ANCIENT URBAN AND

REGIONAL PLANNING
THEORIES AND PRINCIPLE
GROUP 1:
CABRERA . NAVARRO . REBULADO . SARMIENTO
AR176 - AR1
What is Urban Planning?

- is a technical and political

process concerned with the
development and land use of
the cities. Urban planning
deals with physical layout of
human settlements with public
welfare as its primary concern.
Urban planning is considered interdisciplinary as it works with cognate field in
architecture, engineering and public administration.

SOCIAL DESIGN
SCIENCE

LANDSCAPE
POLITICAL
ENGINEERING
REGIONAL PLANNING

- is a sub-field of urban
planning

- relates land use

practices on a broader
scale.

- growth across a larger

area of land than an
individual city or town.
Table of Contents:
1. Classical
a. Pre-classical
b. Ancient Chinese
c. Greco-Roman
d. Renaissance
2. Modern
a. Garden City Movement
b. City Beautiful
c. Modernism
d. New Towns
The pre-Classical and Classical periods saw a number of cities laid out according to
fixed plans, though many tended to develop organically.
INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION
● Twin cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa

1. regularity and order in the

town planning (uniform)

1. Grid system

1. Excellent drainage system

Cities are divided into two districts:

1. Citadel - (upper town) housed

the important buildings

1. Lower towns - dwellings

● Lacks religious place/ governance indicating

that class structure is relatively equal.
Street’s Grid Pattern

● Main cities oriented from N - S

with connecting streets running
E-W

● Streets were straight and laid in a

right angle

● Understanding of basic principle

of traffic.
○ 13-45 feet wide
● From wide streets use for public trading, open spaces etc to narrow
spaces that leads to more private dwellings.
Elaborate Sewage System

● Brick laid channels to every city

● Houses have their own wells
● Perfect underground drainage system
Mesopotamian Civilization
Water is the basis of urban growth (partly planned and partly organic)

● Walled City-States

● Temples as the core of the

city.

● Main canal and harbor

● Network of roads
○ transportation network was organized in
three tiers (wide processional streets,
public through streets, and private blind
alleys)
Sumerian Civilization
● Ur - the first city (planned by Ur-nammu)
● Cities are closed of by a wall

● Monumental centers serves as the nucleus

around which the urban form grew.

● Blend of residential and commercial)

● Divided into neighborhoods

● Houses were grouped in congested blocks
● Twisted network and unpaved streets
● Ample squares/public gardens are very rare
Egyptian Civilization
The urban planning of the Egyptian civilization based on either:

1. Nwt - unplanned cities that grew naturally under the influence of nature and
climatic conditions.(Memphis & Thebis)
2. Dmi - usually refers to towns that were laid out along a plan. (Tell El-dab’a,
El-Lahun)

● The main consideration where to build was generally proximity to a waterway

and height above the floodplains.
Hotep-Senusret (Kahun)

● Outlay of the city is rectangular.

(384x335 meters)
● Orthogonal street grid
● Divided into two parts by brick wall.
● Street of main street were 9 meters
wide.
● The town’s plan clearly reveals two
social classes living in separate
quarters.
ANCIENT CHINESE URBAN PLANNING

Ancient Chinese encompasses the diverse set of cultural

beliefs, social and economic structures, and technological
capacities that historically influenced urban design in the
early period of Chinese civilization.

Factors that have shaped the development of Chinese

urbanism include:
● fengshui geomancy & astronomy
● the well-field system;
● the cosmological belief that Heaven is round and the
Earth is square
● the concept of qi;
● walled capital city as a diagram of political power.
Shang Dynasty’s ideograph for “city”.
The first Chinese cities represent more of a political and religious development
than a basic technological innovation.

● The enclosure represents the wall of the city, the

power of the capital as the center of the state
and the moral authority of the state religion;

● the kneeling man represents the submission of

all people to the temporal and spiritual authority
of the state as personified in the creation of the
city.
Classical Standard

The ideal capital city is a perfect square,

each nine li on a side, bisected by a central
meridional axis so that it forms the
ideographic character for earth and China,
This structure is reproduced by the magic
square, a tool for divination.
 The outer city was divided into four quarters along the cardinal axes. Each quarter was
subdivided into wards with enclosing walls and gates, and each ward was divided into
four quarters. There were twelve city gates, three in each of the walls, representing the
twelve months of the year. These gates define a grid work of major thoroughfares of
which the north/south are of primary importance in defining the use of space and
movement within the city.
Greco - Roman
 MARKET PLACE

Forum Agora
Greek street layout

Hippodamian layout
Roman street layout

Castrum layout
 Art

Pottery Mosaic
 Housing

Megaron - Greek mansion Villa - Roman mansion

 Renaissance Europe

Domus - Private houses

Tenement - common Insulae - Apartment for common
people people
Renaissance Europe
Florence , Italy
● Birthplace of
Renaissance
● Grid Pattern
● Major streets are laid
to interconnect major
church buildings
● To perceive rome as
“Holy shrine”
Renaissance Europe Social hierarchy
Renaissance Europe : Garden
Renaissance : Garden

Shows wealth, power and authority.

GARDEN CITY
MOVEMENT
● Introduced Garden City Concept, evident on his
published book, To-morrow later known as Garden
Cities of To-morrow (London,1898)

● Founded Garden City Association (later known as th

Town and Country Planning Association or TCPA),
which created the first Garden City,

● Introduction of greenbelts
 ABOUT THE BOOK
● His solution was creating smaller garden
cities
- Linked with canals and transit
- Covered by permanent greenbelt

● Was heavily influenced by utopian visions of

Edward Bellamy and his publication Looking
Backward (1888).

● His book envisioned a town free of slums;

enjoying benefits of both town and country;
 “THREE MAGNETS”
● He compared each city to a
magnet, with individuals represented
as needles drawn to the city

● “The two magnets must be made

one.”

● Made three points of advantages and

disadvantages of:
- Town Life
- Country Life
- Town-Country Life
 TOWN COUNTRY
POSITIVE ASPECTS NEGATIVE ASPECTS POSITIVE ASPECTS NEGATIVE ASPECTS

Social opportunity Closing out of nature Beauty of nature. Lack of society

Isolation of crowds. High rents & prices. Land lying idle. Hands out of work

Places of amusement. Foul air and Murky sky. Wood, meadow, forest. Trespassers beware

Chances of employment Slums & gin palaces. Fresh air. Low wages.

High money wages. Costly drainage Low rents. Lack of drainage

Well-lit streets. Abundance of water Lack of amusement.

Palatial edifices. Bright sunshine No public spirit.

Need for reform

Crowded dwellings.

Deserted villages.
 TOWN-COUNTRY
POSITIVE ASPECTS

Beauty of nature- peace all-over the places.

Social opportunity- cumulative growth.

Fields and parks of easy access- equal chances.

Low rents- high wages. Low rates- plenty to do.

Low prices- no sweating.

Field for enterprise- flow of capital.

Pure air and water- good drainage.

Bright homes & gardens- no smoke, no slums.

Freedom- Co-operation.
 DEFINING A GARDEN CITY

● Intended to be planned, self-

contained communities
surrounded by "greenbelts"

● Industrial estates and collective

retailing spaces could be used
within a comprehensive
planning approach to serve
public purposes.
 FEATURES OF
GARDEN CITY
● Population that is neither too small
nor too large

● City owned by all citizens on a co-

operative basis

● Own civic life and affording all

daily needs with adequate spaces
for
schools and other functional
purposes
● It is surrounded by periphery by a
green belt.

● It need not have the rapid transit

arrangement

CORE PRINCIPLES OF
GARDEN CITY
● Strong community

● Ordered development

● Environmental quality
 GARDEN CITY DATA

● Central City: Area: 12000 acres.

Population : 58000 people •

● Agglomeration Cities: Area: 9000

acres Population: 32000 people •

● Distance between central main

city and the agglomeration:
~10km
 GARDEN CITY
LAYOUT
● Radial manner or pattern

● Divided into six equal wards, by six

main Boulevards

● Civic institutions (Town Hall, Library,

Hospital, Theatre, Museum etc. ) are
placed around the central garden

● Central park enclosed by a crystal

palace
 GARDEN CITY
LAYOUT
● Distance between each ring vary
between 3-5km .

● A 420 feet wide , 3 mile long, Grand

avenue

● industries, factories and

warehouses were placed at the
peripheral ring of the city.
 GARDEN CITY IN PRACTICE:
LETCHWORTH GARDEN CITY
designed by Raymond
Unwin and Barry
Parker in 1903.
 GARDEN CITY IN PRACTICE:
WELWYN GARDEN CITY
designed by
Louis de Soissons and Frederic
Osborn in 1920.
CITY BEAUTIFUL
MOVEMENT
(1850’s-1910’s)
 DANIEL BURNHAM
● Prophet of the city beautiful movement,
with the intent of introducing
beautification and monumental grandeur
in cities

● City Beautiful, emerged as a slogan for

urban improvement

● “Make no little plans.”

● Father of American City Planning

 L’ECOLE DE
BEAUX ARTS
● Motivating factor for
Burnham’s thinking

● Leading international school for

architecture

● Trains architects in latest

design technology so they can
plan wide scale projects

● George Haussman - Plan of

Paris
 CITY BEAUTIFUL
MOVEMENT
● Emphasized beauty and aesthetics

● Think monuments, grand

buildings, parks, perfect
landscapes, lakes, and circular
road systems.Grand boulevard is a
solution to traffic

● Bridges were given emphasis

CITY BEAUTIFUL IN
PRACTICE:
WASHINGTON, DC -
MCMILLAN PLAN
 CITY BEAUTIFUL IN
PRACTICE:
CHICAGO - CHICAGO PLAN
=
BROADACRE CITY
 FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

● Champion and proponent of urban

decentralisation

● Involved communities

● Designed the 1,000-hectare Broadacre City

 BROADACRE CITY
● Family was given 1 acre (4,000m2) = for house and grow food

● Land is taken from public ownership and is granted to families as long as they
used it productively
PLAN OF BROADACRE CITY
MODERNISM
REBULADO, FRANCES DIANNE M.
 WHAT IS MODERNISM?
Modernism refers to a global movement in society and culture that from the early
decades of the twentieth century sought a new alignment with the experience and
values of modern industrial life.

• MECHANIZATION
• FUNCTIONALITY
• ORDER
• ZONING
VILLE RADIEUSE (THE RADIANT CITY) BY LE CORBUSIER
Ville Radieuse (The Radiant City) is an
unrealized urban masterplan by Le
Corbusier.

First presented in 1924 and published in

a book of the same name in 1933.

Designed to contain effective means of

transportation, as well as an abundance
of green space and sunlight.

Extensive influence on modern urban

planning.
Le Corbusier’s plan stood the notion of zoning:

• Commercial
• Business
• Entertainment
• Residential areas

o “it was to be built on nothing less than the

grounds of demolished vernacular European
cities”

o high-density skyscrapers, spread across a vast

green area and arranged in a Cartesian grid

o “living machine”
• Housing / “Unités”
• Fifty (50) meters = 2,700 inhabitats
• Parks between Unites

• PARIS
• ANTWERP
• MOSCOW
• ALGIERS
• MOROCCO
• Unité d'Habitation in Marseille (1952) - contained 337 apartments in a single
building, along with public facilities on the roof and ground floor.
• Became very influential in 20th century modernism and contemporary
residential design in Europe.
• A utopia is an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or
nearly perfect qualities for its citizens.
 SIR PATRICK GEDDES

- Started Regional City Movement

- He introduced the concept of "region"

to architecture and planning and coined
the term "conurbation“
THE VALLEY SECTION
The term "conurbation" was coined
The valley section depicts an ideal regional- in 1915 by Patrick Geddes in his
urban condition, whereas the Notation of book Cities In Evolution.
Life embodies concrete architectural
proposals how to realise that ideal
condition.
TEL-AVIV (ISRAEL)

• Designed in 1925-1929 by Sir Patrick Geddes

and it was the first city plan of Tel-Aviv

• The area of Tel Aviv originally planned by

Geddes makes up approximately 7.5% of the
current day municipality of Tel Aviv and is now
known as Tel Aviv’s “Old North”
 NEW TOWNS
The new town movement refers to towns that were built after World War II
PLANS AND LEGISLATION

1943 COUNTY OF LONDON PLAN:

recognized that displacement of population
and employment was necessary if the city
was to be rebuilt at a desirable density.
1944 GREATER LONDON PLAN: suggested
that over one million people would need to
be displaced into a mixture of satellite
suburbs, existing rural towns, and new
towns.
1946 NEW TOWNS ACT & 1947 TOWN AND
COUNTRY PLANNING ACT: created a
revolutionary “machinery for positive town
construction”.
COUNTY OF LONDON PLAN 1943

The County of London Plan was

prepared for the London County
Council in 1943 by Sir Leslie Patrick
Abercrombie (1879–1957) and John
Henry Forshaw (1895–1973)

RING ROADS: construction would have

involved considerable disruption, even
through parts of the city damaged by
bombs, and the roads were not built,
but the "C Ring" (the third ring out from
the city centre) was to include what is
now the South Circular Road.
GREATER LONDON PLAN 1944
The Greater of London Plan of 1944 was
developed by Sir Leslie Patrick
Abercrombie (1879-1957).

The plan was based around five main

issues facing London at the time:
population growth, housing,
employment and industry, recreation,
and transport.

Although the report was comprehensive

in attempting to solve the issues facing
London at the time, its implementation
was not fully realised.
NEW TOWNS ACT 1946 & TOWN AND COUNTRY
PLANNING ACT 1947
The New Towns Act of 1946 was was
an Act of the Parliament of the United
Kingdom which allowed the government
to designate areas as new towns, and
passing development control functions
to a Development Corporation.

The Town and Country Planning of 1947

was an Act of Parliament in the United
Kingdom passed by the Labour
government led by Clement Attlee.
 REFERENCES
https://www.slideshare.net/NayanaD123/garden-city-movement

The Glory, Destruction and Meaning of the City Beautiful Movement - William H.
Wilson

“Broadacre City: A New Community Plan” - Frank Lloyd Wright