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Geo FactsheetJanuary 1997 Number 9

The Structure Of European Cities: East Versus WestAny large metropolitan city will contain a core of residential, industrial and service functions. The spatial location of these functions -the structure of the city - will be determined by the decisions both of those who perform and those who use these functions. Thesedecisions will be based on two key mechanisms, the market and the plan, which will operate, in different proportions, in every city’sdevelopment. This Factsheet will address to what extent the relative dominance of the plan in Eastern Europe and the market in WesternEurope has affected the structure of urban areas in these two regions.

The West European City

Attempts to delineate the structure of the WestEuropean city usually involve applying andextending the classic zonal and sectoral patternsof Burgess and Hoyt to the particular Europeansetting. Mann produced a model based on workin three northern English cities where the relativelocation of industry and middle-class housingwas determined by the prevailing wind direction.Middle-class housing and commuting ‘villages’are generally located such that industrial fumesdo not blow over these properties: in Britainthis means that they are to be found in the southand west of the city. Robson studied severalBritish cities and concluded that both sectoraland concentric zonal patterns could be detected,with house age concentrically organised andsocio-economic groups structured sectorally. Ifthese concepts of cities having a concentric and/or sectoral structure do in part survive beingtransplanted from the American models ofBurgess and Hoyt, there are perhaps twoimportant differences between the typicalAmerican and West European city:

1). the city core in European cities retains thefunction of a high status residential area to agreater degree than in American cities,particularly in cities with a rich history whereprestige is gained from living in historic areas.

2). the inner city areas of European cities aremore mixed than in America with acombination of economic and residentialfunctions and a more concentrated industrialzone between the inner city and the suburbs.Burgess’ gradation of CBD - zone intransition - lower class housing - middle classhousing, a simplification in any city, is evenless applicable where economic and industrialfunctions are thoroughly intermingled withhousing.

A Model of the West European City

These points of departure from the principles of Burgess and Hoyt do allow the formulation of analternative model of the West European city in the late twentieth century. Burtenshaw, Batemanand Ashworth outline five components to this model (See Fig 1):

1) a historic core combining retail andcommercial functions and gentrifiedmiddle class housing.

2) an old zone in transition, now undergoinggentrification, with immigrant housingbeing edged out.

3) an inner residential zone of inter-warhousing

4) lower density middle class housing nearto new educational and employmentnodes; social housing near to industry

5) the limit to the contiguous city markedby a ring motorway (e.g. M25, M42)beyond which a green belt is maintainedwith dormitory villages and small researchand business parks.

Eastern and Western Cities

Cities in Western Europe are planned anddeveloped within the framework of the capitalistmoney market. This means that all public andprivate developments are funded by capitalistfinance - loans must be repaid and generate areturn. The underlying motive to make a profitultimately distinguishes the West and EastEuropean city. However, as will be shown, thisdistinction exists only between the two poles ofa spectrum of city types. In between are cities inthe West like Vienna, where banks are nationalisedand the state owns a large proportion of the land,and Budapest in the East where the private sectorhas long been involved in housing investmentand construction in a supposedly socialistsociety.

Fig.1: Model of the structure ofa West European city (1990)

Exam Hint - This is definitely not an essaywhich should be attempted by candidateswho cannot back up their analysis withaccurate sketch maps of named cities.

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The Structure Of European Cities: East Versus West Geo Factsheet

The East European housing estate

An example of a typical housing estate from thesocialist period in East Europe can be illustratedwith a case from Warsaw, Poland. Earlier patternsof residential development are quite different withhousing built before World War II formingcontinuous footages to the road. In contrast, newestates from the 1960s are taller, separated fromeach other by open space and play areas, andinsulated from major roads by belts of trees andneighbourhood service roads. Much of thishousing was depressingly uniform, withstandardised buildings built of prefabricatedmaterials and with an onus on quantity and notquality. By the 1970s, estates were built with amore varied layout and design, at a cost of havingto accommodate a greater density of occupants.

The building of these residential neighbourhoodswas by far the most significant impact of thesocialist period on the landscape of EastEuropean cities. Typically, housing densities donot decline from city centre to periphery, asassumed by Burgess, but will often increase withthe transition from the older inner city to the‘high rise’ periphery. Though the overallpopulation density may appear to decline, thisreflects the decreasing frequency of the newresidential estates with distance from the centre.In marked contrast to Western cities, the EastEuropean city have no suburbs, only high risetower blocks stretching out to the edge of theurban area.

The East European CitySocialist thinking on the city

The essential principle behind socialist ideas onthe structure of cities was that the organisationof functions and land uses be tightly plannedwith the aim of maximising the quality of life ofthe urban population. Developments and indeedthe whole layout of the city would be justifiednot on their profitability through rents and loanrepayments, but in terms of whether people wereprovided with a fuller set of public services -housing, public transport, hospitals - and soenjoyed a higher standard of living. In additionto upgrading and equalising the provision ofpublic services, socialist planners also sought tolimit excess urban sprawl and reduce commuting.The extent of land given over to open space andamenities such as children’s playgrounds wasalso to be expanded. The effect of these policieswas to make cities polynuclear with a networkof self-contained and well-serviced urban centres.Each residential district would consist of a seriesof multi-storey blocks, in theory supposed tofoster a sense of community, and with most basicservices easily accessible.

Exam hint -It is unwise to think of European cities in two distinct categories of ‘Western’ and ‘Eastern’.Rather, the balance of plan and market in each city will determine its position on a spectrumfrom the most strongly planned to the least planned cities. Equally, each city will containelements from different historical eras - Czech and Polish cities, for example, experienced aphase of capitalist growth in the inter-war period before coming under Soviet influence afterWorld War II. The mill towns of Lancashire and the Ruhr (Manchester, Blackburn, Essen,Dortmund) are essentially the product of an eighteenth and nineteenth century liberal industrialphase of city growth, but these now form the cores of late-twentieth century welfare state cities.

CASE STUDY: Vienna

Vienna is typical of a West European city where urban development since 1918 has been tightlycontrolled by the public sector and the plan, to the extent that it can be labelled a ‘city of municipalsocialism’. Approximately half the city area is owned by the state and its development is subject tothe principle of ‘social urban design’ whereby the state directs what can and cannot be built andorganises the total mix of land uses. The effect of these policies of municipal socialism is to makeVienna a bipolar city. An inner city dating from the old monarchist capitalist system prior to 1918is separate, both spatially and conceptually, from the outer city of planned inter- and post-wargrowth. In the 1960s in particular massive housing production in the south and east of the citymarked a reversal of the traditional western focus of the city.(See Fig 2).

Fig 2. The city of municipal socialism

Central BusinessDistrict

InnerDistrict

OuterDistrict

Urban fringe of theFounders' Period

Founders' Period(1848-1918) 'Inner City'

Interwar period and post-war era 'Outer City'

Axis for leisureactivities

Centre for theLeisure Society

InnerZone

Zone of urbangrowth

The Structure Of European Cities: East Versus West Geo Factsheet

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Conclusions: the convergence ofplanning ideas

The East European city is characterised by thestyle and number of residential estates and bythe use of a new or rebuild centre for purposesof social control. These features owe more topolitical expediency than a coherent fulfilmentof socialist theories. The demise of socialism hasinevitably prompted a lessening of the grip ofthe planners and the renewed role of privateinvestment in structuring East European cities.In effect, East European planning is resemblingever more West European planning and the EastEuropean city is becoming closer in its geographyto the West European city. East European citiesare already experiencing a differentiation of(private) rents rather than the essentially equalpricing of state housing. Along the same lines,suburbanisation is occurring, as those that canafford it, prefer to live in more spacioussurroundings out of town. Planning in EastEuropean cities is becoming more specificallyurban again as power is decentralised from thecentral government to the relevant localauthorities. The spectrum of European cities isnarrowing.

Bibliography;Burtenshaw, D Bateman, M & Ashworth, G (1991)“The European City: A Western Perspective”;David FultonCarter, H (1995) “The Study of UrbanGeography”; ArnoldEnyedi, G & Szirmai, V (1992) “Budapest: ACentral European Capital”; WileyFrench, R (1995) “Plans, Pragmatism andPeople: The Legacy of Soviet Planning for Today’sCities”; UCL PressLichtenberger, E (1993) “Vienna”; Belhaven PressWorld Cities Series

Acknowledgements;This Geo Factsheet was researched andwritten by Jeremy Smith.

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A Model East European City

Together the new centre and the uniform, self-contained housing district form part of a modelEast European city containing: (See Fig 3).

1) a historic core with market square, castleand, added more recently, a Palace of Cultureand statues to socialist heroes.

2) a relict capitalist city with a mix of residentialand industrial uses. This area has been largelyignored by socialist planners with thesymbolic importance of the city centre andthe pressing need to house the growing urbanpopulation.

3) a zone of socialist transition - withwidespread war damage, this zone will includethe old centre, now the modernised site ofhotels and government offices. If the historiccentre was relatively unscathed the focus forsocialist planners would be a new centre.

4) residential neighbourhoods with basicservices provided at the same site.

New Centres

Another important dimension to the EastEuropean city was the development of a newcity centre. Where the old city had been destroyedin World War II - for example Berlin and Warsaw- it could be rebuilt on planned lines; alternativelyan entirely new site would be used as the newfocus of political and administrative control, aswas the case in Katowice, Poland. These new orrebuilt city centres would include large squaresand thoroughfares to cater for large processionsand symbolic gatherings of loyal citizens. Newmonuments, museums and memorials remindcitizens of significant revolutionary events. Thesecultural and political functions occupy the centralsites which in the West would be taken by retailand commercial functions - shopping and otherservices are provided on the housing estates.Overseas visitors would usually only see thesegrand city centres and never the more drabresidential districts. Such city centres were gearedmore to putting across the socialist version ofhistory to both local and overseas peoples thanto serving the local population.

Historic core-pre 1800

Roads

Railways

Central business district

Former upper and middleclass housing

Former working classhousing mixed withindustry and warehousing

PRE-SOCIALIST PERIOD

SOCIALIST PERIODResidential districts withwelfare and basic services

New city centre

Major secondary centres

Service nodes of regionalor national importance

Industrial zones

Green belts, recreation

Stadiums

Fig 3. The development of new city centres in East European citieswas used to portray the socialist perspective in history