Lecture no.3

ContemporaryUrban Design

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Renaissance planning Alberti Curiously enough, the most coherent advocate of medieval irregular planning was the first great architectural theorist of the Renaissance :

Leone Battista Alberti. In his De Re Aedificatori (1485) he says:

…if the City is noble and powerful, the Streets should be straight

and broad, which carries an Air of Greatness and Majesty .

1… .by appearing so much the longer, they will add to the idea of the Greatness of the Town ,

2 .and they likewise conduce very much to Beauty and Convenience ,

3 .and be a greater Security against all Accidents and Emergencies.

Alberti had several reasons for this :

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

But above all they will give the town a particular kind of beauty, for :

Moreover, this winding of the Streets will make the Passenger at every Stop discover a new Structure ,

and the Front and Door of every House will directly face the

Middle of the Street…

it will be both healthy and pleasant, to have such an open View from every House by Means of the Turn of the Street.

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

The town should also have its squares as Alberti says: ‘some for the exposing of Merchandises to sale in Time of Peace; others for the

Exercises proper for Youth; and others for laying up Stores in Time of War, of Timber, Forage, and the like Provisions necessary for the sustaining of a Siege.’

As for the ideal shapehe finds this impossible to specify. As he says :‘it must be various according to the Variety of Places’

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

One could plan with a perfectly circular square or other regular form if one were building on a level site but that would be impossible on a hill .

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

So Alberti’s vision of the city is emphatically not what most people have in mind when they think of the Renaissance city .

Indeed a painting in the Ducal Palace at Urbino, now attributed to Luciano represents for most of us the ideal of the Renaissance city, centered as it is about a three-storey circular temple. Yet all is by no means what it seems .

There are wells, mirror-images of each other about the central axis and buildings which, on the left side at least conform, in strict perspective, to a regular building line .

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

But whilst each of these is symmetrical in itself they vary in height from four, rather low individual storeys, to three rather higher ones .

Those to the right of the axis are even more irregular. A three and a four-storey building match each other in height but the latter projects well in front of the building line whilst on this same side, behind the central temple, there is a Basilican church with an axis parallel to, but otherwise firmly independent of the main one .

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

The city was intended for a patron, Count Sforza, hence the curious name Sforzinda .

Rosenau describes it in some detail (1959) and, not surprisingly, it is based on a Vitruvian circular plan and with a Vitruvian response to the winds in the layout of the streets. But the circle seems to be merely a base or a plinth for an eight-pointed regular star with defensive towers at the points and gates at the internal angles.

Such Renaissance city plans as have survived, however, suggest greater regularities than these. plan for Sforzinda (c. 1457–64)

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

The Vitruvian Man is a world-renowned drawing created by Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1487. It is accompanied by notes based on the work of the famed architect, Vitruvius Pollio. The drawing, which is in pen and ink on paper, depicts a male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square. The drawing and text are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Before we consider these, however, we ought to look at the final flowering of Renaissance planning in Europe, that is to say the Baroque .

Baroque urban planning was first manifest in spaces between groups of buildings, such as Michelangelo’s Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome (started 1536)

Baroque

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

As Bacon shows (1967):

there was already an irregular, medieval Campidoglio when Michelangelo started work with a (castellated) Palazzo del Senatore forming its eastern side—that is the side away from Michelangelo’s approach—and, slanting inwards towards the Senatore, the Palazzo dei Conservatori defining the southern side .

Michelangelo started to tidy this up by defining an east/west axis, centred on the Palazzo del Senatori. He then gave this Palazzo a new, symmetrical façade articulated by massive Corinthian pilasters supported by a great basement, and approached by grand flights of stairs.

and the space between the two parallel wings of the Uffizi in Florence which Vasari built—with advice from Michelangelo—between 1560 and 1574 .

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Baroque

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Sixtus certainly did what he could to unify Rome during his five years.

He was seeking not so much a visual, architectural unity as an ecclesiastical coherence for the city .

His aim was to link the seven major churches and shrines of Rome with roads by which pilgrims could make their circuits of them all in a single day .

Bordino: sketch plan (1588) showing Sixtus’s connections between the Holy Places of Rome:

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

The most important church of all, Saint Peter’s, was remote from most of the others on the far side of the River Tiber beyond the Castel Sant’ Angelo .

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Earlier Popes had connected Saint Peter’s and the Castel which was linked across the Tiber to medieval Rome by bridge, the Ponte Sant’ Angelo .

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

North-east of this they had made another fan of roads radiating from the Piazza del Popolo.

Given these developments by his predecessors, Sixtus, as his Architect, Domenico Fontana, put it (1612) :

…wishing to ease the way for those who, prompted by devotion or by vows, are accustomed to visit frequently the most holy places of the City of Rome, and in particular the seven churches so celebrated for their great indulgences and relics, opened many most commodious and straight streets in many places ,

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Thus one can by foot, by horse, or in a carriage, start from whatever place in Rome one may wish, and continue virtually in a straight line to the most famous devotions .

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Apart from the buildings which Sixtus’s roads connected their most important destinations were marked by (Egyptian) Obelisks, in the Piazzas of Saint Peter’s, S.Maria Maggiore, S.Giovanni in Laterano and the Piazza del Popolo (see Batta, 1986) .

Others added further Obelisks so, altogether, Rome now has some 14 in all which, even though they confuse Sixtus’s original scheme, greatly enliven the piazzas in which they were erected

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

"piazza Augusto imperator"

the Porto di Popolo

Campidoglio

Roman Coloseum

San Giovanni In Laterano Piazza venezia

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Piazza di Spagna

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Italy’s thriving urban cities were the center for the renewed trade coming in from the Middle East that brought in wealth and culture here first before the rest of Europe.

Thriving cities meant opportunities for education, scientific pursuits, and even…arts and leisure

Florence, Italy today.

Renaissance begins in Italy...Why ?

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Humanists believed mankind’s achievements and successes should be praised – unlike the old Church teaching that this was vanity or sinful. They encouraged artists to copy the classical style of the Greeks and Romans who had made great advances in art, architecture, and the sciences.

“School of Athens* ” ~ Raphael

In this wall fresco, Raphael (1483-1520) pays tribute to

mankind’s achievements - Greek philosophers, scientists,

astronomers, and mathematicians engage in

philosophic inquiry together in one place though they lived in

different times .

Wall frescoe, Vatican Museums, Rome Italy.

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

How did ideas about piety and a simple life change?

Although people remained Christians; the everyday society was becoming more secular (emphasizing non-religious pursuits / concerned

with the here and now) .

The wealthy, the educated, and even upper-clergy believed they could enjoy life now without fear of offending God.

In these two works we see mankind “enjoying life”.

Left: The Peasant Danceby Pieter Brueghel the Elder.

Right:

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

What effects did the emphasis on individuals have on painters and sculptors?

Artists now painted portraits of prominent citizens, showed their distinct characteristics ;

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

St. Peter’s Bascilica, Vatican City, Rome.

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Although contemporary professional use of the term 'urban design' dates from the mid-20th century, urban design as such has been practiced throughout history.

Ancient examples of carefully planned and designed cities exist in Asia, India, Africa, Europe and the Americas, and are particularly well-known within Classical Chinese, Roman and Greek cultures .

European Medieval cities are often regarded as exemplars of undesigned or 'organic' city development, but there are clear examples of considered urban design in the Middle Ages.

Throughout history, design of streets and deliberate configuration of public spaces with buildings have reflected contemporaneous social norms or philosophical and religious beliefs

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

The beginnings of modern urban design in Europe are indeed associated with the Renaissance but, especially, with the Age of Enlightenment .

Modern urban design can be considered as part of the wider discipline of urban planning. Indeed, Urban planning began as a movement primarily

occupied with matters of urban design .

By the early twentieth century several directions in urban design had been established. One model, the Garden City, initiated by Ebenezer Howard in the late 1890s.

A second approach was that of formalists such as Camillo Sitte, a nineteenth century Viennese architect who admired medieval urban patterns and treated urban spaces as aesthetic arrangements of building masses, facades, and street spaces

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Such threads of formalist thinking have run through urban design history from ancient times into the present .

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Another variant of the formalist tradition, sometimes termed the "City Beautiful" movement, was rooted in Renaissance and Baroque urbanism and looked at the city as a network of formal streets and spaces, marked by striking monuments .

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

A third major direction, the "Parks Movement", pioneered by Frederick Law Olmsted, Calvert Vaux, and George Kessler, focused on ways of introducing and integrating natural systems into the city. Many American cities today enjoy the legacy of this movement .

A fourth model, introduced by Tony Garnier and further developed by Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and others in the first half of the twentieth century, looked at the city in terms of efficiency and function and tried to provide access to light, air, and space using new techniques of construction and transportation.

In each of these models there was a strong belief that good city form contributed to the health and well-being of people, and that cities should be designed, yet each model hypothesized a different relation between people and spaces.

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

'Urban design '

was first used as a distinctive term when Harvard University hosted a series of Urban Design Conferences from 1956.

These conferences provided a platform for the launching of Harvard's Urban Design program in 1959-60 .

The writings of Jane Jacobs, Kevin Lynch, Gordon Cullen and Christopher Alexander became authoritative works for the school of Urban Design.

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Gordon Cullen's The Concise Townscape, first published in 1961, also had a great influence on many urban designers .

Cullen examined the traditional artistic approach to city design of theorists such as Camillo Sitte, Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin .

He created the concept of 'serial vision', defining the urban landscape as a series of related spaces.

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Jane Jacobs ' The Death and Life of Great Am

erican Cities ,published in 1961, was also a

catalyst for interest in ideas of urban design.

She critiqued the Modernism, and asserted that the publicly unowned spaces created by the city in the park notion of Modernists was one of the main reasons for the rising crime rate. She argued instead for an 'eyes on the street' approach to town planning, and the resurrection of main public space precedents, such as streets and squares, in the design of cities.

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Kevin Lynch's The Image of the City of 1961 was also seminal to the movement, particularly with regards to the concept of legibility, and the reduction of urban design theory to five basic elements - paths, districts, edges, nodes, landmarks. He also made popular the use of mental maps to understanding the city, rather than the two-dimensional physical master plans of the previous 50 years.

Christopher Alexander's A City is Not a Tree is an essay that was first published in 1965

Alexander's main contention is that the 'natural city' (as opposed to the ' artificial' city of the urban planner) is a place of organized complexity .

In Alexander's view: ,planners and designers invariably think of urban structure in terms of simple tree-like hierarchies .

In reality, cities consist of shared spaces of complex overlapping social networks organised as 'semi- lattices'. The impact of this essay owes much to Alexander's use of simple graphs and Venn diagrams to illustrate the basic concept of organised complexity.

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

This is what Alexander means when he says "If we make cities which are trees, they will cut our life within to pieces"

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Overlap serves as a mechanism for tying the city together into a cohesive whole. It's easy for

information to flow from one group to another .

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Other notable works include:1. Rossi's Architecture of the City (1966), 2. Venturi’s Learning from Las Vegas (1972), 3. Colin Rowe's Collage City (1978), 4. and Peter Calthorpe's The Next American Metropolis (1993).

Rossi introduced the concepts of 'historicism' and 'collective memory' to urban design, and proposed a 'collage metaphor' to understand the collage of new and older forms within the same urban space.

Calthorpe, on the other hand, developed a manifesto for sustainable urban living via medium density living, as well as a design manual for building new settlements in accordance with his concept of Transit Oriented Development (TOD).

Bill Hillier and Julienne Hanson in "The Social Logic of Space" (1984) introduced the concept of space syntax to predict how movement patterns in cities would contribute to urban vitality, anti-social behaviour and economic success.

The popularity of these works resulted in terms such as 'historicism', 'sustainability', 'livability', 'high quality of urban components', etc. become everyday language in the field of urban planning.

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Today the field is being shaped in new ways by an increasingly pluralist society.

The public realm is in the process of being redefined and reinvented .

Environmental change is more incremental and subject to increasing public review.

At the same time, many cities are expanding at their edges at an unprecedented rate, while central cities are losing residents, jobs, and

public support .

A renewed focus on creative urban design is needed now more than ever.

Urban Design courseZaqaziq University

Faculty of EngineeringArchitecture Department

Lecture no.3

Perceptual

Visual

Functional

Temporal

Morphological

Social