Urbanism and Planning; timelines, notes on authors, notes on lectures, and notes on
reading.
Part 1
TIMELINES
Writers:
Davis: S-curve of urbanization.
Childe: Agricultural/neolithic revolution, urban revolution, industrial revolution.
Aristotle: What is a citizen? Who owns property?
Fowler: Democracy in Athens, dependence on other cities.
Pirenne: Central role of trade, rise of guilds, feudal system, private capital, collapse of the
Roman empire.
Engels: Liveability working class.
Kitto: Cultural determinism Greek polis. Strong emphasis on public life.
Wirth: Chicago as a living laboratory.
Tӧnnies: Gemeinschaft vs. gesellschaft.
Howard: Garden cities, extensively planned best of city and rural.
Olmsted: Central park -> cities need green spaces.
Taylor: Globalization and world cities.
Brenner & Keil: Urbanization, inter-urban connections.
Sassen: Agglomeration, innovation, clustering, global cities.
Fishman: critiqued suburbia -> it is a waste of land.
Bruegman: Fan of suburbia -> it is what people want.
Vale:
Stout: Cars are bad for the environment -> different mobility solution.
Wright:
Ancient cities: Located along rivers for fertile soil, irrigation and trade.
Mostly walled (square or circular walls).
★ Distinct citadel precinct with temple.
★ Palace (earthly power - heavenly mandate).
★ Temples (heavenly power).
★ Central granary / granaries (food storage).
★ Public works: bathhouses, market places.
★ Infrastructure: roads, canals, sewage.
★ Explicit planning principles and similar structures (inter-/cardinal orientation).
Classical cities: river valleys were still the most important,
Cities were more dependent on places further away.
There were shifts to coastal cities because of the importance of trade overseas.
Expansion happens along the coast.
The polis: located in mountain valleys.
Artists, historians, philosophers etc.
Medieval cities: planning for defense/health, interdependent, guilds and unions
Renaissance cities
Italian city-states:
,Colonial cities: trade overseas becomes more important driven by venture capital, more
coastal cities.
Industrial cities: perceived as dark money-making machines, polluted.
,NOTES
04.09.2024 lecture 1
The reading and writing of cities
Reading = trying to ‘read’ what someone else has written. -> Trying to understand cities.
★ Reading means we can decipher knowledge from what we observe.
-> we can ‘read’ how shifts in priorities, power structures, societal values, beliefs and
technological advantages shaped the city.
This is not limited to old cities or archaeological sites, the neighborhoods and CBD’s we built
today will say just as much about our contemporary society.
★ Writing a city hints at possibilities to shape and transform urban spaces through
deliberate action.
-> the organization and regulation of present and future urban spaces.
To address collective concerns around spatial issues and the quality of local and regional
environments. Also by involving multiple scales, actors and dimensions.
The ‘language’ of cities
★ Architectural styles
-> Buildings express power. Architecture is sometimes intended to impact how
people feel.
★ Layout and design of buildings.
-> what do you put in those buildings? It tells you something about what a civilization
values.
★ Layout and design of the city itself
-> are there parks, sanitation, hygiene?
★ Large scale interventions in the urban fabric
-> for example (economic) changes are mirrored by cities. Also components such as
AI.
★ Shifts in the use of land and buildings
-> industrial revolution changed a lot of cities.
★ The power wielded over the city
-> who is changing stuff in the city. Who owns the city?
Most attention is paid to palaces and military installations; how the common people live tells
us what is valued in a society.
The urban revolution
The sense in which you look at history is not objective. The moment in which we define how
we address a period in time still affects us today.
The first settlements can eventually grow out to the first cities.
, Urban settlements require:
A stable food source
Vere Gordon Childe
★ Australian archaeologist and philologist (1892-1957)
★ Spend most of his life and career in the United Kingdom
★ Most known for proposing to view human history in terms of revolution instead of the
three-age system which was developed by the Danish archaeologist Christian.
reading.
Part 1
TIMELINES
Writers:
Davis: S-curve of urbanization.
Childe: Agricultural/neolithic revolution, urban revolution, industrial revolution.
Aristotle: What is a citizen? Who owns property?
Fowler: Democracy in Athens, dependence on other cities.
Pirenne: Central role of trade, rise of guilds, feudal system, private capital, collapse of the
Roman empire.
Engels: Liveability working class.
Kitto: Cultural determinism Greek polis. Strong emphasis on public life.
Wirth: Chicago as a living laboratory.
Tӧnnies: Gemeinschaft vs. gesellschaft.
Howard: Garden cities, extensively planned best of city and rural.
Olmsted: Central park -> cities need green spaces.
Taylor: Globalization and world cities.
Brenner & Keil: Urbanization, inter-urban connections.
Sassen: Agglomeration, innovation, clustering, global cities.
Fishman: critiqued suburbia -> it is a waste of land.
Bruegman: Fan of suburbia -> it is what people want.
Vale:
Stout: Cars are bad for the environment -> different mobility solution.
Wright:
Ancient cities: Located along rivers for fertile soil, irrigation and trade.
Mostly walled (square or circular walls).
★ Distinct citadel precinct with temple.
★ Palace (earthly power - heavenly mandate).
★ Temples (heavenly power).
★ Central granary / granaries (food storage).
★ Public works: bathhouses, market places.
★ Infrastructure: roads, canals, sewage.
★ Explicit planning principles and similar structures (inter-/cardinal orientation).
Classical cities: river valleys were still the most important,
Cities were more dependent on places further away.
There were shifts to coastal cities because of the importance of trade overseas.
Expansion happens along the coast.
The polis: located in mountain valleys.
Artists, historians, philosophers etc.
Medieval cities: planning for defense/health, interdependent, guilds and unions
Renaissance cities
Italian city-states:
,Colonial cities: trade overseas becomes more important driven by venture capital, more
coastal cities.
Industrial cities: perceived as dark money-making machines, polluted.
,NOTES
04.09.2024 lecture 1
The reading and writing of cities
Reading = trying to ‘read’ what someone else has written. -> Trying to understand cities.
★ Reading means we can decipher knowledge from what we observe.
-> we can ‘read’ how shifts in priorities, power structures, societal values, beliefs and
technological advantages shaped the city.
This is not limited to old cities or archaeological sites, the neighborhoods and CBD’s we built
today will say just as much about our contemporary society.
★ Writing a city hints at possibilities to shape and transform urban spaces through
deliberate action.
-> the organization and regulation of present and future urban spaces.
To address collective concerns around spatial issues and the quality of local and regional
environments. Also by involving multiple scales, actors and dimensions.
The ‘language’ of cities
★ Architectural styles
-> Buildings express power. Architecture is sometimes intended to impact how
people feel.
★ Layout and design of buildings.
-> what do you put in those buildings? It tells you something about what a civilization
values.
★ Layout and design of the city itself
-> are there parks, sanitation, hygiene?
★ Large scale interventions in the urban fabric
-> for example (economic) changes are mirrored by cities. Also components such as
AI.
★ Shifts in the use of land and buildings
-> industrial revolution changed a lot of cities.
★ The power wielded over the city
-> who is changing stuff in the city. Who owns the city?
Most attention is paid to palaces and military installations; how the common people live tells
us what is valued in a society.
The urban revolution
The sense in which you look at history is not objective. The moment in which we define how
we address a period in time still affects us today.
The first settlements can eventually grow out to the first cities.
, Urban settlements require:
A stable food source
Vere Gordon Childe
★ Australian archaeologist and philologist (1892-1957)
★ Spend most of his life and career in the United Kingdom
★ Most known for proposing to view human history in terms of revolution instead of the
three-age system which was developed by the Danish archaeologist Christian.
