Name: Ghada Magdi ID: 900152007
Urban design Midterm Spring 2020 Dr. Momen El Husseiny
The ethos of ancient cities defined the spatial characteristics, order, movement, and relationships between citizens and each other as well as between governed and the governing at the levels of the social, economic, political and natural. The ethics of the city morphed social spaces for the public and the private with the spectrum of the places in-between; what is to be open for all and what is to be limited, and on what basis, and what is to be protected and negotiated. Rituals, belief systems, commerce, trade and exchange, and environmental considerations played a key role in fine-tuning statement of the city and its zoning of land use- its urban planning. Trace the development of mission statement of cities since the ancient times till the modernist era explaining how their “ethos” transformed the spatial DNA and social-cognitive experience. And explain how people in retrospect re-developed the “ethos” according to their needs with time. Support your argument using annotated sketches.
According to Marx discoveries, he said that “the low of human history … that the mankind first of all must eat, drink, have shelter and clothing. Before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, politics, etc.”. Actually, after passing beyond these primitive struggles for societies’ existence, economy become a part of the “superstructure” which puts into context the origin of the cities. For example, the traces of the earliest great cities are found in great river valleys and basins. Therefore, power was accrued to people who built and controlled the irrigation systems. In order to manage and achieve this power, they need to centralized planning for channels to apply some sanction against those who contravene the regulations. Consequently, the city was formed based on 4 things a) The separation of the built up area from the countryside (possibly by fortified walls), b) The development of irrigation systems to help grow agricultural activity, c) The development of power structures to control irrigation systems and other urban life aspects, d) The creation of craft-specialties to serve the needs and desires of urban life, and base the trade. Cities have been grown in two ways; the first was as Alexander described in 1964, is the natural way; in which people simply start building as they still do in the shanty towns of the emerging world (which tends towards informality). And then there is the artificial way in which a master plan is prepared; streets laid out, squares and urban blocks on to which building are then placed according to some planners’ sense of order. Classical planning between 1126 and 1105 BC, the streets were straight and meeting at right angles which were known as in Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon. Such planning was invented by Hippodmus of Miletus who was a Greek architect; he is the leader and most famous city planner. Aristoteles Politics is the best resource for us to learn about him in Greek, “politics” literally means “things concerning the polis” or “city-state” (Andrew Boyd). The most wonderful examples of this plan are Priene and Pergamum. This rectangular plan leaded for building more modern architecture town planning. Before the cities were built unconsciously but Hippodamus took the major role to plan the cities and take them under control. Aristoteles says these about him (Hippodamus of Miletus). Piraeus, the most famous cities of the time was completely rebuilt by Hippodamus in symmetric. Streets intersecting each other in parallel and straight. Hippodamus rebuilt Miletus where he was born according to this plan. Then the plan was applied in Thurio and Rhodes in southern Italy. Hippodamus didn’t just lay out perpendicular lines in the sand. Evidence of geometric road networks predates his efforts by at least a century. Hippodamus went further. He envisioned the city as more than a place to live and work. He viewed it as something “democratic, dignified, and graceful.” And his designs reflected this philosophy without losing site of practicality. This was Hippodamus greatest achievement: recognizing that urban planning was about more than engineering a functional city. It was about creating an environment that expressed and nurtured the ideals of its citizens. Although of that the preferred Greek design as thought by Kostoff is by string, where the east-west avenues were crossed at right angles by one or more North-South streets. Priene is a small city in Ancient Greece (located in present-day Turkey). It is considered to be one of the first examples of city planning on the orthogonal plan. Priene had followed the grid system on steep contours but in fact, responded well to the natural features of the site, this contradiction between the geometry of the city and the natural landscape made the city unique. Priene city was a basic reference of passive solar orientation which provides model solar planning. The city was surrounded by a mountain that protected the city from the north wind, residential units were faced south to capture winter sun. The compact urban form represents the character of Priene city to be adapted with climate and to achieve integrated social life. Small urban blocks were used to support the ability of access and more opportunities to turn corners within the city, and in term of placemaking, ''alternative ways through the environment allows people a choice of access, from place to place, it is therefore central to making responsive places'' [3]. The spatial organization was sophisticated gave a clear integration between the city components (space and mass) and the natural environment. Pedestrian paths were designed to support urban public life in the city. City planning: According to Vitruvius: 1) Board streets will be open to the winds but the smaller alleys should be protected. 2) Access road should slope upward towards the city gates 3) Vitruvius thought the winds were 8. 4) Let the directions of the streets and alleys be laid down on the lines of divisions between the quarters of 2 winds, so no wind will blow directly onto them. 5) Temples, forums and basilicas should be in the warmest possible location. 6) A city should be walled with defensive towers projecting. According to A roman surveyor, probably Frontinius: The typical Roman city had a rectangular plan and resembled a Roman military camp with two major roads, the Decumanus (East-West) and the Cardo (North-South). A grid of smaller streets dividing the town into blocks, and a wall circuit with gates. The plan too is evidence indeed that Geometric instruments were used by the Roman surveyors, not just straight edges and squares but also compasses. If such instruments were available for map-making and measured drawings, then of course they were also available for designing. (See Fig. 1)
Figure 1 Urban development Figure 2 Islamic architecture: while the planning principles were in Classical old times, those for the informal planning were evolved in a fairly extent culture. Islam at these times which we as the westerns tend to think of as the Dark ages. Islamic Law itself as was extracted from the Qur'an and the Sunna by al-Shafi'i, Bukhari and Muslim as Hakim said. Once a system of Laws had been encoded, others, like Isa ben Mousa (996) and Ibn al-Rami (1334) extracted and codified Ahkam or building solutions out of the more general Laws. Hakim (1986) analysis the Principles behind these ‘Solutions’, finding that every is predicated, directly, on specific verses from the Qur’an or the Prophet’s own practices from the Sunna. Hakim analyses these in terms of their effects on the shape of the Islamic. He distinguished between the general public street (the Shari') which is available for everyone and also the cul-de-sac (Zanqa) giving access to small group of homes belonging in co-ownership, to those who live a protracted it. The principles include those of: 1-Harm: people has the right to practice their full rights as long as these their actions didn't harm others. Guidelines of the many kinds were derived from this including those concerned with locations within the town for activities that smoke, created offensive smells, made offensive amounts of noise then on caused. 4- building height Person has a right to create as high one pleases, as long as he provided the construction that is contained within one’s own air space. This right applies whether or not such building will deprive one’s neighbors of air and sun. It'll be refused, however, where there was evidence of intent to harm one’s neighbors. By which each family is entitled to acoustic, visual, and different kinds of privacy. Given the character of the Muslim family and also the way during which the ladies had to be protected against the eyes of strangers, there have been strict rules indeed against overlooking of any kind. These affected the positions of windows including their height above the road so people couldn't see in. Nor should doors or windows face one another directly across the road into someone else’s doorway or windows. Above all, visual corridors of any kind had to be avoided, which after all led inevitably to irregularities in façade design. Nor should one be able to scrutinize any a part of one’s neighbor’s premises, especially the courtyard and also the roof where his women can be. Even the Muezzin, as he climbs the minaret of the mosque to call the faithful to prayers, is forbidden to overlook neighboring premises. Medieval planning: The Dark Ages As known from history, that Arabs carried Islam along the North coast of Africa and converted the Berbers to Isalm who, with their converters, come to be known as the Moors. Having moved to the North coast of Africa, the Moors crossed the Straits of Gibraltar then moved up and into Spain and even into France (where Charles Martel turned them back ….and so on). Islam principles' itself, and the nature of family life, affected irregularity on to Muslim Urban design and most specially, housing layout. However, many cities of medieval Europe also were irregular. There are substantial, not to say magnificent, remains of their buildings in Cordoba Granada and elsewhere. We might look at constructional methods, strategies of planning and so on, especially the hierarchy of different sorts of road, Islamic qualifications between fortified zones and private areas. Indeed, where they were built many such improvements have been misplaced or demonstrate troublesome to follow since regularly they were built on to classical formats and themselves overlaid by afterward, Byzantine or Norman constructions. What had been a mosque might well have been converted into a church. The essential traces are to be found in a hundred cities, in different parts of Italy. There were a few reasons subsequently why so numerous medieval cities were sporadic: 1) Including the nature of sites on which they were built. 2) Often initially for defensive purposes. 3) The facts of topology, influences from Islam and so on. 4) As Mumford says (1938) the medieval builders had no a prior love for symmetry as such. Where it was simpler to follow nature’s contours’ they did so rther than grading them down or evening them up. 5) Nor were regular streets needed to accommodate wheeled vehicles. Mules were utilized for transporting so the streets can be indeed smaller than those of Islam which had to oblige loaded camels. The Baroque town planning was predominant within the 17th century A.D. • The Baroque city plan showed up at the same time with the development of strong states. • The strength & significance of the state directs the need for walls of military gracis around baroque cities to ensure them from strong enemies. • These cities had different spaces pre-allocated
for distinctive purposes. ZONING • strict zoning • land use is partitioned into a few capacities. • public versus private and residential versus industrial are common patterns in spatial format. • The purpose of a baroque layout is to show the city’s power and quality, resulting in the construction of landmarks. • Planned to put individuals in their put utilizing progression of space and division of the classes. • The center ordinarily public and commercial is the largest and most vital area. Upsurge of the Renaissance (Edmund Bacon (1910-2005) Bacon was an architect and planner who aimed to restore the history of cities, due to the humanist desire for experiential movement, discovery of mathematical perspective and visual disorder Principles of the second man According to Edmund Bacon, in The Design of Cities, called this the 'principle of the second man'. “the second man who determines whether the creation of the first man will be carried forward or destroyed” Since whatever we do, someone one day will come around and act imprudently with the city style that was set. 1. The significant change in the square followed by the completion of the arcades for the church, led to the construction of the central bay 2. For years the form of the square remained in doubt until Architects Antonio Da Sangallo & Baccio D’Angelo were to design a building opposite to the Brunelleschi’s arcades a. Creating an urge toward self-expression and flow b. Creating the concept of space by several buildings designed in relation to one another Introducing new ideas for planning: • Imposition of order Received impressions of a space due to: ● Interplay of points defined by facades ● Ordering of the medieval space. For example, city of Piazza Della Signoria: If you’re in the center and look around, from 3 sides you see different buildings except for the southwest corner you see an open view connecting with the city Creation of new sets of relations: ● Orientation ● Disorientation ● Reorientation. Key theories of city design: ● Hippodamus of Miletus ● Michelangelo ● Sixtus V ● The woods of bath ● Haussmann in Paris ● Le Corbusier Led Bacon and a group of designers to shift towards participatory design, to ensure that people’s needs were met, without denying the designer’s own profession as a leader in the field.
Sources • • • • • • • • • •
https://magical-steps.com/blog/hippodamus-of-miletus/ Hippodamus Of Miletus https://uh.edu/engines/epi2542.htm Andrew Boyd https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/603/5/052011/pdf Hadeel Al-Sabbagh and Manar Gorgees 2019 https://updocs.net/download/the-renaissance-and-baroque-town-planning-a5b35e19bca33e (Design of cities) https://www.recivilization.net/UrbanDesignPrimer/036thesecondman.php Reading volume 1