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Greek and Roman city and town planningD.E.K.SAGAR VARMA (10633)GNANA SELVAM (10645)SUBMITTED BY GreekGreek civilization occurred in the area around the Greek mainland, on a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea

It started in cities on the Greek mainland and on islands in the Aegean Sea

Towards the later or Hellenistic period, Greek civilization spread to other far away places including Asia Minor and Northern AfricaHistorical Background

Location

Most of the Greek mainland was rocky and barren and therefore bad for agriculture

Most Greeks therefore lived along the coastline or on islands where the soil was good for farming

The Aegean and Mediterranean Seas provided a means of communication and trade with other places

Historical Background

LocationGreek City Planning and DesignAncient Greeks not only develop ideals of architectural aesthetics, but they also developed principles for the design and planning of cities as location for architectureThe ancient Greek city states developed a standard plan of the city The city consisted of three defined elements; the town, acropolis and AgoraPrinciples were developed for organizing each element of the city based on activities and its symbolismThe town was a place to retire for the dayIt was composed of simple courtyard houses separated by streetsIt could either be organic or grid-iron

Principles of City Planning & Design

Principles of City Planning & DesignThe Acropolis was the city of the gods

This is where buildings reflecting the highest ideals of beauty were placed to be seen rather than used

The principle of its design is that of isolated objects arranged in open space

The objects are arranged to be seen in three-dimension

The Agora was a mundane place for social, commercial and political activitiesThe principle of its design centers on creating boundaries to contain space for activities

In practice, stoas and other civic buildings are used to loosely define the space

These are usually treated with continuous colonnades or porticoes along the side of the court with occasional penetrations by footpaths

Principles of City Planning & Design

athensIt has an organic plan.

DARK AGES (1.150BC/1.100BC-900BC)Invasion of polonnesse which came as a blow & the athenians took time to stand up again. The attack resulted in the reduction of population.

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Agora was the center of athenian life. Laid out in 6th centuary bc., northwet of the Acropolis, it was a square lined by public buildings, which served Athens need for commerce & politics.

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1791 bocage map or plan of athens, Ancient Greece

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A plan of Athens, designed by the French consul Louis Franois Sbastien Fauvel, a little before 1800. A plan of Athens, designed by the French consul Louis Franois Sbastien Fauvel, a little before 1800. The Acropolis in AthensThe acropolis in Athens was a religious precinct located on one of the hills of the city.The Earliest versions of the Buildings in the Acropolis existed until 480 BCIn 480 BC, the Persians under Xerxes burnt Athens and the Acropolis to the groundNot long after that the Greeks defeated the Persians

The Acropolis in Athens was rebuilt in about 450 BCThe rebuilding of the Acropolis was begun by Pericles, the wise statesman who ruled from 460 BC to 429 BCPericles commissioned artist and architects to build a new city of temples to glorify the godsThe acropolis combined Doric orders and ionic orders in a perfect composition in four buildings; the Propylea, the Parthenon, the Erechtheumn, and the temple of Nike. The Acropolis in Athens

The best example of Greek emphasis on visualization in design and site planning is seen at the Acropolis at AthensAll the buildings on the Acropolis are designed to be seen than useAll the temples on the Acropolis are place at an angle that enables them to be seen on two sidesIf a building cannot see be from two sides, it is completely hidden

The Acropolis in AthensFrom the entry at the Propylae, a visitor has a view of all the prominent buildings in the AcropolisBuildings are also position at a distance that ensures the appreciation of their detailsThe central axis of view from the propylae is left free of building for a view into the country side

The Acropolis in Athens The AgoraThe Agora in Athens was a space used for social, commercial and political activitiesThe Agora at Athens was located at the base of the hill of the AcropolisCivic and religious buildings were progressively erected around the perimeter of the Agora space

GREEK TOWN-PLANNING: FIRST EFFORTS

Greek town-planning began in the great age of Greece, the fifth century B.CThey included streets running parallel or at right angles to one another and rectangular blocks of houses;the longer and presumably the more important streets ran parallel to the shore, while shorter streets ran at right angles to themdown to the quays. Here is a rectangular scheme of streets, though the outline of the whole town is necessarily not rectangularGREEK TOWN-PLANNING: THE MACEDONIAN AGE, 330-130 B.C.The Macedonian age brought with it, if not a new, at least a more systematic, method of town-planning. Instead, a broad sloping terrace, or more exactly a series of terraces, nearer the foot of the hill, was laid out with publicbuildingsAgora, Theatre, Stoa, Gymnasium, Temples, and so forthand with private houses

The whole covered an area ofabout 750 yds. in length and 500 yds. in width. Priene was, therefore, about half the size of Pompeii.

It had, as its excavators calculate, about 400 individual dwelling-houses and a population possibly to be reckoned at 4,000.

In the centre was the Agora or market-place, with a temple and other large buildings facing on to it

round them were otherpublic buildings and some eighty blocks of private houses, each block measuring on an average 40 x 50 yds. and containingfour or five houses.GREEK TOWN-PLANNING: THE MACEDONIAN AGE, 330-130 B.C.

The broader streets, rarely more than 23 ft. wide, ran level along the terraces and parallel to one another.

Other narrower streets, generally about 10 ft. wide, ran at right angles up the slopes, with steps like those of the olderScarborough or of Assisi.

Despite this reasoned and systematic arrangement, no striking artistic effects appear to have been attempted. No streets givevistas of stately buildingsGREEK TOWN-PLANNING: THE MACEDONIAN AGE, 330-130 B.C. RomanThe typical Roman city of the later Republic and empire had a rectangular plan and resembled a Roman military camp with two main streetsthe cardo (north-south) and the decumanus (east-west)a grid of smaller streets dividing the town into blocks, and a wall circuit with gates.

Older cities, such as Rome itself, founded before the adoption of regularized city planning, could, however, consist of a maze of crooked streets. The focal point of the city was its forum, usually situated at the center of the city at the intersection of the cardo and the decumanus.Roman Cities florence

In Romantimes Florence was a 'colonia.This 'colonia',like others, was laid out in chess-board fashion, and vestiges of its streets survive in the Centro which forms the heart of thepresent town. The Centro of Florence, as we see it to-day, is very modern. florence

The plan of Florence in 1427 shows a group of twentyunmistakable 'insulae', each of them about 1-1/8 acre in area, that is, very similar in size to the 'insulae' of Turin. This group isbounded by the modern streets Tornabuoni on the west, Porta Rossa on the south, Calzaioli on the east, Teatina on the north; itcovers a rectangle of some 305 x 327 yds., not quite 21 acres. florenceThere are, or were, traces of Roman baths inthe Via delle Terme, and it has been thought that the town stretched riverwards as far as the old gate Por S. Maria and thePiazza S. Trinit. The gate, however, is ill-placed and the line of wall implied by this theory is irregular. The mediaeval streetspoint rather to a south wall near the Via Porta Rossa.There were also theatres, a shrine of Isis, and, outside the Roman limit, an amphitheatre still discernible in the curves of certain streets .However small Florentia was, it possessed the true elements of the Roman town. florence

The Por S. Maria may even be due to one of the reconstructions of Florence in the MiddleAges. At the end we must admit that without further evidence the limits of Roman Florence cannot be fixed for certain. Butthe limits indicated above give the not unsuitable dimensions of 46 acres (380 x 590 yds.), while the history of the twentyindubitable insulae of the Centro remains full of interest. We see here, as clearly as anywhere in the Roman world, how theregular Roman plan has gradually been distorted by encroachments and how, even in its irregularity, it has had power to drivemodern builders towards its ancient fashion. florence

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Other examples

Other examples36Inferences Greek TownsGreeks built small towns appropriate for human scale

Natural borders for the town

Parts of the town were planned according to geometrical patterns and others according to defensive measures

Democracy, Buildings of poor and rich are a side, public baths.

Agora in the center and includes : Assembly hallCouncil hallChamber hall

Roman citiesplenty of towns in invaded areas - medium towns for about 50000. to keep agriculture aroundDivision of agricultural land into rectangular parcels.Grid pattern for most of Roman cities The city was divided into neighborhoods and quarters with their own centersTwo major and central intersected roads : Cardo : North SouthDecomanus : East West* The Forum at the intersection of the two major roads : the central public space

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