URBAN DESIGN

UNIT II
 HISTORY OF CITIES

 The building of cities has a long and complex history. Although city planning as an organized
profession has existed for less than a century, all cities display various degrees of forethought
and conscious design in their layout and functioning. Early humans led a nomadic existence,
relying on hunting and gathering for sustenance. Between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago,
systematic cultivation of plants and the domestication of animals allowed for more permanent
settlements. During the fourth millennium B.C., the requirements for the "urban revolution"
were finally met: the production of a surplus of storable food, a system of writing, a more
complex social organization, and technological advances such as the plough, potter's wheel,
loom, and metallurgy.

 Cities exist for many reasons, and the diversity of urban forms can be traced to the complex
functions that cities perform. Cities serve as centers of storage, trade, and manufacture. The
agricultural surplus from the surrounding countryside is processed and distributed in cities.
Cities also grew up around marketplaces, where goods from distant places could be exchanged
for local products. Throughout history, cities have been founded at the intersections of
transportation routes, or at points where goods must shift from one mode of transportation to
another, as at river and ocean ports.
 HISTORY OF CITIES
 Religious elements have been crucial throughout urban history. Ancient peoples had sacred places,
often associated with cemeteries or shrines, around which cities grew. Ancient cities usually had
large temple precincts with monumental religious buildings. Many medieval cities were built near
monasteries and cathedrals.
 Cities often provide protection in a precarious world. During attacks, the rural populace could flee
behind city walls, where defense forces assembled to repel the enemy. The wall served this purpose
for millennia, until the invention of heavy artillery rendered walls useless in warfare. With the
advent of modern aerial warfare, cities have become prime targets for destruction rather than safe
havens.
 Cities serve as centers of government. In particular, the emergence of the great nation-states of
Europe between 1400 and 1800 led to the creation of new capital cities or the investing of existing
cities with expanded governmental functions.
 Cities, with their concentration of talent, mixture of peoples, and economic surplus, have provided a
fertile ground for the evolution of human culture: the arts, scientific research, and technical
innovation. They serve as centers of communication, where new ideas and information are spread
to the surrounding territory and to foreign lands.
The city of Madurai developed around the Meenakshi Amman
Temple
 EVOLUTION OF URBAN FORM
 The first true urban settlements appeared around 3,000 B.C. in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus
Valley. Ancient cities displayed both "organic" and "planned" types of urban form. These societies had
elaborate religious, political, and military hierarchies. Precincts devoted to the activities of the elite were
often highly planned and regular in form. In contrast, residential areas often grew by a slow process of
accretion, producing complex, irregular patterns that we term "organic." Two typical features of the
ancient city are the wall and the citadel: the wall for defense in regions periodically swept by conquering
armies, and the citadel -- a large, elevated precinct within the city -- devoted to religious and state
functions.
 Greek cities did not follow a single pattern. Cities growing slowly from old villages often had an irregular,
organic form, adapting gradually to the accidents of topography and history. Colonial cities, however, were
planned prior to settlement using the grid system. The grid is easy to lay out, easy to comprehend, and
divides urban land into uniform rectangular lots suitable for development.
 The Romans engaged in extensive city-building activities as they consolidated their empire. Rome itself
displayed the informal complexity created by centuries of organic growth, although particular temple and
public districts were highly planned. In contrast, the Roman military and colonial towns were laid out in a
variation of the grid. Many European cities, like London and Paris, sprang from these Roman origins.
 ANCIENT
CIVILIZATIONS

MESOPTAMIAN
CIVILIZATION

INDUS
CIVILIZATION
 THEE

THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION

 EVOLUTION OF URBAN FORM
 We usually associate medieval cities with narrow winding streets converging on a market
square with a cathedral and city hall. Many cities of this period display this pattern, the product
of thousands of incremental additions to the urban fabric. However, new towns seeded
throughout undeveloped regions of Europe were based upon the familiar grid. In either case,
large encircling walls were built for defense against marauding armies; new walls enclosing
more land were built as the city expanded and outgrew its former container.
 During the Renaissance, architects began to systematically study the shaping of urban space,
as though the city itself were a piece of architecture that could be given an aesthetically
pleasing and functional order. Many of the great public spaces of Rome and other Italian cities
date from this era. Parts of old cities were rebuilt to create elegant squares, long street
vistas, and symmetrical building arrangements. Responding to advances in firearms during the
fifteenth century, new city walls were designed with large earthworks to deflect artillery, and
star-shaped points to provide defenders with sweeping lines of fire. Spanish colonial cities in
the New World were built according to rules codified in the Laws of the Indies of 1573,
specifying an orderly grid of streets with a central plaza, defensive wall, and uniform building
style.
 A SKETCH OF MEDIEVAL ROME
WITH THE CO,LOSSEUM AT THE
CENTRE

MAP OF
MEDIEVAL ROME

A SIMULATION OF THE MEDIEVAL

MARKET PLACE IN ROME
 EVOLUTION OF URBAN FORM
 We associate the baroque city with the emergence of great nation-states between 1600 and 1750. Ambitious
monarchs constructed new palaces, courts, and bureaucratic offices. The grand scale was sought in urban
public spaces: long avenues, radial street networks, monumental squares, geometric parks and gardens.
Versailles is a clear expression of this city-building model; Washington, D.C. is an example from the United
States. Baroque principles of urban design were used by Baron Haussmann in his celebrated restructuring
of Paris between 1853 and 1870. Haussmann carved broad new thoroughfares through the tangled web of
old Parisian streets, linking major subcenters of the city with one another in a pattern which has served as
a model for many other modernization plans.
 Toward the latter half of the eighteenth century, particularly in America, the city as a setting for commerce
assumed primacy. The buildings of the bourgeoisie expand along with their owners' prosperity: banks, office
buildings, warehouses, hotels, and small factories. New towns founded during this period were conceived as
commercial enterprises, and the neutral grid was the most effective means to divide land up into parcels
for sale. The city became a checkerboard on which players speculated on shifting land values. No longer
would religious, political, and cultural imperatives shape urban development; rather, the market would be
allowed to determine the pattern of urban growth. New York, Philadelphia, and Boston around 1920
exemplify the commercial city of this era, with their bustling, mixed-use waterfront districts.
BAROQUE
 TRANSITION TO THE INDUSTRIAL CITY
 Cities have changed more since the Industrial Revolution than in all the previous centuries of their existence. New
York had a population of about 313,000 in 1840 but had reached 4,767,000 in 1910. Chicago exploded from 4.000 to
2,185,000 during the same period. Millions of rural dwellers no longer needed on farms flocked to the cities, where
new factories churned out products for the new markets made accessible by railroads and steamships. In the
United States, millions of immigrants from Europe swelled the urban populations. Increasingly, urban economies
were being woven more rightly into the national and international economies.
 Technological innovations poured forth, many with profound impacts on urban form. Railroad tracks were driven into
the heart of the city. Internal rail transportation systems greatly expanded the radius of urban settlement:
horsecars beginning in the 1830s, cable cars in the 1870s, and electric trolleys in the 1880s. In the 1880s, the first
central power plants began providing electrical power to urban areas. The rapid communication provided by the
telegraph and the telephone allowed formerly concentrated urban activities to disperse across a wider field.
 The industrial city still focused on the city center, which contained both the central business district, defined by
large office buildings, and substantial numbers of factory and warehouse structures. Both trolleys and railroad
systems converged on the center of the city, which boasted the premier entertainment and shopping
establishments. The working class lived in crowded districts close to the city center, near their place of
employment.
 Early American factories were located outside of major cities along rivers which provided water power
for machinery. After steam power became widely available in the 1930s, factories could be located within
the city in proximity to port facilities, rail lines, and the urban labor force. Large manufacturing zones
emerged within the major northeastern and midwestern cities such as Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Cleveland.
But by the late nineteenth century, factory decentralization had already begun, as manufacturers sought
larger parcels of land away from the congestion of the city. Gary, Indiana, for example, was founded in
1906 on the southern shore of Lake Michigan by the United States Steel Company.
 The increasing crowding, pollution, and disease in the central city produced a growing desire to escape to
a healthier environment in the suburbs. The upper classes had always been able to retreat to homes in
the countryside. Beginning in the 1830s, commuter railroads enabled the upper middle class to commute
in to the city center. Horsecar lines were built in many cities between the 1830s and 1880s, allowing the
middle class to move out from the central cities into more spacious suburbs. Finally, during the 1890s
electric trolleys and elevated rapid transit lines proliferated, providing cheap urban transportation for
the majority of the population.
 The central business district of the city underwent a radical transformation with the development of the
skyscraper between 1870 and 1900. These tall buildings were not technically feasible until the invention of
the elevator and steel-frame construction methods. Skyscrapers reflect the dynamics of the real estate
market; the tall building extracts the maximum economic value from a limited parcel of land. These office
buildings housed the growing numbers of white-collar employees in banking, finance, management, and
business services, all manifestations of the shift from an economy of small firms to one of large
corporations.
PITTSBURGH DETROIT

CLEVELAND
 FEATURES OF ANCIENT HINDU TOWNS

 Ancient cities of India possess well planned streets, art of pottery, drainage ditches, bulky
granaries, and large bath sources for ritual cleansing
 Constructed on a raised platform, most major buildings were made from brick
 There existed small two – room structures to enormous two – storied houses with courtyards
 Ancient Indian cities belong to the Bronze age beginning from 3300 BCE
 The most intriguing facts about the ancient Indian cities is that they have remained the same
with slight dash of contemporaneity
 Modern Indian cities have verily grown upon the ruins of the ancient cities in India
 FEATURES OF ANCIENT HINDU TOWNS – HARAPPAN CITIES
 THE HARAPPAN CITIES:
 A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture is evident in the Indus Valley Civilization making
them the first urban centers in the region.
 The quality of municipal town planning suggests the knowledge of urban planning and efficient municipal
governments which placed a high priority on hygiene, and accessibility to the means of religious ritual.
 As seen in Harappa and Mohenjo-daro this urban plan included the world's first known urban sanitation
systems.
 Within the city, individual homes or groups of homes obtained water from wells.
 From a room that appears to have been set aside for bathing, waste water was directed to covered drains,
which lined the major streets. Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes.
 The ancient Indus systems of sewerage and drainage that were developed and used in cities throughout the
Indus region were far more advanced than any found in contemporary urban sites in the Middle East and
even more efficient than those in many areas of Pakistan and India today.
A HARAPPAN TOWN

CITY OF DHOLAVIRA
FEATURES OF ANCIENT HINDU TOWNS – HARAPPAN CITIES
 The advanced architecture of the Harappans is shown by their impressive dockyards,
granaries, warehouses, brick platforms, and protective walls.
 The massive walls of Indus cities most likely protected the Harappans from floods and may
have dissuaded military conflicts.
 Most city dwellers were traders or artisans, who lived with others pursuing the same
occupation in well-defined neighborhoods.
 Materials from distant regions were used in the cities for constructing seals, beads and other
objects.
 Although some houses were larger than others, Indus Civilization cities were remarkable for
their apparent, if relative, egalitarianism.
 All the houses had access to water and drainage facilities.
 This gives the impression of a society with relatively low wealth concentration, though clear
social leveling is seen in personal adornments.
 FEATURES OF ANCIENT HINDU TOWNS - AYODHYA
 Ayodhya is an ancient city of India, the old capital of Awadh, in the current Faizabad district of Uttar
Pradesh
 Ayodhya is the birth place of Hindu God Shri Ram, and the capital of Kosala Kingdom. This Hindu holy
city is described as early as in the Hindu Epics. During the time of Gautama Buddha the city was
called Ayojjhā (Pali). Under Muslim rule, it was the seat of the governor of Awadh, and later during
the British Raj the city was known as Ajodhya or Ajodhia and was part of the United Provinces of
Agra and Oudh, it was also the seat of a small 'talukdari' state. It is on the right bank of the river
Sarayu, 555 km east of New Delhi
 The ancient city of Ayodhya was one of the most ancient, largest and most magnificent of Indian
cities and the holiest of the world
 It was the venue of many an event in Hindu history, today preeminently a temple town. This city was
also a significant trade center in 600 BC
 Ayodhya during ancient times was known as Kosaldesa. The Atharvaveda describes it as "a city built
by Gods and being as prosperous as paradise itself".
 FEATURES OF INDO ISLAMIC CITIES
The Mughal cities:
 Agra
 Delhi
 Fatehpur Sikri
 Lahore
Planning of Fatehpur Sikri:
 The city of red sandstone buildings
 Fatehpur Sikri is said to be the look- alike of the mosque in Mecca
 It was planned as the cultural, commercial and administrative center of the Mughal empire
 The city is built completely using red sandstone and is a blend of Islamic and Hindu architectural
elements
 The sandstone is richly ornamented with carving and fretwork
 Naubata Khana: It is located at the entry point to the city and the road passes through it.
 FEATURES OF INDO ISLAMIC CITIES - FATEHPUR SIKRI
Imperial complex:
 The treasury, the offices, Daulat Khana, The haram sara or Ladies palace
 Well connected and highly planned complex
 FEATURES OF INDO ISLAMIC CITIES - FATEHPUR SIKRI

Diwan-I-Am:
 Palace where ruler meets general public
 Typical feature of all Mughal palaces
 One end of court is an elevated pavilion

Daulat Khana:
 Comprises the Diwan-i-Khaas, the Khwabgah,
the Anup Talao, the Turkish Sultana’s pavilion
and other minor structures
 BRITISH COLONIAL CITIES
 A number of new towns and new suburbs were built to house the British, and the pattern of
new town planning changed. India was still divided into administrative districts as under the
Mughals, and the towns which functioned as district headquarters were the ones where most
of the new architecture was built.

 The planning and urban design policies of the British followed certain principles –
(a) their perceptions of the nature of the Indian city,
(b) the fear of further revolts along the lines of the Mutiny of 1857,
(c) Haussmann’s plan for Paris which had become so popular in Europe and which advocated
cutting through and demolishing old city centers to make space for new construction and
boulevards, and
(d) planning techniques already in use for Britain’s industrial cities
 In the main the effort was to physically and socially separate the Europeans from the
indigenous populace – the so-called ‘White’ and ‘Black’ towns of Madras being an example
 BRITISH COLONIAL CITIES
 The economic boom of the later half of the 19th century translated into
frenetic building activity in British India
 The application of urban design guidelines resulted in the unified character
that old British settlements in India still possess
 As pressure on space grew, British architecture progressed from single
buildings set in open surrounding to more densely packed urban schemes,
as in the cities of Calcutta and Bombay
 In addition to major urban design schemes, it was the civil lines and the
cantonments which remain today a major evidence of 19th century British
presence, and which in turn have influenced much middle-class housing
development in modern India
 The cantonments and civil lines both were generally laid out as gridiron
planned communities with central thoroughfares, with tree-lined streets,
regularly divided building plots and bungalows as the main housing type.
Churches and cemeteries, clubs, race and golf courses, and other
trappings of an easy civil life were soon to follow.
KABUL CANTONMENT
The Cantonment was a British military settlement which was to spread out all over India
wherever the British were present in sizable numbers
 BRITISH COLONIAL CITIES
 Originally conceived as a military base for British troops, the cantonment also began to house
civilians who were associated with servicing the military, and developed into a full-fledged
mini-city of its own
 The second half of the 19th century saw this transformation complete. Bangalore cantonment
had, for example, a population of 100,000 by the early 20th century and consisted of public
offices, churches, parks, shops and schools
 The cantonment thus developed into a European town in India, whose main house type was the
bungalow.
 The bungalow’s design evolved as a type over a hundred years. While the actual model for a
bungalow remains controversial, it appears to have dual origins: the detached rural Bengal
house sitting in its compound (from the word root bangla – from Bengal), and the British
suburban villa. It was a fusion of these two types that led to a building form which would later
become an enduring symbol of the Raj.
 BRITISH COLONIAL CITIES
 The first bungalows inhabited by the East India Company agents were initially the same as
the kutcha local ones, but gradually outstripped their origins to become an accurate reflection
of hierarchy amongst the English community
 The typical residential bungalow for the wealthy, for example, was set back from the road by a
walled compound
 The amount of land enclosed was a symbol of status. For a senior officer a ratio of 15:1, garden
to built form, was appropriate, while for a beginning rank it could even be 1:1
 The early bungalows had long, low classical lines and detailing. The Gothic revival in England
brought about a corresponding change in bungalow design – spawning buildings with pitched
roofs and richly carpentered details including such features as the ‘monkey tops’ of Bangalore
 The Classical bungalow with its Doric, and later, in New Delhi for instance, Tuscan orders
became a symbol not only of an European heritage but also of the military and political might of
Britain
 BRITISH COLONIAL CITIES

The classic Bungalow British Sub urban villa

 CIVIL LINES, DELHI
 The Civil Lines, Delhi is a subdivision of North Delhi District in the National Capital Territory of
Delhi, India and a noted Civil lines residential area in Delhi. It is one of the 12 zones under
the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)
 It was the hub of European-style hotels in the city until New Delhi came into being in 1911
 The name Civil Lines is a relic of British Raj times, when the city of Delhi was organized into
separate areas where the British Military and Civilian buildings were located
 Areas where civilians lived were demarcated as Civil Lines
 One of the earliest modern hotels in Delhi was the Maisens Hotel, Delhi, later Oberoi Maidens,
built 1903. It was situated in the Civil Lines, where all European style hotel were situated and
the officers of British Raj stayed. Other hotels in the area were Swiss Hotel and Hotel Cecil, run
by Robert Hotz family, which also owned Wildflower Hall and Cecil Hotel in Shimla. Hotel Cecil
was later demolished and today St.Xavier’s school stand on the location
 Raj Niwas, the official residence of the Lieutenant Governer of Delhi, the head of state
of Delhi and National Capital Territory of Delhi is located on Raj Niwas Marg in Civil Lines
 CIVIL LINES, DELHI
 Civil Lines is connected to Delhi University North Campus It is now a developing district. It
includes areas like:
 1. Court Road 2. Rajpur Road 3. Sham Nath Marg (erstwhile Alipur Road) 4. Under Hill Road 5.
Under Hill Lane 6. Police Lines 7. Shankracharya Marg 8. Raj Narain Road 9. Maharaja Lal Lane
10. Jamna Marg 11. Raj Niwas Road 12. Shri Ram Road 13. Flagstaff Road 14. Racquet Court Road
15. Ram Kishore Road
 RAILWAY TOWNS
 A railway town, or railroad town, is a settlement that originated or was greatly
developed because of a railway station or junction at its site.
 Middlesbrough was the first new town to be developed due to the railways, growing
from a hamlet of 40 into an industrial port after the Stockton and Darlington Railway
was extended in 1830.
 How they developed:

In some cases, a railroad town would be started by the railroad, often using a separate
town or land company, even when another town already existed nearby. The population of
the existing town would shift to the railroad town. This would create a major new
settlement in this area, often before the railroad ever arrived at the new townsite.
 Indian Examples:

1. Kharagpur, West Bengal

2. Arrakoram, Tamil Nadu
S.SWETHA 10031AA059
NEHA DIGGIKAR 10031AA052
SUMATHI
MOUNIKA