The Heritage of Urban Design PDF

1 The Heritage of Urban Design 1 ,...

1 The Heritage of Urban Design 1 , I I r ') ' j ne1epm1np In ~ long: ~tory from camp to village a handful of innova- tions accel~rated the art of settlement design. ' In agricultural societies ~uch an inno'vation may be symbolized by the plow, f or if boosted food production enough to free some people 'from tilling the soil and enabled · them to attend to other pursuits. With the plow, man-'put his first lines on the earth's surface. On the flat - riverside floodlands--civilizatio n's first tilled soil-the plow etched Air view of rectilinear land division parallel furrow.s which added up to ~ number of plots, more or In a farming area. less ~ ular-in shape.-Agricultur~ eties needed a system of ~~ landdivisiQIDfor crop planning and l~ nershi}i;)They ~ needed a: system of l_and plotting_for redivision and reapp!- tionment ~teJ a 6ex>r_actl c.M_ size-this largely determined 6y die capacity of surrounding farmland to feed__the population-growth __was _tefaiinated_.and..a..ncw_ town-Started. at ~nother_ propi~suall y not too f_a r away..Jhe n~w town / was called a cneopoly and when that 10 tum reached its mu- imum size, thefitarted another one. The first neopolis was then called a ( paleopo~:) or ol~ ~n.. Miletus, the hometown of Hippodamus-,-Tssaid to have spawned some seventy or more new towns. The perfection of this form and the way of life it represented. -- - ♦ -9' The Greek colonial town uf PricM, Ubutratin6 the principles of Hippodam,u, is best visualized by studying the plan of Miletus, Priene, or but planned after his time. Alexandria. The world of these little towns was the world of the Mediterranean, many of whose societies built towns based on the general design concepts perfected by the Greeks. Not the least of them were the Romans, who adopted and enlarged upon the ideas of Greece and added a few of their own. ~ban Design in Ancient Rome 'ii'i1Tiilfll iU:I.. l~ - Q - ~ - Mll Whereas the Greeks were motivated by a sense of the finite in their towns and buildings, the Romans we~ t!!ate