Patterns of neighbourhood structure in history

Neighbourhood Planning Patterns of Neighbourhood structure in history Submitted by: Amit Pokhrel, and conservation, 2nd semester student (MSC06908), Engineering college, libali, Bhaktapur

Submitted to: Department of Urban design and conservation Khwopa engineering college, libali, Bhaktapur

M.Sc Urban dsign Khwopa

Patterns of Neighbourhood structure in history

A neighbourhood is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area. Neighbourhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members. Neighbourhood is generally defined spatially as a specific geographic area and functionally as a set of social networks. Neighbourhoods, then, are the spatial units in which face-to-face social interactions occur – the personal settings and situations where residents seek to realise common values, socialise youth, and maintain effective social control The historical timeline of Neighbourhood structure begins from the prehistoric to preindustrial cities to the modern theory of social communities or social Neighbourhood, which has its own importances in the form of urban spatial structure as well as in the arrangement of landuse in communities.

Neighbourhood can be defined as the inner city as the “spatial, functional, and communicative, as well as cultural centre of a city”. Inner-city neighbourhoods are decisive for the entire urban quality of a city – sometimes complemented by outstanding features of districts that do not belong to the historical city centre. However, it must be noted that different types of urban neighbourhood – historical city centres, high-end, middle-class neighbourhoods; simple urban districts from the same period; residential neighbourhoods developed in the 1920s and 1930s; inner-urban housing stock from the post-war period – produce strongly diverging resident milieus and consequently varyingly efficient integration milieus.

(Figure: Moenjo-daro and cities of 4 civilization) A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture is evident in the Indus Valley Civilization making them the first urban centres in the region. The quality of municipal town planning suggests the knowledge of urban planning and efficient municipal governments which placed a high priority on hygiene, or, alternatively, accessibility to the means of religious ritual.

The history of the world is the history of humanity, beginning with the Paleolithic Era. Distinct from the history of Planet Earth, world history comprises the study of archeological and written

records, from ancient times on. Ancient recorded history begins with the invention of writing.

However, the roots of civilization reach back to the period before the invention of writing. Prehistory begins in the Paleolithic Era, or "Early Stone Age," which is followed by the Neolithic Era, or New Stone Age, and the Agricultural Revolution in the Fertile Crescent.

The settlement pattern and the built environment structure of the neighbourhood of the Paleolithic or stone age (5000 BC-Plesticene ice age) period are in the forms of caves and pit with rock painting and sculptures within the communities.There is a absence of Neighbourhood structure in Paleolithic period.

The settlement pattern and the villages of that period when it comes out to be in the next phase of Neolithic stage (5000-3000 BC), the neighbourhood structure was changed into rural settlements, clustered or scattered communities, pit dwellings, houses on piles and lakes, long houses with 50-100 clan units forming cluster groups. The different such rural areas and settlement pattern of a social structure in the form of neighbourhood unit are Jericho, Yangshao village and stonehenge. Absence of Neighbourhood structure, though it contains city with settlement.

The social structure was changed when people know how to cultivate the grainary items arriving in the agriculture age (3000-5th C BC) which is also known as Bronze-Iron stage, mostly Bronze use Age. The settlement form and the built environment of living a life in a social phase was changed in the form of cities, settled villages, fortifications, fencing and terracing. The living environment was in the modification in the form of landuse and developments from the historical point of view. Here is the presence of Neighbourhood structure. Example: Indus valley and Sumerian city.

The civilization begins in the form of Iron age whose time period starts from 5th C BC, the social living structure in the form of neighbourhood was changed in the form of Imperial cities, cosmopolitan cities and colonies. The active territory was formed by the community in the form of village, town, itinary trade routes (uttarapath, dakshinipath, silk road) and imperial territory.

Some of the examples which form the neighbourhood pattern are Miletus, Rome and pataliputra.

(Figure: Miletus and Rome-Neighbourhood structure)

The social structure were changed, people started living their private life making houses, colonies, forming large cities supporting their needs along with the administration started to focus on developing its territory.

A Medieval period (the time started from 5th C to 17th C) The social form changes to feudal with social hierarchy depending upon the settlement form and built environment into large cities with population upto 1 million, regional town centres, planned towns and settlements and low rise compact settlements. Whereas the active territory was village, towns and itinery trade routes. The living patterns are different from past to till medieval period.

The village with rural settlement with development patterns changes into a social form which form a neighbourhood structure from the very begining. The detail structure of housing unit with the facilities within it specify that there is a neighbourhood structure in the form of requirements like road, drains, watersupply pipeline and the concept of planning their settlements.

For example: Miletus is one of the most splendid city plans ever made. It shows how it is possible to develop forms of tremendously dynamic quality as counterpoint to the rigid discipline of the gridiron plan. The repetitive module of the regular rectangular blocks which constitute the residential part of the city sets up a rhythm which is the basis for the composition of the public parts of the city, the temples, the gymnasia, and the stoas facing inward onto the agoras and out toward the harbours.

(Figure Miletus: old and new) In medieval period there was a rapid growth of industry and development of infrastructures.

Some of the examples were Xian, Kyoto, Palmananov and elephant caves. The building structure and form was started from 9th C in China, whereas the Islamic tradition was started from 8th C in Baghdad and the town environment was started from 11th C in Japan.

(Figure: Xian, Renniassaince pictures of Medieval) From the urban design and townscape consideration, Japan in 17th C, the townscape concept was started and the new era of planning and design longlast till today. Similarly the neighbourhood structure was first formed in Turkey, Canada, United states and in Europian region and now there are neighbourhood structure everywhere in the world with the ability to sustain the social structure to form a safe and secured community.

(Figure Kyoto city from old to new form) With the passage of time, the Industrial Age begun and the time period was started from 17th C -20th C where there was a social form of migrant community, nuclear family to have interest association to fulfill the facilities of the social living people. The settlement form and the built environment has changed into a new form of living a life in metroplis, sattelite towns, industrial towns, conurbation, high rise and dense social forms, suburban, sprawl with vechicular ways and the active territory was changed into neighbourhood with work place and market zone network.

Presence of Neighbourhood structure in different cities.

(Figure: London, Palmanov-Italy and Rome; map of 17th C)

The history plays an important role to have a change in the socities. The beginning of the 20th century saw the first description of the local community as being a natural agglomeration. In 1915, Park described these groupings as the results of the competition for land use between various businesses and groups of populations existing without formal organization.

A neighbourhood is often considered to be a living area as well as a place of work and a family environment. One will find people interacting for utility (grocery stores, medical clinics, schools, recreational parks, etc.), support or mutual aid (exchanges of services), or for pure socialization (the need to create bonds between individuals). It is a space we learn to recognize by moving throughout it while carrying social and economic activities such as visiting friends and shopping.

The built environment and its social organization can become familiar and could contribute to one's identity. A neighbourhood can thus become a reflection of oneself, one's values, aspirations and socioeconomic conditions. It can also be freely selected or determined by these same socioeconomic conditions. In short, a neighbourhood is a place characterized by a specific collection of spatially based features that can be found at a specific geographic scale.

While defining the Neighbourhood structure, in the present context; there are something we should know about preindustrial cities. In the words of the urban scholar Lewis Mumford, “Neighbourhoods, in some primitive, inchoate fashion exist wherever human beings congregate, in permanent family dwellings; and many of the functions of the city tend to be distributed naturally—that is, without any theoretical preoccupation or political direction into neighbourhoods.� Most of the earliest cities around the world as excavated by archaeologists have evidence for the presence of social neighbourhoods. Historical documents shed light on neighbourhood life in numerous historical preindustrial or non-western cities.

Neighbourhoods are typically generated by social interaction among people living near one another. In this sense they are local social units larger than households not directly under the

control of city or state officials. In some preindustrial urban traditions, basic municipal functions such as protection, social regulation of births and marriages, cleaning and upkeep are handled informally by neighbourhoods and not by urban governments; this pattern is well documented for historical Islamic cities. (source: Islamic era, Urban design)

In addition to social neighbourhoods, most ancient and historical cities also had administrative districts used by officials for taxation, record-keeping, and social control. Administrative districts are typically larger than neighbourhoods and their boundaries may cut across neighbourhood divisions. In some cases, however, administrative districts coincided with neighbourhoods, leading to a high level of regulation of social life by officials. For example, in the Tang period Chinese capital city Chang’an, neighbourhoods were districts and there were state officials who carefully controlled life and activity at the neighbourhood level.

Neighbourhoods in preindustrial cities often had some degree of social specialisation or differentiation. Ethnic neighbourhoods were important in many past cities and remain common in cities today. One factor contributing to neighbourhood distinctiveness and social cohesion in past cities was the role of rural to urban migration. This was a continual process in preindustrial cities, and migrants tended to move in with relatives and acquaintances from their rural past.

(Figure: curved street, Nardeen, rui de revolli, Paris and Kathmandu) In the context of Asia, the neighbourhood structure were defined in another form. In the mainland of the People's Republic of China, the term is generally used for the

urban administrative division found immediately below the district level, although an intermediate, sub district level exists in some cities. They are also called streets (administrative terminology may vary from city to city).

Neighbourhoods encompass 2,000 to 10,000 families. Within neighbourhoods, families are grouped into smaller residential units or quarters of 100 to 600 families and supervised by a residents' committee; these are subdivided into residents' small groups of fifteen to forty families.

In most urban areas of China; neighbourhood, community, residential community, residential unit, residential quarters have the same meaning.

In the context of Europe, The term neighbourhood structure has no general official or statistical purpose in the United Kingdom, but is often used by local boroughs for self-chosen sub-divisions of their area for the delivery of various services and functions, or is used as an informal term to refer to a small area within a town or city.

In Canada and the United States, neighbourhoods are often given official or semi-official status through neighbourhood associations, neighbourhood watches, or block watches. These may regulate such matters as lawn care and fence height, and they may provide such services as block parties, neighbourhood parks, and community security. In some other places the equivalent

organization is the parish, though a parish may have several neighbourhoods within it depending on the area.

Conclusion The concept of the neighbourhood is well established as a basic unit for planning our cities.

Further, it is a popular and accepted element of a social and physical organization in the minds of most Architect, Engineer and city designer. The neighbourhood has become the symbol, through conscious design of a means to preserve the real or imagined values of an earlier history, semirural way of life in our increasingly complex and fast moving urban centers.

The modern concept of the neighbourhood and for that matter , many of the more recent version of the neighbourhood unit or structure derive from the notion that the neighbourhoods will be composed of aggregations of “average� families and may be a miscellaneous relative like containing both the social and physical attributes within neighbourhood stability. Actually families of this sort comprise less than half of the families occupying dwelling units in our cities.

In localities where neighbourhoods do not have an official status, questions can arise as to where one neighbourhood begins and another ends. Many cities use districts and wards as official divisions of the city, rather than traditional neighbourhood boundaries.

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