a brief history of urban form

a brief historyof urban form

index1. urban form determinants for early settlements natural and man made determinants

2. medieval cities the wall, the marketplace, the church

3. renaissance and barroque aesthetic determinent, urban scenery and aggrandizement

4. ninetheenth century grand urban renewals and extension plans

5. garden cities first failure of urban design as a social tool

6. 1920-1950 modernism, rationalism and standarizantion

7. 1950-1970 structuralism, brutalism and pop

8. 1970-nowadays revisionism and pragmatism

urban form determinants for early settlementsnatural and man made determinants

natural world determinants: topography

natural world determinants: climate

natural world determinants: materials and technology (vernacular)

man-made determinants: trade

man-made determinants: political / religiousplus defence, mobility, ethnical issues...

urban growth structures

organic growth, through unplaned agregation of buildings

gridiron plan: roman castrum

first gridirons as the result of the pre-existing land cadastre

EARLY SETTLEMENTS RECAP

natural determinantstopography (location)

climatenatural resources, building materials and technology

man-made determinantstrade

political powerreligiondefensemobility

ethnical issuesetc

urban growth structuresorganic, as the natural result of an informal and unplanned gathering

of peoplegridiron, as the result of the urban implementation over pre-existing

cadastral land subdivisions

medieval townsthe wall, the marketplace, the church

medieval town origins: castrum, burg or village

medieval town: early evolutionagriculture surplus leads to an increase on non-agricultural specialists which leads to goods to be secured and defended

the wallas a defensive element, but also as a tollthe importance of staying within the wall lead to a massive densification of the cities (not UK)

the marketplace

the whole city as a marketplace, trade as a raison d-êtrethe need to trade of every citizen increases the value of the facade lenght

“it would have a cellar, a ground floor where he and his family lived and slept, and an upstairs apartment which was probably his workroom but possibly includ-ed a bedroom, and above that an attic which was his private warehouse - goods went up and down by pulley. The street was an extension of his house. In fact it was like a large room belonging to all the inhabitants: they sat out in it, worked in it, and played in it”

LIVE

WORK

WAREHOUSE

medieval development of amsterdam

MIDDLE AGES RECAP

originvillage, castrum or burg

agricultural surplus

elementswall: defense, toll and constrictionmarketplace, the city as a market

the church and the castle, representation of the power

amsterdamspecific settlement’s challenges in the Netherlands, the public works

or the “water factor”

renaissance and barroqueaesthetic determinent, aggrandizement and urban scenery

aesthetic determinantas the representation of the new humanism ideas

aggrandizement and enclosement

growing and centralization of au-tocratic political and economical powerseconomical capacity to promote complex urban opperations as a process for their aggrandizementurban scenery for statues

unifying individual buildings through the repetion of a basic facade or elevationenclosed space for civic, religious, commercial or residential pur-poses

Rome, urban scale scenery for pilgrimageimplementation of the “main street”, or street hierarchyease the reception of pilgrims. PERSPECTIVES

climax of urban sceneryinside and outside working together as a tool for poignancy

renaissance star forts, or trace italienneconsequences of the Fall of Constantinople

avoid perpendicular impact of the bullets on the wall, both in cross section and floor planavoid proper cannon orientation through cross fireextend the distance between the enemy and the city, the thickened wall

cannon-proof geometries

renaissance ideal cities

increasing size of the diverse elements according to scale of intercation

grachtengordel, amsterdam

amsterdam understood as a flourishing corporation in which each citizen had sharescommunal action in the con-struction of the grachtencompulsory land purchase powersjordaan, zoned for industrial purposesbig development in terms of ordenances and rules

“ The planned growth of seventeenth century Am-sterdam is a clear example of the rule that societies get the kind of cities they deserve. It is proof, if any is still required, that theoretical planning expertise is of little significance in the absence of community resolution. Without political direction, expressed in viable legislation, plans are just so much paper”

RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE RECAP

transformation of the medieval structureaesthetic determinant

enclosementaggrandizement

urban scenery: main streets and perspectives

renaissance ideal citieshumanism + militar technology evolution

grachtengordelurban expansion through legislation and cooperation

zoning

nineteenth centurygrand urban renewals and extension plans

paris, complete urban renewalautocracy, legislation, speculation

objectives:- hygienization- mobility- aggrandizement- speculation - riot control

renaissance and baroque ideas of scenery, enclosement, homogeneus facades, main streets, perspectives...applied to a whole city, in a whole new scale and dimension...

as a smokescreen of speculation and population control, “speculative philanthropy”

“a more successful enterprise, also under private auspices, was the Vondelpark, a project planned and realized by a consortium of wealthy citizens. The purpose was two-pronged: to create an impressive park without any intervention of the municipality, and to generate income from the upgrading of the land. With this last mind they bought up more land than was needed for the park itself, so that the neighbouring plots could be sold for expensive homes in a stately setting. The villas around the Koningslaan are particularly magnificent.

The building of factories and block of flats for workers was naturally banned, and special provisions in the sales contracts guaranteed against any such possibility.”

barcelona, the scientific method for urban planningthe grid as the possibility of growth ad infinitum

scientific coherence in any scale

conceived as a worldwide system, but very specific in the local implementationevery detail was designed, from the surface of the extension plan to the positioning of every bench or tree or clockventilation, sun radiation and mobility planned from a entire city approachrather visionaryblocks’ depth and height regulated due to hygienic reasons

in the original regulations purposed by Cerdá, for the first time ever built facades would partially dissociate from the streets. Due to explitation circumstances, a higher edificability and density were required.

early dissociation between street and inter-street

feasible variations within the grid

the grid as an structural framework for the individual decissions and the histori-cal development

NINETEENTH CENTURY RECAP

renovationspeculative philanthropyincreasing added value

population controlsocial hygienization

extensionscientific approach

universal design (worldwide useful)all-scale approach to the city

freedom through homogenizationdissociation building-street

garden citiesfirst failure of urban design as a social tool

howard’s lifeframe disconected from ruling classesworking class approachlack of public support

designed as a set of self-suficient rather dense autonomous cities of 30.000 in-habitantsincluded social venues, housing, factories and green recreational spaces

Dependance on the private fundings

Ideas got blured in favour of private, higher class interests

Economical elites soon discovered the speculative potential of the concept: GARDEN SUBURBS

- low density- monofunctional housing - dependant on mobility infrastructure- endless spread- lack of any sort of social or productive amenities- romantic-style urban trace, or the idea of living in the nature

The perverse use of the bourgeoisification on the proletariat, as a self accepted community reduc-tion to the harmless family core

Destruction of the city as a social catalyst

GARDEN CITIES RECAP

corruption of social ideas by the economical elitesmonofunctional sprawls

low densitynonsocial cities

arise of the sprawl-highway-mall structure

1920-1950modernism, rationalism and standarization

plan Zuid: a conservative approach

traditionalistbaroque visual linesenclosed public spacesurban aggrandizementclassical composition tools: axis and symmetryvariations on scale and composition according to the urban function (designing hierarchies)

modernism, a whole new cityconfidence on the human being to give a brand new solution to the action of inhabiting, applying tabula rasa on the past as a restricting and unjustified heritage.

hygienization: sun, ventilation, spacefull dissociation between pedestrians, streets and buildingsthe city IN the nature industrialization, technificationscientific management (taylorism)zoning

mechanization of the city

every citizen deserves the same house, the same public space, the same facilities

optimization of urban functions through dissociated and individual design of them, sepparately

social equality through homogenization

after WWII, huge demand of housing meets modernist urban standarized, industrialized and technified ideas

the huge plot division of the modern movement makes the sale / lease of the land more efficient, since only huge economical powers have access to themmodern movement ideas become massive destruction weapons when used by the private sector

post WWII, european reconstruction

social and heritage sensitivityalgemeen uitbreidingsplan (AUP)

first phase:

- the extension as a whole

- only the structuring city scale elements get designed

- THE CITY AS A COMPOSITION, NOT AS AN ARTIFACT

- design within a multi-disciplinar team, in-cluding public insitu-tions, urban planners, lawyers, statisticians...

second phase:

- detail design of spe-cific neighbourhoods, with specific needs

- a two phases design enables time as a de-sign factor, allowing the interference of new de-velopments and ideas

scientifically driven, but without rejecting the arbitrariness or intui-tion as a human factor

1920-1950 RECAP

modernismtabula rasa

deconstruction of traditional cityrepetition, standardization and homogenization of both public and

domestic spacesoptimisation of urban functions sepparately

zoning

post WWII developmentsmediocrization and repetition of modernist ideas

1950-1970structuralism, brutalism and pop

the subversive sieblings of the modernismTEAM X

as a response to the modernism cultural elitism and disregard for the urban heritage the habitational unit as the constitutive cell of the city, not as the functionalist existenzminumassociation, identity, flexibilityinstead of improving citizens’ lifes through providing them all an isotropic context, they provide a

NUMBER OF CHOICES AND VARIETY

aldo van eyck:

“the modern urbanism was an hygienic and organised nothingness”

new approach, same old problemsrevisiting modernism

if the streets have dissapeared let’s re-incorporate them to in our blocks

THE BUILDING BECOMES THE CITY

conectivity meaning conected buildingschoice meaning ecclectic organic-like layoutidentity meaning only choosing post war scenarios for the proposalsrelationship meaning standing ON TOP of the pre-existing city

the heterogenity of the traditional city cannot longer be produced within contemporary population scales and developing times

the architecture tries to become the a vertical city

1970-nowadaysrevisionism, ecclecticism and pragmatism