a brief history

of urban form
index
1. 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 settlements
natural 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 / religious
plus defence, mobility, ethnical issues...
urban growth structures

gridiron plan: roman castrum

organic growth, through unplaned first gridirons as the result of the

agregation of buildings pre-existing land cadastre
 EARLY SETTLEMENTS RECAP

natural determinants
topography (location)
climate
natural resources, building materials and technology

man-made determinants
trade
political power
religion
defense
mobility
ethnical issues
etc

urban growth structures

organic, as the natural result of an informal and unplanned gathering
of people
gridiron, as the result of the urban implementation over pre-existing
cadastral land subdivisions
medieval towns
the wall, the marketplace, the church
medieval town origins: castrum, burg or village
medieval town: early evolution
agriculture surplus leads to an increase on non-agricultural specialists
which leads to goods to be secured and defended
the wall
as a defensive element, but also as a toll
the 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-être
the need to trade of every citizen increases the value of the facade
lenght
 WAREHOUSE

WORK

LIVE

“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”
medieval development of amsterdam
 MIDDLE AGES RECAP

origin
village, castrum or burg
agricultural surplus

elements
wall: defense, toll and constriction
marketplace, the city as a market
the church and the castle, representation of the power

amsterdam
specific settlement’s challenges in the Netherlands, the public works
or the “water factor”
renaissance and barroque
aesthetic determinent, aggrandizement and
urban scenery
aesthetic determinant
as the representation of the new humanism ideas
aggrandizement and enclosement
growing and centralization of au-
tocratic political and economical
powers
economical capacity to promote
complex urban opperations as a
process for their aggrandizement
urban scenery for statues
unifying individual buildings
through the repetion of a basic
facade or elevation
enclosed space for civic, religious,
commercial or residential pur-
poses
Rome, urban scale scenery for pilgrimage
implementation of the “main street”, or street hierarchy
ease the reception of pilgrims. PERSPECTIVES
climax of urban scenery
inside and outside working together as a tool for poignancy
renaissance star forts, or trace italienne
consequences of the Fall of Constantinople
cannon-proof geometries

avoid perpendicular impact of the bullets

on the wall, both in cross section and floor
plan
avoid proper cannon orientation through
cross fire
extend the distance between the enemy
and the city, the thickened wall
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 shares
communal action in the con-
struction of the grachten
compulsory land purchase
powers
jordaan, zoned for industrial
purposes
big 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 structure

aesthetic determinant
enclosement
aggrandizement
urban scenery: main streets and perspectives

renaissance ideal cities

humanism + militar technology evolution

grachtengordel
urban expansion through legislation and cooperation
zoning
nineteenth century
grand urban renewals
and extension plans
paris, complete urban renewal
autocracy, 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 planning
the grid as the possibility of growth ad infinitum
scientific coherence in any scale
conceived as a worldwide system, but very specific in the local implementation
every detail was designed, from the surface of the extension plan to the positioning of every bench or tree or clock
ventilation, sun radiation and mobility planned from a entire city approach
rather visionary
blocks’ depth and height regulated due to hygienic reasons
early dissociation between street and inter-street

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.
feasible variations within the grid
the grid as an structural framework for
the individual decissions and the histori-
cal development
NINETEENTH CENTURY RECAP

renovation
speculative philanthropy
increasing added value
population control
social hygienization

extension
scientific approach
universal design (worldwide useful)
all-scale approach to the city
freedom through homogenization
dissociation building-street
garden cities
first failure of urban design as
a social tool
howard’s lifeframe disconected from
ruling classes
working class approach
lack of public support
designed as a set of self-suficient rather
dense autonomous cities of 30.000 in-
habitants
included 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 elites

monofunctional sprawls
low density
nonsocial cities
arise of the sprawl-highway-mall structure
1920-1950
modernism, rationalism and standarization
plan Zuid: a conservative approach
traditionalist
baroque visual lines
enclosed public spaces
urban aggrandizement
classical composition tools: axis and symmetry
variations on scale and composition according to the urban function (designing hierarchies)
modernism, a whole new city
confidence 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.
mechanization of the city
hygienization: sun, ventilation, space
full dissociation between pedestrians, streets and buildings
the city IN the nature
industrialization, technification
scientific management (taylorism)
zoning
social equality through homogenization
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
post WWII, european reconstruction
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
them
modern movement ideas become massive destruction weapons when
used by the private sector
algemeen uitbreidingsplan (AUP)
social and heritage sensitivity
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

modernism
tabula rasa
deconstruction of traditional city
repetition, standardization and homogenization of both public and
domestic spaces
optimisation of urban functions sepparately
zoning

post WWII developments

mediocrization and repetition of modernist ideas
1950-1970
structuralism, brutalism and pop
TEAM X
the subversive sieblings of the modernism

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
existenzminum
association, identity, flexibility
instead 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”
revisiting modernism
new approach, same old problems

if the streets have dissapeared

let’s re-incorporate them to in
our blocks

THE BUILDING BECOMES THE

CITY

conectivity meaning conected

buildings
choice meaning ecclectic
organic-like layout
identity meaning only
choosing post war scenarios
for the proposals
relationship 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-nowadays
revisionism, ecclecticism and pragmatism