LA.219 MOD.6.Public Spa
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LA219MODULE6.pdf
INTRODUCTION
This module is about city spaces. The public arenas of cities are the domain of their citizens. They are civic spaces. The architecture and landscapes that frame, border, and set the stage for public gatherings and civic events helps define the identity of a city and its populace. You will see examples of specific buildings (such as theaters) as well as whole cities (such as Miletus). Your focus should be on relationships: the relations between the individual and the collective, the citizen and the state, the secular and the sacred, the public and the private. How these relationships are manifested in built form and space tells us much about the inhabitants' way of life and the approach to urban life of different cultures.
The percentage of the world's population that lives in large cities is growing in the 21st century. The majority of cities on the planet still preserve and maintain the historical geometry and infrastructure of their older versions. You will notice the prolific contributions given to us by Roman civic architecture and urban strategies, as many of the module pages are dedicated to these important contributions. In America, the grid has come to dominate, while in Europe, the medieval network of organic streets can still be seen. The sites you will study in this module obviously predate the ubiquity of the automobile, which has dictated city design since the middle of the 20th century. Inventions in technology and transportation (e.g., autonomous cars) will continue to shape cities in the future, as well as newly designed cities. The possession of more advanced technology does not render the past obsolete, however, and we would be wise to learn from public and civic forms of the past when reforming those of the present.
You will have seen many of the sites that appear in this module previously in the course, but from other thematic perspectives. Here are some questions to spark your curiosity in this module:
How is the relation between interior and exterior architecturally expressed?
Where is the interface between spaces for fewer people and those for more people?
Can you identify the gradient of publicity-to-privacy?
Where are certain districts located in relation to each other, and which urban forms exhibit this?
How do people circulate the spaces, and what are they allowed to see at any given time?
Is there an overarching spatial scheme based on a datum or other organizing feature?
What groups of people might be allowed or prohibited from certain zones and buildings?
Has the topography (slope of the earth) played a role in the arrangement of spaces?
Module Learning Objectives Explore a diverse range of public and civic spaces across cultures, places, and times.
Articulate the private and public relations for different peoples, as seen in different locations.
Articulate urban strategies employed for cities with diverse building types.
Compare different civic buildings across times and places.
Identify social and cultural conditions exhibited in urban environments.
Readings A Global History of Architecture, 153–159, 142–144, 164–167, 174– 176, 202–206, 214–215, 407–419, 463–468, 491–494
World Architecture, all of sections 2.1 and 2.3, 118–126 (section 4.2), 150–164, 168 (section 5.1), all of section 9.1, 344–349 (section 9.2), 408–412 (section 10.2), 417–422 (section 10.3)
Module Coursework Read and view all module content and media in the pages that follow.
Complete all items in any Graded Coursework, Other Activities, and Quizzes and Exams areas included in this module.
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MESOPOTAMIA: "THE LAND BETWEEN THE RIVERS"
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In the Middle East (Western Asia), people left their Neolithic past behind. Around 3,500 BCE, they evolved into highly developed societies organized in cities expressing the hierarchies of their culture. Sumer, the place that invented writing in the fourth millennium BCE, is also cited frequently as the cradle of mankind. It is located in the southern region of Mesopotamia, largely corresponding to the modern Republic of Iraq. According to Giovanni Garbini:
Civilization (a word derived from the Latin civitas, or "city") is the basic form of human organization. These early cities in Mesopotamia were based on a new set of parameters, with features like a public square, palaces used as urban building blocks, marketplaces, bathhouses, stores, restaurants, and libraries.
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Mesopotamia The Land Between the Rivers
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Agriculture and trade intensiVed with the rise of population. The rivers provided fertile soil and the potential for irrigation. Storage was introduced for storing grain, and with that, a regular and long-term food supply was established.
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Rendering of the ancient city of Ur
In his book Technology: A World History, Daniel R. Headrick writes:
While the art of writing started as the recording of governmental transactions, it moved into literature, later documenting legends as well as testimonies of events and stories. Communication was becoming more complex and testimony more direct in the second millennium BCE, going hand in hand with the continued development of city communities and structured societies.
Administrative tablet from Uruk III, 3100–2900 BCE
In A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals, Spiro Kostof connects the Vrst cities, which we covered earlier, with the cities of Mesopotamia:
The history of Mesopotamian civilization can be divided into a Sumerian epoch (3500–2350 BCE) and a Semitic epoch (2350–539 BCE). The Vrst led through a pre-dynastic period to an early dynastic period. The Semitic epoch went through a short Sumerian revival and a longer Semitic predominance during Old Babylonian times, which continued through Kassite, Neo-Assyrian, and Neo- Babylonian times. Native rule was ended by the Persian conquest of Babylon. While the tribes dominating certain areas changed, architecture continued to evolve with speciVc typologies for temples, palaces, and residential units.
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Map of Mesopotamia showing selected ancient sites
As cultures across the world grew in population the need to settle on fertile lands grew. One of the most fertile lands, situated between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, was home to the Mesopotamian culture. The Vrst urban cities of the world that are known to man originate in this region and were built in an organic shape around religious centers and palaces. These cities were created in a class-based fashion and contained a very rigid social hierarchical structure, with the most a\uent and in]uential of people living closest to the religious centers and palaces. Along with the creation of these urban centers, the Mesopotamians (made up of the Assyrians, Sumerians, and Babylonians) felt the need for large walled parks used for hunting.
Bas-relief of Mesopotamian gardens
Hunting Parks
These hunting parks were home to exotic plants and wildlife that were acquired through trading and war. From what can be seen in bas-reliefs from that era, it is apparent that rows of trees were planted in order to provide shade in the extremely hot, arid climate. This type of planting in a garden setting was considered a luxury!
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon have been revered as one of the wonders of the ancient world, and have long been the subject of speculation and research by various archeologists.
Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History explains the history behind the Hanging Gardens of Babylon:
They were built by King Nebuchadnezzar II (ruled 604–562 BCE) for his queen who was homesick for the mountain meadows of her native Media. Other descriptions speak of a series of descending terraces built on top of vaulted galleries. The suggestion has been discounted that trees and other vegetation growing in soil beds or tree pits upon the terraces of the ziggurat at Babylon could be what were referred to as the Hanging Gardens because of the insurmountable dicculty of bringing succient water in irrigation channels from the Euphrates River to this monument.
Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History
Depiction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
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BABYLON
After the Assyrians lost power in 612 BCE, a Neo-Babylonian Empire came to power and lasted from 612 to 539 BCE. The Neo-Babylonians rebuilt and enlarged the city of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar II, and by 560 BCE, the city was likely one of the largest and most spectacular in all of western Asia. Similar to the Assyrians, the Neo-Babylonians used enslaved people for farming. Nebuchadnezzar is one of antiquity's best-known rulers. He fought several wars with the West. He stopped the king of Egypt, Zecho, after his invasion of Syria and continued war throughout the region. Nebuchadnezzar became known as a great conqueror in Asia. He fortiSed the cities of Chaldaea and made Babylon one of the largest and most important cities in Asia. FortiSed by two wall systems, the city covered the area of 19th-century London. Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt all the temples, rebuilt and expanded the irrigation canals, and installed a wide trade network.
The city of Babylon had two residential quarters, with the palace and ziggurats located along the shore of the Euphrates River. The walls were accompanied by a large moat Slled with water from the Eurphrates. The walls for the outer fortiScations were made of brick, with mortar made from asphalt. 150 towers were part of the fortiScation system, while 100 gates with bronze doors gave entry into the city.
Babylon
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In The World of Babylon: Nineveh and Assyria, Charles Seignobos writes:
The houses in Babylon were two or three stories high, arranged on a grid pattern, which divided the city into equal squares. There were 25 streets running parallel to the Euphrates, and 25 at right angles to it, each of them leading on either side to one of the hundred gates in the outer wall. Streets accounted for only a small part of the huge area enclosed by the outer defenses, most of it being covered with gardens and Selds of wheat. This was no more city, it was a whole area that had been transformed into an enclosed camp, almost big enough to feed all its inhabitants.
The World of Babylon: Nineveh and Assyria
In the middle of the city enclosure, Nebuchadnezzar reconstructed the royal city that had been destroyed by a Yood—following a divine order, according to an account he left as an inscription. The royal palace was located next to the
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Babylon
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Babylon Title:
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famous hanging gardens, which were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
In Art and Architecture in the Ancient Orient, Frankfort writes:
Nebuchadnezzar's great palace at Babylon presents a maze of small units combined in a complex measuring 900 by 600 feet in all. Little can be said about it, since except for the throne room none of the rooms can be identiSed. The throne room differs from that at Sargon's palace at Khorsabad; the Assyrian king was enthroned in front of a short wall at the end of the room, while the niche of Nebuchadnezzar's throne stood in the center of a long wall and faced the entrance . . . The plan of Nebuchadnezzar's city shows the palace situated roughly in the middle of the northern town wall, between the Euphrates on the west and the main north-south avenue. This was the scene of the great processions which took place on various religious occasions.
Art and Architecture in the Ancient Orient
Ishtar Gate
The Ishtar Gate was leading into Babylon from the north (c. 612 to 539 BCE). The gate was a fortiSed portal clad in blue-glazed brick with animal motifs modeled in shallow relief on the surface of the bricks. The gate was rebuilt in modern times in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.
Babylon's greatness subsided in 539 BCE when it became part of the Persian Empire. Unlike the Assyrian cities, Babylon was not destroyed but remained an important city in Asia, administrated by a governor installed by the Persians.
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Plan of Babylon, near Al Hillah, Iraq
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TROY
Artist rendering of Troy
The Mycenaean civilization lasted approximately from 1600 to 1100 BCE and was based on mainland Greece. Mycenaeans were masters in using large-scale stonework, as became apparent in their citadels.
Fazio, Moffett, and Wodehouse write:
The Mycenaean civilization takes its name from Mycenae, the largest but not the only citadel in a trading society that appears to have been led by warrior kings. Mycenaean settlements located on the mainland of Greece date back to about 1600 BCE. Graves from this period preserve a large number of golden objects as well as weapons of various sorts. Heinrich Schliemann, the 19th-century excavator of Mycenae, found golden masks, drinking vessels, and other treasures that convinced him he had found material related to the Trojan War.
Buildings Across Time
Troy
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What truth lies behind the legendary city of Homer's epic poems? Nine superimposed cities, built on top of one another throughout the centuries, have been excavated at the site in modern-day Turkey, with the Srst layer dating back to about 3000 BCE. Archaeologists have uncovered several citadels, which are smaller town centers characterized by residential buildings called megarons. Megarons are large, single-story structures that feature a rectangular hall with a circular central hearth and a front porch within extended sidewalls. Walled fortiScations that surrounded the city at various points in its history also made sophisticated use of runner beams, held in position by crossties, to strengthen the stone or mud brick. There is a notable lack of religious buildings at the site. Heinrich Schliemann, a German amateur archaeologist, was involved in the excavations of the different layers in Troy, and he attempted to reveal a relationship between Homer's poems and real, historic places.
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City of Troy ruins
Troy fell sometime around the turn of the Srst millennium BCE, following the legendary Trojan wars with Mycenae. The proto-Greek civilization of the Mycenaeans had supplanted the Minoans of Crete to become the dominant military power in the region between 1600 and 1100 BCE. At Troy, evidence of a megaron appears even earlier than this—the mound of Hissarlik sits to the north of an ample plain, with Mount Ida in the background.
Because of the aforementioned layers, various Sndings are attributed to different "Troys," or the different cities that inhabited the site we now call Troy. The "Troy 1" Sndings include a strong set of sun-dried brick walls situated on a
massive rubble substructure. The walls had a pronounced batter, which was a raking device used to buttress tall masonry planes. The batter was also regularly used in Egyptian architecture.
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Troy map detail showing a megaron
At Troy 1, one complete megaron plan emerged. The megaron was 60 feet long and included a porch that stretched 23 feet wide. The main room contained raised platforms for beds, a stone-paved central hearth, and, against the back wall, a smaller hearth for cooking. The megaron's Zat roof was made of small boughs or reeds that supported a coat of clay, and clay was also applied to the inner face of the building's walls. The Zoor was raised periodically to cover the accumulated refuse and carpeted areas with rush matting.
Troy
"Troy 2" Sndings included a larger megaron, with sidewalls that extended to form a back porch that was possibly used as weather protection. In this case, the ends of the sidewalls were given a wooden facing, which might have comprised the practical beginnings of cladding.
Further Information
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/849
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Plan Description:
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Ramp: exterior leading to the southwest gate and the citadel wall Description:
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Map of Troy
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DELPHI
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Delphi
The significance of the locations of Greek temples is explained in Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History:
"Topography and a tendency for siting within a well-chosen frame of the spirit-charged natural world dictated the location of temples and altars [of ancient Greece] . . . The result was often a landscape "design" that we experience as dramatic and picturesque . . . The Greeks did not see their temple precincts as we do—as an artistic arrangement of bleached ruins haunted by vanished time, with mountains and sea completing the romantic scene. In their ascendant centuries, the temples were brightly
Delphi
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painted, and pilgrimages to them were not those of tourists, but of religious supplicants. Nature and divinity were inextricably fused; landscape was experience religiously rather than aesthetically."
One such site is the ancient site of Delphi.
The Delphic Oracle
Delphi was the site of the Delphic Oracle. It was at this location that people from all different walks of life—kings, noblemen, merchants, peasants, and slaves—would gather to ask questions and consult with the Delphic Oracle regarding their personal destinies and even matters of state. People also came from near and far to worship Apollo and participate in the sacred games. It is important to note that this journey was not intended for women. Those visiting the site were predominantly men.
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The Delphic Oracle
Delphi's Layout
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Pythian Sanctuary of Apollo
The Sacred Way
The most significant attribute of Delphi is its organic planning pattern and the circuitous nature of the "Sacred Way." The site wasn't built all at once, and its development and the siting of its buildings weren't planned ahead of time. Elizabeth Barlow Rogers explains the approach to the temple of Apollo at Delphi beautifully:
"Upon entering the temenos (a sacred landscape marked off by stones or encircled by a wall) of the Pythian Sanctuary of Apollo, which is perched on a flank of Mount Parnassus beneath the sacred Korycian Cave and above a steep drop to the valley where the Pleistos River snakes to the sea, they embarked upon the Sacred Way, a switchback path leading to the Temple of Apollo. This circuitous approach made access to the temple indirect, and intensified the dynamic relationship of the visitor to it and its dramatic surrounding landscape. Above the temple to the god looms the twin peaks of the Phaedirades, the Brilliant Ones. Though unplanned, this long- established approach route operated as an organizing force in the placement of the many treasuries and monuments scattered about the site."
Many pilgrims to Delphi brought offerings to the god Apollo, requiring plenty of storage space for these gifts. Consequently, many of the treasury buildings that we see at Delphi today were a product of the need for storage.
This base is thought to be the base of the Column of Plataea
Column of Plataea
In addition to treasury buildings, many sculptures and dedication monuments were erected at Delphi over the years. These monuments and sculptures were usually brought to the site after the Greeks had won a major war. One such monument was the Column of Plataea, which was erected after the Greek victory in the battle of Plataea against the Persians in 470 BCE. Dedicated to soldiers in the battle of Plataea, this particular monument was over nine meters in height with the names of cities inscribed on it.
Stoa of the Athenians Delphi
Stoas
Along the Sacred Way, covered rest stops were needed to give shelter and respite to the pilgrims from the hot Mediterranean sun. These covered rest stops were typically south-facing, linear, colonnaded porticoes called
stoas. Later, stoas were used by the Romans in their peristyle gardens, and they continue to be used in garden and building design today.
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DELPHI'S SACRED WAY
The following presentation depicts the walk along the Sacred Way to the temple of Apollo and beyond it to the theater and stadium.
Theater and Stadium of Delphi
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Drag the slider to see the path.
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Delphi
Drag the slider to see the highlighted area.
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Kings of Argos (L) Epigoni (R)
The organic development of the site is apparent in the reconstructed model of Delphi (shown below).
Drag the slider to see more information.
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THE GREEK POLIS (CITY)
The foundations for democracy as we know it today were laid in the Greek polis or city. The polis was seen as a place of "community." It became synonymous with a place where the community exercised democratic power responsibly.
Elizabeth Barlow Rogers outlines Greek political ideals:
"In the Greek Polis, the notion of divine kingship was untenable; the basileus, or ruler, governed not as a god in the manner of an Egyptian pharaoh, but in partnership with the gods. He was according to Aristotle, responsible for the conduct of religious rites and traditional sacrifices, athletic contests such as torch races, public lawsuits dealing with impiety, and private ones when the charge was an important crime such as homicide. In Athens, the title of archon basileus was not hereditary; the office depended upon public election by the citizenry and service was for a prescribed annual term."
In this passage, she clearly describes the birth of democracy.
The Greek Polis (City)
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Designing a Greek Polis
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Athenian Agora
Aristotle (philosopher and student of Plato) had very clear ideas about how the Greek polis should be designed and laid out.
Aristotle thought that every Greek polis should possess certain qualities.
GREEK POLIS QUALITIES:
It should have a sizeable population.
It should encompass enough territory that it can accommodate its popula- tion, but be small enough to be seen in a single view.
It should be defensible, creating difficult access to the enemy, yet allow for easy egress to its inhabitants.
He went on to explain the design of a polis:
be accessible to land and sea
possess an abundance of natural spring water for consumption
have both straight streets for beauty, and organic/tortuous streets to con- fuse the enemy
walls surrounding the city for defense
walls incorporating guardhouses, as well as ornamentation
Lastly, there should be a few public buildings:
public dining halls for free men (slavery was common at this time)
an agora where trade can take place
The Acropolis
It is the culmination and implementation of these principles that led to the creation and growth of highly organic, non-gridded Greek cities.
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THE GREEK AGORA AND STOA
In the 2fth century BCE, the Greeks, united under Athens, repelled an enormous Persian invasion in what historians now view as both a true turning point in history, generally, and a deciding clash between a democratic temple culture and a monarchial palace culture, speci2cally. First, in 490 BCE, the Greeks defeated the Persians at the Battle of Marathon. Ten years later, the Persians returned and captured and burned Athens before losing a de2nitive battle to the Greeks at Salamis.
Athens now found itself as the leading city-state of the Mediterranean, with far- Pung alliances and a self-professed desire to become the overarching model for the Hellenic world. As such, the leading statesman of classical Athens, Pericles, launched a costly and ambitious building program under the supervision of the master sculptor Phidias. The necessary funding came from the cities that had recently looked to Athens for protection from Persia.
But the largest and most famous city in Greece was not just changing physically. In this period, Athens was home to some of the greatest intellectuals in history, including the philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; the playwrights Euripides, Sophocles, and Aeschylus; and the historians Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon. The concepts of private property and personal choice (as opposed to predetermined destiny) spread rapidly in the wake of the surprising and euphoric victory over Persia. Most importantly, Athens was a true democracy governed by its citizens through an assembly.
The Agora
An active democracy required a central meeting location, and Athens certainly delivered on this front—though the phrase "central meeting location" fails to describe everything the agora meant to classical Athenians. The agora was a public forum, the site of speeches, debates, announcements, citizens' assemblies, commercial trading, shows, and simple, neighborly discussions.
The Greek Agora and Stoa
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Clustered around the agora were the municipal administration buildings. The agora in Athens was the most renowned in the world, but each Greek polis had a similar space.
Map of ancient Agora
Ancient Agora with Acropolis on top
The Stoa
Surrounding the agora was the stoa, a covered, columned walkway or portico that was open at the entrance to create an enveloping atmosphere and to protect visitors from the elements. Over time, the stoa adopted new functions, rose to two stories, and incorporated a roof over the inner colonnades, where shops or o[ces were often located. Eventually, merchants hawked their goods,
artists displayed their work, philosophers observed life—giving rise to the branch of intellectualism known as "stoic"—and religious processions took place within the stoa.
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Reconstructed stoa of Attalus in Athens
The Agora of Athens
The Agora of Athens was not set up with any speci2c plan. Like Delphi, it was created over time, with buildings placed in locations with functional purposes. Elizabeth Barlow Rogers talks about the Agora:
"Although the Agora's boundaries were formally delimited by horoi, boundary stones marking the points of entry of the streets feeding into it and underscoring its character as a quasi-sacred space, axial organization and symmetry played no role in the disposition of structures around it. Conceived in a piecemeal fashion, it suggested unity and coherence, but these characteristics came from a harmonious architectural design vocabulary, geometrically derived proportions, and similarity of building materials, rather than the form of an overall plan."
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The Agora of Athens
The Athenian Agora takes on a completely different physical form during Roman times as it transforms into the Roman Forum.
The Athenian Agora's 2rst building was the Enneakronous, built around 520 BCE. It was a large public fountain house at the terminus of two pipelines that carried water into Athens from the mountains. Later, buildings such as the Bouleuterion (public archive), the mint, and stoas of various sizes were built.
Enneakronous
Shade-giving plane trees were planted in and around primary paths along the Agora. The plane trees were also used to delineate outdoor classrooms so that philosophers such as Socrates and Plato could hold dialogues with their students.
Open-air markets were 2lled with people going about their daily grocery shopping, and the various stoas that were built over the years became locations for daily gossip and news sharing among Athenian citizens.
Only by studying places like the Agora of Athens can you truly understand the importance of urban open spaces. Such sites have played a vital role in humankind's social interactions with one another throughout history.
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GREEK DRAMA AND THE AMPHITHEATER
Although obscure, the origins of Greek drama can probably be traced to the choral songs, folk tales, and dances offered to Dionysus, the Greek god of fertility and wine. By the Ffth century BCE, such pious rites had transformed into the tragic plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. As the public and technological demands for such performances increased, the buildings that housed the plays grew in stature and sophistication.
Theater at Priene (third century BCE)
Greek theaters were built on the slope of a hill, which ensured good visibility even from the back rows of seats. If the surface was rocky, semicircles were hewn out of the hillside in tiers; and if the ground was soft, stone benches were installed, and often painted or faced with marble. The audience looked down on a circular pit called the orchestra, which was enclosed by a portico and balustraded terrace. The seated area was divided into wedge-shaped segments by vertical staircases that converged on the orchestra, and broad horizontal gangways allowed people to move from side to side through the theater.
Greek Drama and the Amphitheater
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Reconstruction sketch of the theater at Priene
The assignment of seats in a Greek theater depended on social status. The rows nearest the orchestra were devoted to government or festival oMcials, but the general public had access to their choice of seats throughout much of the rest of the amphitheater.
The orchestra was 10 or 12 feet below the front row of seats that formed its boundary. The legendary Greek chorus occupied the orchestra, while the principal dramatic action took place on the proscenium, or high stage, which stood just behind the circle of the orchestra. It was attached to the skene, a background building that stored costumes and featured painted scenery and doorways through which actors could enter and exit. A second Soor, the episcenium, was on the roof of the skene, and formed an upper facade with additional doorways called the thyromata. Steps led up from the orchestra to the stages, and also down to underground chambers.
The theater at Epidaurus is an especially well-preserved Greek theater. It was, and is, capable of holding more than 14,000 spectators, and its remarkable acoustics are still a source of wonder for visitors.
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The theater at Epidaurus (late fourth century BCE)
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Epidaurus ?oor plan
GREEK CITY PLANNING: MILETUS AND PRIENE
Athens grew organically from the Acropolis—as the population boomed, neighborhoods and streets evolved until a metropolis slowly emerged. It's important to note, however, that by the fourth century BCE, the Greeks were already planning their cities, displaying the same consciousness of form and proportion that governed their individual buildings.
One of the Orst city planners of this time, Hippodamus, developed an orthogonal grid pattern featuring straight streets intersecting at right angles. Historians believe Hippodamus' designs were responsible for the layouts of important cities like Miletus, in modern-day Turkey, and the island of Rhodes.
Site plan of Miletus (0fth century BCE)
Hippodamus—or his precepts, at least—may have also been responsible for the layout of Priene, a former member of the Ionic League in Asia Minor. One of the most extensively excavated city sites in the Mediterranean, Priene affords
Greek City Planning Miletus and Priene
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historians a rare view of early city planning principles; most ancient major towns, as you have seen, bloomed haphazardly from a historic center.
Priene was moved inland to its present site in 350 BCE. Planned to Ot into a hilltop, Priene was designed according to Aristotle's description in Politics of the ideal 5000-person city. Priene was also decorated with buildings designed by Pythius, a man renowned for his holistic approach to sculpture and construction, and who also probably built the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. The city's remains lie on successive terraces that rise from a plain toward a steep hill, upon which stands Pythius's Temple of Athena Polias, a monument of pure, Ionic style that was dedicated during a visit by Alexander the Great.
Temple of Athena Polias
Priene is laid out on a grid plan, according to Hippodamus's vision, with six main streets running east to west and 15 streets crossing at right angles, all evenly spaced. The town was divided into about 80 blocks, or insulae, each averaging 150 by 110 feet. About 50 insulae were devoted to private houses, which typically consisted of a rectangular courtyard enclosed by living quarters and storerooms and an opening to the south onto the street by way of a small vestibule. The better-class insulae had four houses apiece, but most were far more subdivided.
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Temple entablature detail Description:
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Temple from the southwest Description:
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In the center of the town, one could Ond not only the Temple of Athena, but also an agora, a stoa, an assembly hall, and a theatre with well-preserved stage buildings. A gymnasium and stadium can be found in the lowest section.
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Plan of Priene (fourth century BCE)
The orthogonal planning of Greek cities—the 7rst of its kind anywhere on earth—suggests several important points about this phase in community living:
1. The urban territory is a rational, geometric, preconceived form.
2. Both private and public buildings must Ot within this scheme.
3. The grid is also a blueprint for the future—and assumed—expansion of the city. In this regard, the polis no longer represents an idealized end, but a beginning—a deliberate and artiOcial construct that will grow along with its inhabitants.
As a rule, Greek cities were unplanned, organic creations that lacked a grid-like pattern. The exception to this rule was the city of Miletus in Asia Minor.
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Plan of Miletus
Miletus was in need of reconstruction/rebuilding after the invasion of the Persians, which left the town in a major state of disrepair. It was during this time that the city was planned in a grid of uniform block sizes, deOning streets that met at right angles in the form of an intersection.
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Ruins of Miletus
Hippodamus designed Miletus as two grids in the Ofth century BCE. There was a system of Onely textured grids, complete with narrower streets at the northern end of the city, and a looser-grained grid with two main arterial streets that intersected each other at the southern end of the city. This prototype would later inspire the Roman concept of "Cardo and Decamanus."
Even though this city's plan was revolutionary for its time, it kept true to the ancient Greek format by allowing space for religious temples, theaters, and an agora. In fact, the city of Miletus had two agoras, the Northern Agora and the Southern Agora, which were both deOned by the placement of stoas along their edges.
All that exists of Miletus today is an ancient theatre.
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ROMAN CITY PLANNING
Insulae
The square blocks created within the bounds of the Roman city were called insulae. They were home to the first multi-family apartment blocks.
Building Code
Besides insulae, pre-specified block dimensions were important to the creation of zoning codes for building heights within the boundaries of Roman cities. One heavily implemented zoning code was that no building could be higher than twice the width of the street below it.
It is important to note that centuriation enforced very specific dimensions: 2,400 square feet around the city center. The fact that the dimensions were pre-specified allowed for Roman cities to be built with efficiency and speed.
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Piazza del Republica today (L); Roman plan of Florence (R)
Florence's Roman Plan
The Roman plan for Florence is still visible in the Piazza del Republica, built on the historic site of the Forum, at the nexus of cardo and decamanus.
Roman City Planning
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Raised Sidewalks
Another element of Roman urbanism, raised sidewalks have been adopted globally and are used in modern urban planning. During ancient times, humans, livestock, and chariots all used the same thoroughfares. This quickly proved dangerous—and dirty. Livestock excrement was not fun to walk through! Raised sidewalks and intersections were created in order to separate pedestrians from carts and animals.
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Raised sidewalks of Pompeii
These images show the first Roman raised sidewalks and intersections that were found during the excavation of the ancient city of Pompeii. The precise separation between the raised intersection stones is there to allow chariot wheels to pass with ease.
In short, Roman city planning guidelines and elements created a sense of imperial order that was felt far and wide. This included more than just centuriation, insulae, the forum, and raised sidewalks:
grand basilicas
public baths
theaters
running water
latrines
paved streets
These elements were all replicated in cities throughout the Roman Empire.
Plan of a Roman city
City planning had many parallels in ancient Greece and Rome, and as cultural centers, both Athens and Rome grew without pre-designed overall plans. Rome was founded before the adoption of regular town planning and, as we have seen with Athens and other ancient capital cities that evolved into metropolitan centers over time, Rome's sprawling streets and maze-like layout rarely conform to any kind of pattern.
However, while Athens and Rome were haphazard, the colonial cities established by Greeks and Romans were organized according to comprehensive, planned orthogonal systems. Often, Greek foundations would later become Roman settlements, as in the case of Pompeii, which is one of the best-preserved examples of a Roman town, and which you will study more closely later in the module. Other Roman cities began as military garrisons, or castra, which were positioned in unsettled areas for defense purposes, and to bring civilization to new territories. And even cities that were not direct descendants of garrisons were still influenced by them; the Roman city plan was based on the layout of a Roman military camp, and also on a system that can be seen in earlier Etruscan settlements.
For these garrisons and colonial cities, Rome supplied a very ordered standard plan: a rectangular or square grid with two main roads, the cardio and the decumanus, running along the north-south and east-west axes and crossing at right angles in the center of town. This plan also featured a grid of smaller streets that divided the town into blocks, within which residential sectors and areas for markets and recreational facilities were laid out. The forum and military headquarters were usually located at the intersection of the cardo and the decumanus, and a wall surrounded
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Florence city plan
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Timgad city plan
this entire encampment, as well as the city as a whole. The cities of Florence, Bologna, Cirencester, Trier, and Timgad are based on this standard Roman plan.
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ROMAN FORUMS AND BASILICAS
Civic life in Rome focused on the Forum Romanum, which was the original forum located at the base of Capitoline Hill in an alley that had been drained by the Etruscans. The Forum Romanum was the Irst Roman forum, and its numerous, concentrated functions—commerce, government, law, religion—and urban conIguration became more complex as the city grew. Later, as the political functions lost their viability, the focus shifted to architectural embellishment and subsequent emperors each had forums built in their names.
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Roman Forums and Basilicas
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Market of Trajan
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Trajan built the largest forum—the same size as all the others put together—and incorporated a symmetrical layout on a level area, which required the removal of two hill ridges, and a monumental entry from the forum of Augustus. The court itself measured 330 by 375 feet, and was surrounded by double colonnades and hemicycles, or semicircular elements. A large equestrian statue of Trajan stood in the center of the court. Opposite the entrance was the Basilica Ulpia, a judicial building, and beyond this was Trajan's Column, a marble shaft 100 feet high and positioned on a 15-foot base. Trajan's column was carved with a spiraling narrative relief illustrating Trajan's victories in the Dacian Wars. The monumental column was Wanked by two library buildings— one for Greek texts and one for Latin texts. Commercial space was carved out of the Quirinale hillside behind the northeast hemicycle, a multi-story semicircle with adjoining buildings, made up Trajan's markets containing over 150 shops, o[ces, and a market hall.
The focal point of the typical Roman city was its forum, an open area bordered by colonnades with shops, which functioned as the chief meeting place of the town. Like the agora of ancient Greece, the forum housed the city's primary religious and administrative buildings, including the basilica, a roofed, usually multi-storied hall with a wide central area, called the nave, Wanked by side aisles. Business transactions and legal proceedings took place in the basilica, and by the Christian era, the building form was adopted as the standard form of the Western Church, with an apse and altar at the end of the long nave. Though the visitor originally entered the basilica at the center of the long axis, when Christian architecture appropriated the basilica, builders moved the entrance to the short side, so that visitors looked down the long axis.
Basilica of Constantine in the Roman Forum
The main temple of a Roman city, the capitolium, was generally located at the end of the forum. The standard Roman temple blended Etruscan and Greek inWuences; it was rectangular and featured a gabled roof, a deep porch with free-standing columns, and a frontal staircase that provided access to a high plinth, or platform. The traditional Greek orders of architecture—Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian—were used, but the Romans also developed their own types of capitals, including the composite, which was a mixture of the Ionic and Corinthian styles, and the Tuscan. An excellent example of the classic Roman temple is the Maison Carrée, which was built around 20 BCE in Nimes, France.
Maison Carrée
The Roman city was dotted with various shops, which generally took the form of one-room units, or tabernae, and opened onto the pavement. Sometimes an entire uniIed complex of shops, not unlike a mall, was constructed. The markets built in the reign of Trajan (98 to 117 CE), for instance, can still be seen on the Quirinal Hill in Rome; these markets housed several levels of tabernae and a large, vaulted, two-story hall.
Both large cities and small towns had public baths called thermae. In Republican times they consisted of a suite of dressing rooms, bathing chambers with hot-, warm-, and cold-water baths, and an exercise area called the palaestra. Under the empire, these relatively modest buildings gained more prestige; such late examples as Rome's Baths of Caracalla, which was built
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Forum Romanum
Arch of Septimius Severus (lower left), Temple of Saturn (lower right), Arch of Titus and
Colosseum (in the distance)
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Ruins of the Thermae of Caracalla
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circa 217 CE, also incorporated libraries, lecture halls, and enormous, vaulted public spaces that were elaborately decorated with statues, mosaics, paintings, and stucco.
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ROMAN INFRASTRUCTURE
Pont du Gard
Rome's innovative engineering techniques, architectural problem-solving, and great public building projects were not just about beautiFcation: a vast network of streets, highways, and bridges facilitated trade and military maneuvering throughout the empire. Vital for the movement of troops, commerce, and the untold millions of enslaved people who kept the empire running, Roman roads— which were wide enough for two wagons to pass each other and had drainage ditches on the side—kept any area within quick reach and open to communication.
Roman Infrastructure
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Roman road, 4rst–second century CE
The paved roads also brought quarried stone, which, along with timber beams and terracotta tiles, was an essential Roman building material. Carrara, Italy provided some of the Fnest marble in the world, as Michelangelo would still Fnd centuries later. Note that, because of the noise and congestion, transport carts were banned in Rome itself during daylight hours, so all deliveries Nowed into the capital at night.
Water was vital to development, and the transport of fresh water through aqueducts inspired both hydraulic and architectural achievements. Drainage was another great challenge, as some of Rome's terrain was former swampland; the famous cloaca maxima was one of many ditches that drained water from the inhabited quarters of Rome.
Sbocca della Cloaca Massima, E. Roesler Franz
It was concrete, a material perfected by the Romans, that revolutionized the history of architecture and allowed for buildings that had previously been impossible to construct using the traditional stone post-and-lintel system of
earlier architecture—particularly that of the Greeks. Roman concrete was an amalgam of hydrated lime and pozzolana (volcanic sand), mixed with aggregate.
Concrete vaulting, speciFcally, allowed for the construction of the gigantic amphitheaters and baths of the Roman Empire, as well as the dome of the Pantheon and spectacular temples. Concrete walls and ceilings consisted of sections cast in molds, so architects could experiment with irregular conFgurations that brought visual innovation to the interior of buildings. Brick- faced concrete quickly became the favored material for large buildings such as residential apartments, baths, and warehouses.
Cloaca maxima
Layers of a regular Roman-built road (via munita)
A. native earth, leveled and, if necessary, rammed tight B. statumen: stones of a size to 4ll the hand C. audits: rubble or concrete of broken stones and lime D. nucleus: kernel or bedding of 4ne cement made of pounded potshards and lime E. dorsum or agger viae: the elliptical surface or crown of the road (media stratae eminentia) made of polygonal blocks of silex (basaltic lava) or rectangular blocks of saxum qitadratum (travertine, peperino, or other stone of the country). The upper surface was designed to cast off rain or water like the shell of a tortoise. The lower surfaces of the separate stones, here shown as Pat, were sometimes cut to a point or edge in order to grasp the nucleus, or next layer, more 4rmly. F. crepido, margo, or semita: raised footway, or sidewalk, on each side of the via G. umbones or edge-stones
ROMAN CITY PLANNING: TIMGAD AND POMPEII
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Timgad Arch
Timgad
Trajan founded Timgad in 100 BCE for veterans of Roman legions, and the city became a vibrant regional center before being destroyed by native tribes in the seventh century CE. Following Roman city planning conventions, the cardo and decumanus intersect at the center of Timgad, and the city is enclosed by fortiMcation walls. These walls form a square, with the forum in the south and a large theater south of the forum. Triumphal arches framed the entrances to the city, and continuous colonnades lined the main streets.
Roman City Planning Timgad and Pompeii
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Timgad (present-day Algeria), plan, with Decumanus running left-right (West-East) and Cardo up-down (North-South); the forum is in the center with the adjacent basilica and nearby theater just south.
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General view toward capitol from Temple of Mars
Timgad has not been built over by a modern city, and so the ruins still show the city's major features.
Pompeii
Pompeii is located on an isolated volcanic plateau that overlooks the mouth of the Sarno River, and is a short distance south of Naples, the original Greek colony of Neapolis. Pompeii was always a port town, conducting commerce between upriver and sea traRc while also relying on agriculture, vineyards, and the cultivation of olives. Pompeii was buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE; it remains one of the best-preserved examples of a provincial Roman town, as it was buried under mud, lava, and ash until excavations in 1748 fully uncovered the remains.
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View of painting and mosaic in Caldarium
The ruins of Pompeii and its neighbor Herculaneum were actually found in 1599 by engineers digging a new course for the Sarno, but it was more than 150 years before excavators launched a serious campaign to unearth the cities. In fact, some have speculated that the town's numerous erotic frescoes clashed with the moral codes of this era, and that the town's remains were actually reburied to hide the "pornographic" images. In 1860, Giuseppe Fiorelli took charge of the excavations and devised the technique of injecting plaster into the spaces left by decomposed bodies to perfectly recreate the forms of those killed by Vesuvius. The result is very affecting, as the town and its citizens are literally frozen in time.
Pompeii is the only ancient town whose topography has remained just as it was, with no modiMcations by residents of future generations. Because of the diRcult, mountainous terrain, Pompeii was not laid out on the regular plan of
most Roman towns, though its streets are nonetheless straight and patterned in a traditional grid. Pompeii's streets are also laid with polygonal stones, and have houses and shops on both sides.
Public facilities like the baths, the palaestra, theaters, and an amphitheater can be found all over the town. Pompeii also featured nine temples dedicated to a series of different gods. Pompeii's forum was located in the southwest quarter of the city. Ringed by a two-story colonnade that tied together all the different building types, the square itself measured 510 by 125 feet. The north side was occupied by the capitolium, while the center was reserved for state-sponsored religious observances. Buildings of different designs and shapes aanked the forum: On the east side were the macellum, or meat and Msh market; lararium, or temple for the patron gods of the city; eumachia, or guild oRces; and comitium, an open area for elections. On the west side, along the road from the Marine Gate, was a large basilica, which was used for public assemblies for various legal, commercial, and social purposes. The entrance was marked in the north by a triumphal arch.
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Pompeii victim in plaster
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Pompeii residential street
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PARIS
Paris was originally a Roman town, though the shores of the Seine were long home to the tribal seat of the Parisii, the Gallic tribe who lent the city its name. After the Romans conquered the Gauls, planners laid out the town of Lutetia, as Paris was known then, in accordance with the orthogonal grid system. In terms of urban planning, the Romans would emphasize a city's status through the construction—or lack thereof—of large monuments. The forum, in particular, was intended to remind surrounding areas of the city's link with Rome.
The basic unit of the Paris grid is 300 Roman feet, proving that the urban plan of Lutetia was imposed by imperial engineers and not subject to the divisions of previous settlements. To implement this grid, the surveyors drew a straight line called the cardo maximus, which would become the principal axis of the settlement and the main road along that axis, which ran north to south. (Today, that road is the Rue Saint-Jacques.)
Lutetia was in effect three different urban centers: The city on the south bank of the Seine, the Ile de la Cité in the middle of the river, and the suburbs on the north bank. The city on the south bank was the largest of the three, and its regular grid pattern was both typically Roman and the only sector that had public monuments.
Paris
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Topographical considerations also dictated the orientation of the streets. Some roads had to take the shortest route across the river, helped along by small islands that were natural places in which to sink bridge pilings. Lutetia was essentially a bridge town, one of the only places to cross the Seine, and its east- west road crossing was in fact an overpass that joined up with other major thoroughfares from the surrounding area. Some streets also ran diagonally to the grid system, but these seem intentionally designed.
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ROMAN THEATERS AND CIRCUSES
Theaters
Athletic competitions and theater performances were important parts of both the Greek and Roman cultures. The Romans inherited these Greek traditions, and then added the Etruscan tradition of gladiator combats. Romans began building theaters in the late Republican era. Like their Greek predecessors, the theaters were semicircular and consisted of a tall stage building, called the proscenium, which overlooked a space for the dancers and a space for the chorus, called the orchestra.
Theater of Marcellus
But unlike Greek theaters, which were built into the sides of hills and used the slope to deIne the gradient of the seating area, Roman theaters were constructed as freestanding structures, independent of the surrounding terrain, with their own framework of supporting piers and vaults. Thus, they could be built anywhere in the city, and quickly became desirable in all segments of the empire.
Roman Theaters and Circuses
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The Theater of Marcellus in Rome, which was completed from 13 to 11 BCE, is an early example. This theater was shaped like a great semicircle that held 11,000 seats that rose three tiers and all focused on a rectangular stage building. The photos show that the building was modiIed many times and built over with residences.
Theater at Orange
Circuses
Stadiums for racecourses, or circuses, were also built in many cities. Rome's oval-shaped Piazza Navona occupies the site of a circus that was built during the reign of Domitian, who ruled from 81 to 96 CE. The Circus Maximus in Rome was home to some of the most extravagant horse and chariot races in the empire, and Pompeii also had an enormous circus.
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Circus at Pompeii
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Circus of Domitian, Rome (>rst century CE)
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THE COLOSSEUM
The typical amphitheater—which literally means "double theaters"—was elliptical and featured a central arena. Gladiatorial and animal Bghts took place within a surrounding seating area that was based on the pattern of Roman theaters. The earliest known amphitheater dates to 75 BCE at Pompeii, and the grandest, the Colosseum (70–80 CE) is in Rome. The Colosseum held approximately 50,000 spectators—the capacity of today's large sports stadiums.
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The Colosseum
Built on Palatine Hill, the Colosseum's name derives from the 130-foot colossus —a large statue—of Nero that stood nearby. Nero's head was eventually replaced with that of the sun god and then succeeding emperors, but the name for its neighboring amphitheater stuck.
The Colosseum
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The four-story facility is 161 feet high, about 600 feet long, and 500 feet wide. Its elliptical shape kept the combatants from retreating to a corner, and allowed the audience to be closer to the action than a circle would allow. Builders used concrete for the foundation, travertine stone for the piers and arcades, tufa rock inBll between piers for the walls of the lower two levels, and brick-faced concrete for the upper levels and most of the vaults.
Columns and entablatures face the three tiers of arcades, with Doric columns in the Brst story, Ionic in the second, and Corinthian in the third. Above these three arcades is an attic story with Corinthian pilasters and small, square windows in alternate bays. In ancient times, enormous canopies hung from masts at the top of the Colosseum, and sailors manipulated the canopies to provide a breeze and shade for spectators.
The Colosseum
Below the wooden arena ^oor, which was covered in sand, there was an intricate set of rooms and passageways for wild beasts. This two-level subterranean network of tunnels and cages, called the hypogeum, had trap doors that allowed animals, gladiators, and scenery sets to instantly reach the arena. There were even larger, hinged platforms that carried elephants. There are also tunnels, still visible, that could ^ood or drain water from the Colosseum ^oor, so that naval battles could be staged. Recent excavations have unearthed drainpipes connected to the city's sewer system and a large underground holding tank connected to a nearby aqueduct.
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Seating, or cavea, was divided into different sections and organized according to social standing; the poorer classes occupied the upper sections, while the lowest area held senators and the emperors' private, cushioned marble box.
There were 80 entrances at ground level: 76 for ordinary spectators, two for the imperial family, and two for the gladiators. Numbered pottery shards served as tickets, which directed spectators to the appropriate section and row. The vomitoria—passageways that opened into a tier of seats from below or behind— got people eaciently into their seats and, when the show was over, disgorged them quickly into the streets (giving rise to its name). Every entrance and exit was numbered, as was every staircase. In some ways, the Colosseum was even more impressive than the grand stadiums we build today. Each vomitorium was designed so that the immense arena could Bll in 15 minutes and be evacuated in as few as Bve minutes.
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BASILICAS AND PUBLIC BATHS
In addition to the theater and the amphitheater, the Romans developed a number of public buildings that offered specialized functions, including the basilica, a large assembly hall that served various court functions, and the baths, a single building with different rooms that served various bathing and recreational functions.
Basilica Ulpia
Each of the building types required spatial and constructional answers to new functional programs, which inIuenced the subsequent architectural developments. The basilica on Pompeii's forum is the oldest known Roman basilica—it dates to about 100 BCE—but it probably was not the Orst. Similar to the Greek stoas, this basilica served legal functions, but also doubled as a gathering place for social and commercial events. It had a gabled timber roof, and its columns migrated to the interior, enclosing and emphasizing the nave.
Basilicas and Public Baths
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Trajan's Forum in Rome features a large version of a basilica. The Basilica Ulpia measures 200 by 400 feet, excluding the apses. On the interior, double colonnades framed two aisles on both sides of the nave, and triple colonnades adorned the short sides. Clerestory windows illuminated the interior.
Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine
The Basilica Nova, which is also known as the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, had three groin vaults over its nave and three barrel-vaulted bays on the side aisles, an arrangement that created a strong three-dimensional dynamic inside the building.
The Roman public baths housed hygienic facilities, but also provided space for exercise, relaxation, and socializing, similar to a present-day spa or Otness club. In Pompeii, for example, the excavation of three different bath buildings revealed a sequence of steam rooms—similar to saunas—that was combined with cooler spaces and pools. Some public baths even included a library, providing yet another way to relax.
Forum Baths
Architecturally, these different functions were addressed with multiple spaces: changing rooms, latrines, rooms for baths of various temperatures, exercise rooms, relaxing areas, and gardens. Natural springs were harnessed and heated if they were not naturally warm.
The largest bath complex was the Baths of Diocletian, built on Ofty acres of land circa 298 to 306 CE, and probably held up to 3,000 people. The Baths of Diocletian featured a symmetrical Ioor plan that organized the principal sequence of rooms along one axis. This sequence included groin-vaulted hot baths, or caldarium; domed warm baths, or tepidarium; cool baths, or frigidarium; and an open-air swimming pool, or natatio. The other spaces surrounded the bath spaces, and included the changing rooms, exercise courts, and miscellaneous service rooms. Interiors were richly decorated with precious materials; the central section of the frigidarium, for example, survived and was converted into a church—the Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri—by Michelangelo in the 16th century.
Baths of Diocletian, aerial view
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MAYAN CITIES
In general, one can say that cities for Mesoamerican peoples were closely related to sacred spaces.
Maria Teresa Uriarte writes:
A building or city was always planned in accordance with a predetermined sacred geometry, as well as with its topographic, geographic, and cosmological setting, and was always based on the dimensions of the human body.
Pre-Columbian Architecture in Mesoamerica
As Mayan cities spread throughout the varied geography of Mesoamerica, very little site planning seems to have occurred. In fact, Mayan cities were apparently built somewhat haphazardly, as dictated by the topography or any other site features. Mayan architecture tends to integrate a great degree of natural features. Some cities on the Eat limestone plains of the northern Yucatan grew into great sprawling municipalities, while others, built in the hills of Usumacinta, utilized the natural loft of the topography to raise their towers and temples to impressive heights.
Mayan Cities
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North Acropolis and Central Acropolis, Tikal
At the onset of large-scale construction, builders typically established a predetermined axis in congruence with the cardinal directions. Depending on the location and availability of natural resources such as fresh-water wells, or cenotes, the city grew through the use of sacbeob causeways to connect great plazas with the numerous platforms that created the substructure for nearly all Mayan buildings. As more structures were added, and existing structures were rebuilt or remodeled, the great Mayan cities seemed to take on an almost random identity that contrasts sharply with other great Mesoamerican cities, such as Teotihuacán and its rigid, grid-like construction.
Pyramid of the Magician, Uxmal
The heart of the Mayan city usually resided in a large plaza surrounded by the most important religious and governmental buildings, including the royal acropolis, great pyramid temples, and ball courts. While natural features were taken into consideration, careful attention was paid to the orientation of
temples and observatories to make sure they were constructed according to the Maya interpretation of the orbits of the stars. Outside of the ritual center, smaller, less important temples and individual shrines were built. The homes of common people were located even further away.
Copán is located in central Yucatán southeast of Tikal, which is the ceremonial center that contains the famous stelae. It is rectangular, with a great plaza to the north and an acropolis to the south. At Palenque, similar elements can be found: earthen platforms, stepped pyramids with wide stairs, and temples.
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Janus Bgure, Copán
Ceremonial Platforms
Ceremonial platforms were limestone platforms used for public ceremonies and religious rites. They were around 12 feet tall and often decorated with carved Qgures, altars, and tzompantli, which were stakes used to display the heads of victims or defeated Mesoamerican ballgame opponents.
Palaces
Palaces housing the population's elite were often located close to the center of a city. For the most part, they were one-story structures containing small chambers organized around one or more interior courtyards. The royal palace would be larger in size, with many rooms on different levels, and might be referred to as an acropolis. Tombs were integrated into the palace structures as well. At Copán, beneath 400-plus years of subsequent remodeling, a tomb for one of the ancient rulers has been discovered. The North Acropolis at Tikal also appears to have been the site of numerous burials during the Terminal Preclassic and Early Classic Periods.
Palace, Palenque, Mexico
Pyramids and Temples
Often, the most important religious temples were located at the top of the towering Mayan pyramids, presumably because this was the closest place to the heavens. While recent discoveries point toward the extensive use of pyramids as tombs, the temples themselves seem to rarely, if ever, contain burials. Residing atop the pyramids—some of which, such as that of El Mirador, rise over 200 feet high—the temples were impressive and decorated structures. Commonly topped with a roof comb, or superQcial grandiose wall, these temples might have had demonstrative purposes. Because the roof combs were occasionally the only structure to exceed the height of the jungle, they were often carved with representations of rulers that could be seen from vast distances. Beneath the proud temples sat the pyramids, which were, ultimately, a series of platforms split by steep stairs that would allow access to the temple.
Temple of the Jaguar at Tikal, Guatemala Temple of the Jaguar at Tikal, Guatemala
Observatories
The Maya were skilled astronomers and mapped out the phases of celestial objects, especially the moon and Venus. Many temples contain doorways and other features relating to or aligning with celestial events. Round temples, often dedicated to Kukulcan, are perhaps those most often described as "observatories" by modern ruin tour guides, but there is no evidence that the Maya used them as such exclusively, and temple pyramids of other shapes may well have been used for observation as well.
Ball Courts
As an integral aspect of the Mesoamerican lifestyle, the courts for the ritual ball game were constructed throughout the Mayan realm, often on a grand scale. Enclosed on two sides by stepped ramps that led to ceremonial platforms or small temples, the ball court itself formed a capital "I" shape and could be found in all but the smallest of Mayan cities.
Ball court, Uxmal, Mexico
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EARLY CITIES IN THE INDUS VALLEY
India is de6ned by the Himalayas in the north, the Arabian Sea in the west, and the Bay of Bengal in the east. Most visitors would enter the area through the Hindu Kush valleys and encounter the river system called Sindhu, or Hindus by western people. The Greeks called it Indus and the area Indika. India's other great river system is the Ganges-Yamuna system in the northeast.
Starting around 3000 BCE, several cultures Qourished in the Indus Valley and its coastal plains—including the Harappa, which we will study here. The area is located in present-day Pakistan, India, Turkmenistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. The Harappan culture, which existed from around 3000 to 1700 BCE, seems to have established two cities that functioned as the capitals, or leading cities, of extensive populated areas: Harappa, in the northeast portion of the valley, and, on the Indus 400 miles to the southwest, Mohenjo-Daro. The society itself was most likely theocratic and Qourished in the 6rst quarter of the second millennium BCE. They produced a wide range of ceramic and bronze sculptures and functional objects but did not seem to focus on trade. Fertility rites and worship involving a female goddess—a horned bull—seems to have been prevalent.
Early Cities in the Indus Valley
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Mohenjo-Daro
The 400-plus characters of Harappan script have not been deciphered, which has led to much disagreement among scholars about the civilization. However, through the over 1,000 Harappan sites that have been identi6ed so far, we do know that the society was based on irrigated agriculture and commerce. We can also glean other bits of information from Harappa's architectural legacy.
In the city of Harappa, for example, buildings were organized on a grid, which might indicate a centralized form of government. Architecture was created using 6red bricks, a durable construction material that seems to have been utilized throughout the region. Because Harappan cities were built on river plains, Qooding was a common issue. Mohenjo-Daro was repaired at least nine times after Qoods.
Mohenjo-Daro featured an elevated, walled, terraced citadel as well as ceremonial buildings, public storehouses for grain, mills, and a bath that might simultaneously have served ritual functions. No large shrines have been identi6ed like those found in Egypt or Mesopotamia, but excavators have found small sculptures that suggest a reverence for trees and animals, a mother goddess cult, and a male god that may have been a precursor to the later Hindu deity Shiva. Excavations in Mohenjo-Daro point to an estimated population of 40,000 that lived in houses with courtyards open to the sky and air. Individual houses received water through wells and a drain and sewer system, which was extremely advanced for the time. Buildings were very close together and formed a dense urban fabric.
Mohenjo-Daro
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Seal with animal design Description:
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Mohenjo-Daro: Great Bath Description:
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ANGKOR WAT
Hinduism spread to other areas in Southeast Asia and remains an important religious force in the region to this day. Cambodia's Angkor Wat, built circa 1120 CE, exhibits a unique fusion of Indian religion and native Khmer tradition. It began as a temple to Vishnu and was Nnished as the royal shrine of the ruling Khmer dynasty, before being converted to a place of Buddhist worship.
Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat
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Satellite view of Angkor with map
Angkor Wat is one of the largest religious structures ever built, with a rectangular perimeter wall measuring 4275 by 4920 feet. The temple extended the existing traditional elements. A tower that represents the sacred mountain (sikhara) and the small unlit shrine inside a Hindu temple called a garbhagriha, which evokes the holy cave at the center of the cosmos, were here exhibited in multiple towers, extended galleries, corner pavilions, and entrance gates leading to the central tower.
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Angkor Thom map
Description:
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Stone sculpture at the Bayon Description:
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The central 215-foot tower is situated on a pyramid base, and four stepped towers that symbolize Mount Mehru, the home to the gods, mark each corner. Two sets of square, concentric galleries surround the core of the temple and feature gates leading into the complex from the center of each side. A moat, which suggests the oceans out of which the mountain rises, encircles the entire site. Angkor Wat was constructed entirely of stone, using corbelling techniques but no arches. After builders laid the stone, it became the domain of sculptors, who added ornament to the walls and roofs.
Angkor Wat aerial view
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CITY PLANNING IN CHINA
Kao Gong Ji (The Records of Examination of Craftsman)
Chinese city planning is described in the earliest surviving manuscript of a treatise known as the Kao Gong Ji, or the Arti-cer's Record, which was written in the Cfth century CE. The author is unknown. The treatise served as a guide for establishing a city based on Confucian teachings; it gave testimony to craft procedures and scientiCc discoveries. In a way similar to the standardization of temple construction, there were a few clear elements and conceptions that made up the tradition of Chinese city planning. They were congruent with the rules for traditional houses and included:
a walled enclosure
axiality
north-south orientation
a courtyard or plaza
Chang'an: City Plan
City Planning in China
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The guidelines called for a square, walled plan that measured roughly 4,000 feet on each side and was oriented according to the cardinal directions. The treatise also suggested that tree gates be positioned in the wall surrounding the city, and that roads project out from these gates to establish the main grid. The central road, located on the south side and leading to the main entrance, would need to be nine cart lanes wide and run north to the palace complex. The plan required a walled palace with a marketplace positioned in the north of the compound and preceded by a large courtyard—the only public open space— Qanked by temples and altars.
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Chang'an, plan showing six streets Description:
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Chang'an, city plan Description:
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Chang'an during the Sui and Tang Dynasties
Boyd writes:
The word for "city" and "wall"—ch'eng—was the same. But not merely was a city walled; the principal internal parts of a city were walled, as in Peking, where the "Imperial City" was a walled enclosure within the "Inner City" and the "Palace" was a walled enclosure within that again. Every important ensemble of buildings and spaces was a walled enclosure in itself and if large enough would be composed of separate walled enclosures. The palace was a labyrinth of walled enclosures.
Chinese Architecture and Town Planning: 1500 BCE–CE 1911
Founded in the sixth century as the capital of the Tang Dynasty, the city of Chang'an (modern Xian) was one of the grandest cities of its time and perfectly embodies the guidelines laid out by the Kao Gong Ji.
Bejing has been occupied since about 2400 BCE and served as the northern capital since the third or fourth century, and it also features elements described in the Kao Gong Ji.
Between 1153 and 1215 CE, the city was under control of the Mongols, who had breached the Great Wall and subsequently ruled as the Yuan Dynasty. Ming emperors then overthrew the Mongols and re-established Bejing as their capital in 1368.
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Map of the Forbidden City Palace Museum
By 1279, the Jin Dynasty had been obliterated by the Grandson of Ghengis Khan, Khubilai Khan, who had gained control of all Chinese provinces at the cost of approximately 30 million lives. It is during this period that the capital of China was moved to Beijing and over time the Forbidden City was built to accommodate the various dynasties that conquered one another.
An important design principle that was used in the creation of the Forbidden City was "hierarchy." The entire city was created for three walled segments which included the Inner City, the Imperial City, and the Forbidden City. All three of these spaces were centered along a grand north/south axis that was highlighted by ceremonial gateways into the various parts of the city.
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Forbidden City overview—axial planning
The use of axial planning and symmetry allows for the show of power and political prowess, which has been key to the creation of capitals all across the globe.
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Main Palace Hall, Forbidden City, China
In addition to being one of the most stunning palace complexes in the world, the Forbidden City bestowed Beijing with a vantage point named "Coal Hill." This hill was constructed from the material dredged up at the location of the
large moat used to defend the city. Coal Hill was planted with fruit trees and sprinkled with pavilions that were used by the nobility. It is now a public park and the highest point in Beijing.
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Coal Hill, Forbidden City
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Forbidden City, Stair Detail
Forbidden City—roof detail
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CITY PLANNING IN JAPAN
Japan also features a long tradition of orthogonal city planning, starting in 650 CE. Planned capital cities evolved around the imperial palace, and a new palace was built at the commencement of each emperor's reign to guarantee the ritual purity of a fresh location.
Many of these new capitals were situated in the Nara basin, which is situated between present-day Kyoto and Osaka. One such capital, Heijo, or "Capital of the Peaceful Citadel," was established in 707 CE and occupied until 784 CE, when the capital was moved again, this time to Heian-kyo, now called Kyoto.
Heijo-kyo Daigoku Palace
Heijo displayed the orientation and layout of Chang'an, with the imperial palace at the center of the northern side. Heijo was planned on a perfect grid with uniformly sized, 400-foot blocks—each of which was named to identify its location relative to the main axis and the palace, similar in practice to Cartesian coordinates—and a grand axial avenue that led straight to the imperial palace. Secondary streets were narrower and decreased further in size if they subdivided the square blocks.
City Planning in Japan
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Today, the main Imperial Palace is in Kyoto; it consists of temples and other cultural monuments. The surrounding developments did not maintain the grid layout, and even the Imperial Palace did not remain where it was originally built. Starting in the 12th century, the palace made room for state occasions, and the living quarters were moved elsewhere. Kyoto's Imperial Palace is still used for ceremonies when the country installs a new emperor.
Further Information
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/japanese-confucian/
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THE GARDEN CITY OF ISFAHAN
The city of Isfahan in south-central Iran became the new capital city during the reign of Shah Abbas of the Safavid Dynasty (1587–1629). Shah Abbas decided to build an imperial garden city based off of the chahar bagh design.
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Map of Isfahan during the Safavid Dynasty
Chahar Bagh Avenue The main connecting spine of the city was Chahar Bagh Avenue. It was home to the city's central water distribution channel that fed water to the now nonexistent gardens that flanked either side of this beautiful boulevard, terminating in the large, flowing Zayandeh River. Today, Chahar Bagh Avenue still exists as a heavily used central boulevard with a central pedestrian green space and roadways flanking either side.
The Garden City of Isfahan
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Historic Chahar Bagh Avenue (L), Modern Chahar Bagh Avenue (R)
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Naghshe Jahan Square: Meydan-e-Shah original design (L), Meydan-e-Shah current day design (R)
The entire city of Isfahan departed from the organic maze of streets and took on a more grid-like structure. This was true except when it came to "Meydan-e-Shah" or "King's Square."
Meydan-e-Shah was home to two mosques, and the king's palace, courts, and haram, all oriented towards Mecca. When it was first built, this square was intended to be the city's trade center, much like the Greek Agora, and
Garden City of Isfahan: Meydan-e-Shah
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was devoid of any design detail. Over the years, however, the design of the square took on the chahar bagh design prevalent in much of the Middle East:
"The chief public ground was the Maydan-e-Shah. Measuring approximately 1,664 feet by 517 feet, it served as a versatile recreational field and a place of pomp pageantry, and public executions. This great Imperial Square was enclosed by a uniform two-story arcade housing the shops of merchants dealing in precious gems, gold, silk, and medicinal drugs. Within the square itself, tents and awnings were thrown up on weekly market days for dealers selling furs, jewelry, and pearls as well as for traders of cloth, spices, vegetables, and fruit. At such times, it was a place for prostitutes to solicit business and for jugglers, tightrope walkers, acrobats, magicians, and wrestlers to entertain crowds. Spectacular punishments took place there, providing whatever moral instruction was intended as well as satisfying the human appetite for cruelty. From a great platform supported by eighteen pillars behind the Ali Qapu, or Lofty Gateway, on the western side of the Maydan-e-Shah, the Shah and his retinue could watch polo."
— Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History
View of Chehel Sotoun
Instead of one large palatial compound, Shah Abbas decided to build a series of garden pavilions and palaces. Here are a few of them:
Chehel Sotoun (Hall of Forty Columns)
Bagh-e Hezar Jarib
Bagh-e Farahabad (Abode of Joy)
Of these, only Chehel Sotoun exists today.
The following image shows Chehel Sotoun during the day and at night.
Drag the slider to see both day and night.
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MEDIEVAL FORTIFICATIONS IN EUROPE
Secular structures from the Middle Ages, especially the rural homes of peasant families, were simple affairs. The buildings used local materials—like earth, wood, and thatch—and simple construction techniques. Structures often combined the house and barn, which residents entered at opposite ends.
Carcassonne, France
In 864, Charles the Bald, the king of the western Franks, published an order that required all castles and fortiOcations built without oPcial permission to be demolished. The order conOrms the early existence of castles as private fortiOed residences. The phenomenon was related to the system of feudalism that took hold of the population after the Carolingian Empire was over. Urban defense, in some cases, was replaced by private fortiOcation systems located especially in the countryside. Centralized power was split into independent, smaller local entities that required individual defense.
Roger Stalley writes:
Medieval Fortifications in Europe
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When considering the design of their castles, medieval lords had a fairly consistent set of requirements: a decent hall was needed for feasting and entertaining, along with private sleeping quarters, a kitchen, and a chapel. There was also need for workshops and stables, the latter best located in a fortiOed courtyard or "bailey," where the horses could be watered and fed in safety. As mark of status, at least one tower was essential. But the way these requirements were expressed varied enormously and there is little sign of the consistency of layout seen in ecclesiastical architecture. Most castles were in fact an amalgam of separate buildings, erected at different times by different owners, forming an agglomeration of structures rather than a single monument.
Early Medieval Architecture
Nobility often lived in fortiOed residences or castles constructed for defense. Medieval castles very frequently had a strong connection to the cities, since both relied on the fortiOcations for defense. As defensive cities and builders gained experience, they increasingly equipped defensive walls with projecting towers of a cylindrical shape, which seemed the most defensible.
The castle of Loarre, for example, documents a preference for taking advantage of site conditions to increase the defense capabilities by natural fortiOcation, such as rock outcrops and ledges. It also documents how it underwent continuous evolution and updates.
Carcassonne, general view
The city of Carcassonne, which was built from 800 to 1300 CE in a site that had already been fortiOed by the Gallo-Romans, shows some of the innovations and progress made in defensive architecture. Louis IX of France took over the city in 1248 CE and transformed it into an impregnable stronghold by adding a second ring to a repaired version of the existing fortiOed town; the city was never seriously attacked after the completion of his work.
Medieval cities and towns were scattered throughout Europe, making them vulnerable to enemy attacks due to the concentration of wealth within. A city's safety depended on its heavily fortiOed crenellated walls. Crenellated walls were indented battlements to shield those defending the city from archers.
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Crenellated wall
Walled medieval cities opened their doors to merchants and entrepreneurs in exchange for a toll fee collected at the city's gateway. This fee was a major source of wealth for city dwellers.
Dense Growth
Medieval cities were built as densely as possible to limit the extent of their perimeter fortiOcations. Cities evolved along a highly organic pattern that used the main square and major routes as anchor points from which newer streets radiated outwards.
Town of Siena
The best way to understand the signiOcance and beauty of medieval walled cities is to visit the town of Siena in the heart of Tuscany. Like all other medieval towns, Siena evolved along an organic urban pattern. Major routes and piazzas acted as anchor points for further development.
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Siena's walls and main gateway
The organic development of Siena's streets and buildings can be seen in this series of aerial photographs and snapshots.
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Siena, Italy
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Organic urban growth and narrow medieval streets in Siena, Italy
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Organic urban growth and narrow medieval streets in Siena, Italy
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THE UNIQUE CONDITION OF VENICE
The unique city of Venice is located at the gateway between East and West, which underwent a colorful history and is still testimony to impressive architectural achievements.
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Venice at the top of the Adriatic Sea, splitting Italy to the west and Greece to the east
According to tradition, Venice was founded in 421 CE on April 25th, St. Mark's Day, in honor of St. Mark, the apostle who would become the city's patron saint. As the story goes, refugees Peeing the Lombardian invasion in northern Italy sought security in the lagoon and marshes of the Gulf of Venice, an arm of the Adriatic Sea. The refugees built watery villages—the original Venetian settlements—on rafts of wood posts driven into the soil, a building technique that would endure for centuries. Currently, Venice has more than 118 tiny islets within the lagoon; 150 canals run between the islands.
The Unique Condition of Venice
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Venetian buildings sit on woodpiles sunk into layers of clay and sand. The wood does not decay under water because there's no oxygen, and most of these piles are still intact after centuries of submersion. The foundations rest on the woodpiles, and buildings of brick and stone then rest on these footings. The buildings are often threatened by Pood tides pushing in from the Adriatic between autumn and early spring.
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Foundation plan and detail
The government was built around the concept of the Doge, or duke, who shared power with a senate-like body. Established in the 700s, the unique system of Doges (who were elected for life) lasted for 1,000 years. The Serene Republic ]ercely protected its election policy and guarded against hereditary rule, though the principle of elected Doges increasingly favored the ruling classes. The Doge presided over a vast bureaucracy of elected civil servants, committees, and councils. The ]rst historically known Doge, Orso Ipato, came to power in 726 CE, and in 814, the construction of Palazzo Ducale—the "Doge's Palace"—began in present-day St. Mark's Square.
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Map of Venice, 1650
Although not formally part of the Byzantine Empire, Venice was clearly within its sphere of inPuence and acted as a buffer between that empire and the rising Carolingian Empire in the west. Pepin, a son of Charlemagne, tried to take the city in 810 but was soundly defeated when his Peet ran aground. Perfectly placed between the Mediterranean and Alpine mountain passes leading into northern Europe, Venice kept a foot in both the East and West and was therefore poised to make a fortune from trade. This position also allowed heretofore disparate architectural elements to coalesce and evolve into new styles that mixed Byzantine and Romanesque elements.
The Venetian maritime Peet began to expand in the middle of the ninth century, and Venice rose to full-Pedged city-state status by 1000 CE. With such a powerful navy at its disposal, Venice became the undisputed economic power of the Adriatic in the 11th century. Venice also developed into an imperial power through its role as a staging ground and manufacturing base for the Fourth Crusade. Through that Crusade, Constantinople was seized in 1204 CE, and the Latin Empire established. Venice prospered through war and diplomacy until 1797 CE, when Napoleon conquered it.
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CONCLUSION
The public arenas of cities are the domain of their citizens. They are civic spaces. The urban environments that frame, border, and set the stage for public gatherings and civic events helps deAne the identity of a city and its populace. We focused on relationships: the relations between the individual the collective, the citizen and the state, the secular and the sacred, the public and the private. How these relationships are manifested in built form and space tells us much about the inhabitants' way of life and the approach to urban life of different cultures.
The percentage of the world's population that lives in large cities is growing in the 21st century. The majority of cities on the planet still preserve and maintain the historical geometry and infrastructure of their older versions. Now you should recognize the proliAc contributions given to us by Roman civic architecture and urban strategies. The sites you have seen in this module obviously predate the ubiquity of the automobile, which has dictated city design since the middle of the 20th century. Inventions in technology and transportation will continue to shape cities in the future, as well as future cities. The possession of more advanced technology does not render the past obsolete, however, and we would be wise to learn from urban environments of the past when reforming those of the present.
Have you tried to answer these questions during this module?
How is the relation between interior and exterior architecturally expressed?
Where is the interface between spaces for fewer people and those for more people?
Can you identify the gradient of publicity-to-privacy?
Where are certain districts located in relation to each other, and which buildings exhibit this?
How do people circulate the spaces, and what are they allowed to see at any given time?
Is there an overarching spatial scheme based on a datum or other organizing feature?
What groups of people might be allowed or prohibited from certain zones and buildings?
Has the topography (slope of the earth) played a role in the arrangement of spaces?
Module Coursework Complete all items in any Graded Coursework, Other Activities, and Quizzes and Exams areas included in this module.
