URBAN DESIGN HISTORY

1. URBAN DESIGN HISTORY
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
(ROMAN - GREEK - MEDIVAL AGE URBAN
PLANNING)

2. TOWN PLANNING IN ROMAN CIVILIZATION
The architecture of Romans was essentially an art of shaping space around rituals.
Many structures were utilitarian type such as aqueducts and bridges The plans were
complex in appearance and hidden in design and display in impression of vastness.
CHARACTERISTICS:
• The towns planning scheme were laid on a grid iron geometry.
• The streets which divided the blocks were 15 to 16 ft. wide; the two main streets,
which ran to the principal gates, were further widened by colonnades and paved
with superior flagging. All the streets had well-built sewers beneath them.
• They built walls, gates, temples, baths, palaces, amphitheaters.
• Throughout their empire the Romans built towns in exactly the same style. They
were designed in the form of a grid, with streets built at right angles to each other
and parallel with one of the two main roads.
• Each town had two main roads. One heading North-South and the other East-West.
At the point where these roads met was the town centre, where the administrative
centre and the forum were found.
• The central part of the town contained the main businesses, with the homes and
dwellings of the citizens further towards the edges of the town.
Ostia

3. TOWN PLANNING IN GREEK CIVILIZATION
The ancient Greek civilization had established principles for planning and designing cities.
The cities formed were of two types old cities (organic development) and new cities (grid iron pattern).
Certain things were common among cities such as division of spaces in three parts: acropolis, agora and
town.
CHARACTERISTICS:
• These occurred in variety of forms, shapes reflecting different planning ideas and needs. The plans
depended on location, time, method and purpose of the city’s foundation, and the existence of any
previous settlements.
• Towns had fixed boundaries and some were protected by fortification.
• Much of the town was devoted to public use.
• Site planning and design was centerd on the appreciation of the building from the outside.
Example: ATHENS
 The city has the three components of acropolis, agora and town found in a Greek city
 The acropolis in Athens was a religious precinct located on one of the hills of the city.
 The Agora at Athens contains other administrative buildings.
 The town was where the common people lived, it was usually located on a flat ground.

4. TOWN PLANNING IN MEDIVAL AGE
Irregular pattern in planning was devised to confuse enemies, as enemies unfamiliar with town. Open
spaces, streets, plazas developed as an integral part of site. Streets were used for pedestrian while
wheels were restricted to main roads.
CHARACTERISTICS:
• Towns which grew by slow stages out of a village or group of villages under the protection of a
monastery, a church, or a castle
• Structures can be regarded as the archetype of the industrial settlement with a long, narrow street
flanked by houses of tradespeople. linear plans have one or more axes with longitudinal main
streets, lined with continuous buildings running through the settlement.
• Three elements, in combination, form the total organization of the medieval city and its community.
The first two elements church and feudal castle dominated medieval townscape in its formative and
adolescent stages; the mature stage, however, saw the growing strength and development of the
merchant community.
• Example : Noerdlinger.
Noerdlinger