was the focus

of this town with its major public buildings
– churches, town hall and some shops -
located around its edge. Most of the retail
was confined to the side streets near the
central square and the other secondary
open spaces.
The large empty central square served

firstly a military purpose – assembly point
and areas to do drills – then it could be
used as a community space at other times.


Palmanova sought to copy old classical
Roman building styles – columns, facades,
roof pitch, height of buildings, ornate
sculptures and use of colour render. There
is no information about its water supply and
sewerage disposal systems.
Notice the large statues in the left hand

photo to mark the entrance of a long
straight radial street into the large public
central square that acted as the end of a
vista.
4. Conclusion
• Vienna
The renaissance began in the Italian
• Budapest
city state of Florence before • Bratislava
spreading to Venice, Rome, Genoa, • Berlin
Milan, and then the other large • Mannheim
Italian city states. • Amsterdam
• Brussels
• Paris
During the 15th, 16th and 17th • Prague
centuries it spread to northern • Antwerp
Europe and triggered the baroque • London
• Bath
phase in many large cities including: • St. Petersburg
• Moscow
• Edinburgh
Sources Used:
C. Bell and R. Bell (1972) City Fathers: The Early History of Town Planning in Britain,
Pelican Books, London.
L. Benevolo (1980) The History of the City, Scolar Press, London.
D. Friedman (1988) Florentine New Towns: Urban Design in the Late Middle Ages, MIT
Press, Massachusetts.
P. Hohenberg and L. Lees (1985) The Making of Urban Europe, 1000-1994, Harvard
University Press, Boston.
S. Kostof (1991) The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History,
Bulfinch Press, New York.
A. Morris (2013) History of Urban Form: Before the Industrial Revolution, 3rd edition,
Routledge, New York.

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RMIT Classification: Trusted

Lecture 5: The Revival of Urban Planning: The

Renaissance, 14th to 16th Centuries

1. The Renaissance Era: When, Where and What?

2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main Features

3. Case Study: Palmanova, Italy

1. The Renaissance Era: When, Where and What?

When was the Renaissance era?

The Renaissance period in urban planning history is

a) early renaissance (1350-1450) mainly in northern Italy

1. The Renaissance Era: When, Where and What?

1. The Renaissance Era: When, Where and What?

The French word - renaissance - means

You Tube: Film - History of Ideas: The

1. The Renaissance Era: When, Where and What?

Medieval Era Church Mural of God

2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main Features

1) redevelopment of part of an old city by rebuilding the main

So what were the main features of renaissance urban planning?

2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main

The grid layout – there was a

These examples of ideal city forms appear

2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main

Land allotments and subdivision –

Property owners would be liable to

Size of land allotments in new towns

2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main Features

Land allotments and subdivision: cont

A blue-print master plan could not only show

Here all the specifics could be spelt out

John Wren’s Map of a redesigned London, metal

2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main Features

2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main

Roads and its Surfacing – large

2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main

The long and wide straight street was

In the case of the Florentine township of

In some northern Italian cities private

Photos of the interior and exterior of the Vasari corridor.

2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main

Building regulations – a concern

Building bye-laws to control building

2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main

A related feature was the ‘new’ concern

Geometry was now added to the city

This was made possible through the

2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main

The redesign of major straight streets

2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main

Water supply system – municipal

Arno River, Florence, Italy, was dammed

2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main

Removal of waste water and

2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main

Piazza San Marco and Saint

2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main Features

Provision of public space – the

Private urban gardens were also

Town of Vigevano, Lombardy, Italy.

2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main Features

Provision of public space: cont.

Piazza della Signoria, Florence,

2. Urban Planning in the Renaissance Era: Main Features