Week 6: A Brief Look at the Evolution of Urban Form

        This week in class we discussed urban layout and structure. JH Crawford elaborates on the history and influences of street layouts. This article “History of Cities and City Planning” analyzes the history of urban form. The author believes the first true urban settlements started around 3000 B.C. with ancient civilizations such as Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, and other Bronze Age Civilizations. These cities were founded at specific locations that had uses to these ancient cultures. These cities popped up at trade route intersections, growing marketplaces, and natural ports where goods can be shipped via waterways. Religious sites have also been centers for cities to be built around. While some of these ancient cities seemed to have no planning whatsoever, many of them possessed both “planned” as well as “organic” urban forms. Cities that grew from old villages had an irregular and organic form as the city expanded in size and complexity. Colonial cities, which were planned ahead of settlement, were of the first to use the grid system. These grids made the cities easy to plan out, navigate, and develop.

        From 3000 BC - on Urban Form was evolving to create better functioning cities. Early planned cities had grid-like “planned” centers which contained the citadel. The citadel is where the elite lived and functioned. These centers contained religious and state building and were usually distinguished by walls that helped in the defense of invading armies. The surrounding residential areas were more organic due to slow and irregular expansion. The Romans were some of the first to engage in extensive city building activities. Although the Roman Empire was the result of irregular and organic growth, their cities and towns were often laid out in a grid variation.

        It wasn’t until the renaissance period that architects began to shape cities as the city itself was a piece of architecture work. During this period parts of cities were rebuilt to produce a smoother functioning city that was also designed to be aesthetically pleasing. These rebuilt districts resulted in elegant squares, long street vistas, and symmetrical building arrangements. As the new world was discovered and developed, cities were built by specific rules and laws given by the colonizing country. A good example is the Spanish colonial cities built in the new world. Several large cities that still exist today were built by following the Laws of the Indies of 1573. These Laws called for an orderly grid of streets, with a central plaza, defensive wall, and uniform building style.  Some of these cities built under these laws include: Los Angeles-CA, Albuquerque-NM, Laredo-TX, and Tucson-AZ. While Urban Planning has only become a huge industry in the last century, I think it is interesting to reflect the evolution of urban form throughout the Human Era.