Some key aspects and ideas of studying colonial cities: (Robert Home – Of Planting and Planning. The Making of British Colonial Cities)
The “Grand Modell”
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a policy of deliberate urbanization or town planting
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a policy of controlling the land market
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town planning in advance of settlement
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wide streets and geometric forms
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aesthetics: Classical ideals of symmetry and order; Baroque grandeur and surface decoration
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public squares (providing: market, church, arsenal, courthouse)
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rectangular plots
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land reservations
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green belts (segregating, and protecting the central city)
thalassocracy (port cities, the idea of overseas network, naval power relying on colonies)
theory: world-city hypothesis (J. Friedman), colonial urban development theory (A. King)
“fractured” cities (central – margins)
effects of “sanitary” urbanization (surveillance, segregation)
hybrid forms ofurban life and urban culture