ole 5-The Renaissance: Italy sets a Pattern scance period in urban history js taken as extending from its pe Revs Tray, at the beginning ofthe fiteenth centory, unt the Mghteenth century. “Indeed,” as Sir Patrick Abercrombie ne ght be placed a little later at each end, for Bacon's hat men come (0 build stately sooner than to garden finely, site planning, which does not make its appearance vals anc i wall sdvaneail.. Rind tamtinurs te hip-wver jl the Renae century.” It is important to bear in mind that ity the ninctcent piel ie ance urbanism spread slowly from taly to other European eres, taking some seventy-five years to reach France and a further cunts Arges 10 become stablished! in England. Renaissance prehitecture — the essential precursor of urbanism — takes over from the Guile as the momentum of that style wanes. Never strongly estab- Ga aly-GathicaFEhFETUTE Was aC its fiftcenth-century peak in id ata time when the Renaissance was fully under way in both vax and Rome. In turn the Renaissance flowered and died. In its poor ecadent phase i was to be overwhelmed, initially in Britain, by er cetble, uncontrollable onslaught of the Industrial Revolution’s uban expansion. ‘The erm Renaissance means, literally, rebirth: a revival of interest inthe dassical art forms-ofancient-Rome-and.Greece, and their use-as the nspirionof European painting, sculpture, architecture. and \ibanigns. The compctition-winning designs of Lorenzo Ghiberti for SS tranze baptistery doors at Florence Cathedral in 14or are generally taken as the first sign of the Renaissance in the plastic arts. The first ancitecture is similarly seen to be the Foundling Hospital designed by Flippo Brunclleschi, also in Florence, which was started in 1419. The catlst Renaissance urbanism — the conscious arrangement of build- ings into a predetermined form — is considered to be the Via Nuova in Genoa, of 1470.” The development of the Renaissance in the plastic arts isdlosely linked with the growth of literary and scientific humanism. In predating them by about a century, this established an intellectual Context favourable to a successful revolt against reactionary medieval ream Inthisthe leading writers are Dante (1265-1321), Petrarch LRG) and Boccaccio (1313-75). Following their lead came many Tea and woyagers whose work extended the knowledge of the snc Renisance originated in Florence where, as Nikolaus Pevsner cna rte socal situation coincided with a particular social fina and people, and a particular historical tradition, ion is that of an immensely rich and powerful city om iheend cht ae te ea Figure 8.1 Time chart showing the duration of the Fenalssance in tay, France and Britain with dates of key buildings and examples of urbaism in tes th countries and, a8 a four colur, other European 1. Sir Patick Abererombie, Town and County Pan ‘ing, 1953 am si (1992 reat admirer of his va ‘ble ie: book but sa aleo N Paver, An Outine of European Architecture, 7th edn, 1963; RWitkower, Art ‘and Architecture in taly 1600-1750. 1973 2 Contemporary withthe Via Nuow at Geno, poss fbty preceding it 9s that which can be regarded he fiat Renaissance urbanism, there iste Pars front bl the Cathedral at Piens, near Siens, designed By B Forde Rossalline in abovt 1460. See L Banevole, The History ofthe City, 1580 BLN Pevsner, An Outine of European Architect 5 J4 Plumb ed} The Horizon Book ofthet i HISTORY OF URBAN FORM arts, For these state, in which leading families were active patrons of the wealthy merchants the religious i va acl Little vealthy merchants the religious conventions sired va plead ; attraction, ‘they tended to wordly ideals, not to the transcendenta)s to attraction, ‘they t t enlental tc the active, not to meditation; to clarity not to the obscure’! Furthe cor Ttaly had never taken to the essentially northern, Gothic style of architecture with any enthusiam, and it was a country with innaimer able impressive, if ruined, Roman remains. Tt seems inevitable that in Florence ‘the clear, proud and worldly spirit of Roman antiquity should be rediscovered . .. that its attitude to physical beauty in the fine arts and beauty of proportion in architecture found an echo’.* From Florence the new architectural style quickly spread throughout Italy and by the end of the fifteenth century it had become firmly cstablished in Rome. Although the term Renaissance is used in t urban history for the entire period, architectural history usually divides it into phases: Early Renaissance (1420-1500); Late Renaissance (1300-1600); Baroque (1600-1750); and Rococo or Neo-classical (1350-1900). Of these phases, the Baroque is the only term with rele- vance to urban history, as explained below. (The time-chart as Figure 5.1 shows the key dates for Renaissance urbanism in Italy, France, Britain and elsewhere in Europe.) ‘A key factor in the spread of the Renaissance was the development of printing, which following, it sccms, some obscure preludes in The Netherlands, was used at Mainz for reproducing books around 1450 by John Gutenberg. In architecture and urbanism two significant in- flucnees resulted from the ‘discovery’ in about 1412, and printed pub- lication in 1521, of the writings of Vitruvius — an architect practising in the Rome of Augustus, and from the influx of Greck scholars and artists into Italy from Constantinople when it was captured by the Turks in 1453. Ata time when architects were making detailed studics of the surviving Roman Buildings, on which to base their designs, the De Architectura of Vitruvius had a mystical significance far beyond its real value to architects. The influcnce of the Constantinople émigrés has a modern parallel with that of the architects and designers who, forced to leave Nazi Germany in the 1930s, worked elsewhere in Europe and the Renaissance urbanism ‘This section serves as an introduction to Renaissance urbanism in furoPean countries generally, since as Abercrombie writes, during all is peso spite of the marked changes of architectural style from Sita Meco skdam, the planning continued to be practised on ne s~! The Renaissance coincided-with-marked-inereayes extent and population of European, a “Hon atsOUt"50,000 jn 1530 t0 225,000 boundaries Were constrained until Population~expanided fivefold bet seventeenth centuries. Rome — change ~ grew from an estimat by 1650, yet this was still per mum total. Mainly because of size er sve tedevoment. Derton by nee Pe compen nineteenth century towns tions a8 on the eee PPE ion, as on the continent, i) arly ae. nthe cities. London’s population grow. by the early 1600s, although her. ater on in that century, Berlin’s ween the mid-fificenth and early Probably presenting the most marked fed 17,000 in the 13705 to about 124,000 haps but one-tenth of her former mace = or military acti Ihe hitorien Guelrt w “The cy wos part pece nb tds onnrauony aya to.oppose them. The poopie wers rn Mana! pageants and festivals; the rooy orm Snaal wades Routed, ae ‘assisted In their career by tha rayon Mone, trent the cry eno gn seen ‘ane teanros ison wien une Pelintpeipnepisiih rhe and ltrory preeminence, and ime pent "1 tnioyed trovghou hay -weraget 2 tome tecion of he tare Caters 80 Pitsey a rong [As part of his research Toscaneli wished sy the sun's noon height. The higher be coupe Upright of his gnomon, the longer the sheon g ‘more accurate would be his calculations ng obtained permission 10 censtuct 9 gnome cathedral using as his upright a column of eh ‘of Brunellesch's dome: it mas typical of For broadmindedness t0 alow 3 scents cos periments in tho house of God. Tscanel ns brass plate on the cathedral floor neste nwa BY measuring the shadow on ths poe be ness calulate the sun's meriian altitude, anaes ‘elation to the earth over the months Oe o® ‘covers he made was that te equinox) tutes earlier than would follow fiom tbe 8s the Ptolemaic system This email score intrinsic and also symbolic importance # 8 Scientist, armed with Paton hypotheses fs bis observations disagrea with Prleny. = ‘authority i the field: and this was tobe bps ature developments. WV Cronin, The Florentine Renaissance) 4,5. N Pevsner, An Outline of Europe8” AO 1963; see alzo.JH Plum (ed) The Hors Renaissance, 1961 6. CW PreviteOrton, Tho Twelt Co naissance, 1952. a 7. Notably Walter Gropius, Mies v2" Mh ‘Marcel rever, whose combined inf og ‘other expatriates, ha had a continuing a east cfect on the course of architecture 9M ut their inftuenco, howaver, did not eH i? Significant-seale ety planning, eter fuental theoretical ways 8. Abercrombie, Town and Count We end poiEO Re THE RENAISSANCE: ITALY S gecessitated complete rebuilding and when a chance was pre: neeppened after the 1606 Fire of London, there was neither seldom Fr to rebuild to a new plan, nor the bureaucratic means sented, a8 1h! ue ol an end. Furthermore there was no demand for new 10 ache ientated urban settlements. Europe generally was ad din part even over-provided with such towns, Only in the equate ages of the Renaissance dic industry become a significant chosing of urban settlement. ‘The relatively few new foundations of se ighicenth centuris were theveore primarily cther of thee military origi, ¢.8 Palma Nova in Waly, Neuf Brisach as a grate ample in France, and) Christiansand in| Norway = or the Nasty autocratic rule eg. Richelicw and Versailles in France and rea pein Germany.” St Petersburg, the only example of a major the Renaissance period, combines hoth origins Renaissance urbanism was thercfore effectively limited cither to the ison of existing urban arcas, or to their redeveloment in part CPifermore, as explained below, there was only limited activity in ther than the main cities. Tar the purposes of this introductory study five broad areas of Re- maigance urban planning can be distinguished: fortification systems; feeeneration of parts of cities by the creation of new public spaces and vied strecis; restructuring of existing cities by the construction of Semainrstrect systems which, extended as regional routes, frequently FarvaLedTuriher growth; the addition of extensive new districts, nor- mally Tor resident city founded durin 1 purposes; and the layout of a limited number of Jar tomns. The construction of fortification systems had a primary determining effect on the form and social conditions of many continen- talcites (as also did the absence of this constraint in Britain). The role af fortifications is therefore considered separately, later in this chapter. Renaissance urbanists had three main design components at their disposal: first, the primary straight street; second, gridiron-based dis- tics; third, enclosed spaces (squares, piazzas and places). Writing about their use in general, Abercrombie remarks that these components ‘were sometimes fused together to make a composite plan, but more slten were found somewhat disjointedly used, as though the designer had now been under one influence, now under another’.'* Before Seay describing the application of these components in general, and (stated key examples of urban planning activity (regeneration, Fe tacaite expansion and new site layout), we must first establish the eg between carly Renaissance and Baroque architecture (as 1), the essential characteristics of Baroque urbanism, and briefly tag’ Consider several significant social and political background TMAISANCE AND BAROQUE i sinter eemassance period of urban history the aesthetic deter Por cay Patil design and that of the enveloping architecture wos * the early ine than at any other time, This holds true equally Popriag and Baroque phases, when generally applied rules of Bed ger getting the plans, three-dimensional massing, and de nization onl design of buildings were extended outwards for the Uhanign oe OF Urban space."* Contrasting Renaissance and medieval 1 design ucker writes that ‘from the fifteenth century on, architect. ’ aesthetic theory, and the principles of city planning are ‘TS A PATTERN Pir Sorokin in his work Society, Culture and Por sonality] traces the period of emergence of 355 grat ‘ites, those having mare than 100000 population Period of Emergence Number 8% 186 to Sth century AD 7 188 60h t0 100 centory e194 1th to 15th century 7 212 16th to 2004 century ma 05 Tow! ed Forty por cant af the cities he studied developed in the inaenth to.the twentieth centuries, and another Iwentyone per gent in tha eleventh 10 the sixteenth anturios, Sorokin' dato indicate that great cultura! ‘changes had 10 take place before great cies could be buit and before people could survive within them ‘Such changes aeo had to be made bofore the word's ‘population could increase substatally and before it ‘could have 9 somewhat steady rte of growth (#7 Cole, Urban Society) In the old mediaval scheme, the city grew horizontal fortiestions were vertea In the baroque order, the city, confined by is fortfeations, could only grow up Wwardin tall tenements, fer filing ints rear gardens it Iwas the forfiations that continued #0 expand, the ‘more because the itary engineers had discovered Ser a litle experience thar cannon fre with non fnplosive projecics can be countered best, not by Stone or brick, but by 2 yielding substance like the fart: 0 the outworks counted for more than the tra ttronal rampart, bastion and moat. Whereas in earlier baroque fortestions the distance Irom the bottom of the tlas to the outside ofthe gacie was 260 feet in Vouban’s classi fort of Neut-Brisach it was 702 fest ‘iis unusable perimeter was not merely wasteful of precious urban land: it was 3 spats! obstacle to Teaching the open county easly fora breath of fesh ‘i, Thus this horizontal expansion was an organic ex- pression ofboth the wastetuness and the indifference fo healt that charactanzed the whole regime. {IL Mumford The City in History) 9, Incontrast othe lack of means in London (see Chap- ter 8), both Pope Sixtus V in Rome (see below and Louls XIV in Pars (se0 Chapter 61 were able in their Cferent way, to realize ther ety planning teas, the former in order to enhance the status of the Roman Carnatic Church and he fatter othe glory ofthe Franch rmanatehy. JO See Chapter 7 for Karlsruhe and for St Petersburs, nich nas now regained it old name after the decade ‘3 Leningrad, 11. Abercrombie, Town and Country Planning 12, See Bacon, Design of Cts, rev. edn 1974 159HISTORY OF URBAN FORM directed by identical ideas, foremost among them the desire for disc pline and order in contrast to the relative irregularity and dispersion of Gothic space’ The characteristic informality of medieval (Gothic) space, even when developed from a regular plan, resulted in the pic- eresque effet of Gothic architecture's asymmetrical massing, pum ted “skylines and frequently intricate detailing. | Renaissance architecture on the other hand rejected asymmetrical informality for a Glassical sense of balance and regularity: emphasis was placed on the horizontal instead of the vertical.'* ‘Gothic architecture,” observes R Furneaux Jordan, was born in France and, however many palaces oF castles were built, was primarily ecclesiastical. The Renaissance was born in Ttaly and, however many churches were built, was primarily royal and mercantile ~ especially north of the Alps,"* a distinction Which is returned to below when considering the nature of Baroque urbanism. For a simple, straightforward summary of the essential differences between carly Renaissance and Baroque architecture we can do no better than to refer to an art-historian, Heinrich Wolffin, who wrote: Jp eontrast to Renaissance art, which sought permanence and repose in everything, the baroque had from the first a definite sens af direction.” Walffin adds that ‘Renaissance artis the art of calm and beauty «its creations are perfect: they reveal nothing forced or inhibited, uncasy oF agitated -.. we are surely not mistaken in secing in this heavenly calm and content the highest expression of the artistic spirit of that age. Baroque aims at a different effect. It wants to carry us away with the force of its impact, immediate and overwhelming. Its impact on us is intended to be only momentary, while that of the Renaissance is slower and quieter, but more enduring, making us want (o linger for ever in its presence. This momentary impact of baroque is powerful, but soon leaves us with a certain sense of desolation.”*” Walffin’s profound observations are dircctly applicable to urbanism. Early Renaissance spatial organization aspired to a quict, scl contained balance: the result is essentially limifed space at rest. The Piazza Annunziata in Florence is perhaps the clearest example of this philosophy (sce Figure 5.21). By comparison Baroque urbanism either strived for an illusion of infnite space, when contained within small- sel iis eg the Piazza Navona in Rome - see Figure 5.2950, for reasons exp , was able to achieve effectively infinite per= pectives. But what is more, although personal reactions will vary, experience of such vast urban perspectives can aso realy engender sent of desolation’ one her granise impact was dispel achieved they were posible nly a el of the immense, central zed, owers which came to be vested in heads of certain European states. ‘These were welded together out of the nu medieval communities, founded on local authority, and. personal aggrandizement came to replace collective interest in a number of in stances. Absolute rulers acquired the political power nd sonore ‘means to instigate and implement complex planning programmes on hitherto unheard-of scales: most notably those of Louis XIV and XV at Versailles, Peter the Great at St Petersburg, and with differen eu tives, Sixtus V in Rome.'? At a correspondingly reduced seale ee lesser rulers transfomed their capitals t Semper nen enol eT in ae pitals to create an urban scenery grandeur of their activities and availability of re- (iGo the uncon! and sate tor were atso becoming clear In so targg gi vray hey wore cose conc ak Lagat fae persdecli rons aire pars onda, tobe connected by straight avenves, ak eee inaien gardens when wor gser my imitated beyond the Alps. Seconaty mast ™ng to impress by the magnificent facades 0 perhaps most important, it was magyy yn ceenal patpectvs. The wane, planners had learned ths trom the Ranyga’ careerat gainers whose teed ee sre thyme Degen to wancate et Cane To helen he cama ease boon related to 2 building ~ Vecracching ge Perseus in Florence ~ the mannerst nd'me oe Tie nas tmmes Inthe cross wampertcsbondng nae sen teers th nen toion forte testo otog at ‘he boroque owns 2 they began to bepamtone eee ha oa aee Euopoio the seventeantvond cynics Sve aelooctty aramane ond vrs ae, ee eens aera ‘arch tnconeon developed » eobase Sec by meting the fuer of be recat Jean the ugh str nati fogs Tslence songrgtton so te oes Sime's huge mec! sing tr eet Sur, te pices fhe church, enabler ‘oh to power prone. war erat the pla ond sc change ram ee ison cto tothe coplaf ees art sn ts cout ad i suet arts We Roongoberger ond G1 Mosse op ne tent Com ~ orsign 13, P Zucker, Town and Square, 159. 14, Summarized the aesthatic determina A? fance ety planning embodied and extended 8 P Die of Renaissance architecture. Balance - WS) Yolving symmetry about ane or mareanes tlevational design ~ in pariculer he NOMS, \idual buildings as viewedlin perspective 7 fn focal points to terminate distant wt formity of construction materials 1" 838 7 fone or stucco substitutes, and root eM Inished significance benind building Outstanding examples ince 1 century developments in Bath, the Loe (Chapter 8} and parts of Rome and Pais, low and in Chapter 6 respectively. See Ar! Town and Country Planning: ® Fess at Concise History af Western Arches, IY Design of Citas; Zucker, Town 374 SOM" yet 15. Fourneaux Jordan, A Concise M80" Architecture, 16. H Wallin, Renaissance and BOR 17 Rivalry between rulers pleved period, Queen Victoria is reputed "0 leon t's achievements in Fars ‘much happening in London: andthe" eaeA TH ples of such urbanism are described at approp ate Exam sores oo ceeding chapters.) paces" igish, however, were, always careful to constrain. their ‘The British, ver both their national capital and the country's anaes Poe ingly Britain was effectively untouched by Baro. pase ee efor this reason as much as any, it has remained a que aha after the halls of Versailles and St Petersburg echoed monarchy JoMSutionary rulers."® It must be stressed that not only wah ne fg virtually all of Renaissance urbanism was ercated for ve ; Ba ne of socicty, varying in extremes from Versailles to the sinoity seer put none the less privileged squares and streets of Geor- unpre jon and other similar developments." fn amt aut the Renaissance period several dominant aesthetic con: saintiss determined general attitudes t0 urbanization in all oun: sda here was a preoccupation with symmetry, the organization reas of a planning programme to make a balanced composition one of more axial lines. This was sometimes carried to ridiculous Memes as in the Piazza del Popolo in Rome, where the placing of {fenical churches on either side of the central strect led Abercrombie fpobcerve that ‘churches are the last thing, ordinarily, to be produced in pais, like china vases’.*” : Second, great importance was attached to the closing of vistas by the carciul placing of monumental buildings, obelisks or suitably imposing statues at the ends of long, straight strects. Third, individual buildings were integrated into a single, coherent, architectural ensemble, prefer- ably through repetition of a basic elevational design. Fourth, perspcc- tive theory was ‘one of the constituent facts in the history of art, the urchallenged canon to which every artistic representation had to conform’ Before examining the practical results of these design considerations, as demonstrated by examples of Renaissance urbanism in various Italian cites, it is necessary to consider in general terms the main com- ponents of Renaissance planning: the primary straight street, gridiron basod districts, and enclosed spaces. THE PRIMARY STRAIGHT STREET {hie form of main routes “emancipated from being mere access to a Uae Plt on the one hand and an urban extention of the national aaa on the other the primary straight stret is a Renaissance nildings, a af majority of instances it still provided the approach to ati and fequently had direct connections with regional routes, rage a fanetion was to facilitate movernent, increasingly by car~ ang mae Pats ofthe city. Rome and Paris are unique, certainly Coops css in acquiring primary street systems as the result of bed aes ftucturng: Rome during the Renaissance proper (as theater this chapter) and Paris during the 180s and 1860s. Aireted the na SUCH new streets as London did acquire were largely sla and Maya ample is Regent Street (Figure 8.22), cut between Jess ares eet in the carly nineteenth century, to link the St Wis posing one Regent’s Park developments by means of a suit rc. ley *AtESt exam aad gg tetmining ‘Sarea ples of the primary straight strect as a generative (78 growth of existing cities, are the Champs Elysées * Unter den Linden: both remarkably similar, royal 2 RENAISSANCE: ITALY SETS A PATTERN The avenue iste most important symbol and the main fact about the baroque cy. Not always wast possibie to design a whole new ey inthe baraqua made: but in the layout of hal daren new avenues, o” in 8 NeW ‘quarter, its character could be redefined. Inte linear evolution of the ety pan, the movement of whacled vohicles played a crical part: and the general gmat ‘iting of space, #0 charactotic ofthe period, woul hnave been altogether functianless hadi not Faclitated the movement of vaffie and tansport athe same time that t served as an expression of the dominant sense of lt. te was during the teenth century that cars and wagons came into mors general use within cities. This ‘was party the result of technical improvements that ‘replaced the old fashioned slid wheal wrth ane bul separate pans, hub, rm, spoke, and added a fith whee! to facia turning. The introduction of wheeled vehicles was resisted recialy a5 that of the raroad was resisted three cen turios later. Pani the streets of the medival city were ot adepted ether in size oF in aticulation to such tat fe. In England, Thomas tll us vigorous protests were ‘made, and it was aszered that i brewers carts wore ermited in the sioets the pavement could not be ‘maintained; while in France, parlament begged the Hing in 1563 10 prohibt vehicles trom the streets of Paris and the same impulse even showed ise once ‘more in the eighteenth eantury. Nevertheless. the New “piri in ociety was onthe sid of rapid transportation. ‘The hastening of movement and the conquest of pace tha feverish esi to ‘get somewhere, were manifest tons of the pervasive wil 0 power UL Mumford, The City in History? 18. Tho prosidents ofthe United States have been simi larly constrained in ther city planning involvements, suchas they have Been ia thei capital Washington, OC (see wn concluding section to Chapter 10.1 would acd. that if John F Kennedy was intial concerned 10 en hance th ety (a legend would suggest) he rapialy became embroled ia weightier mators of st his successors. 48, For ilustiation ofthe living conditions of Vi not 30 ordinary person living at Versa tract trom Cobban’s A History of Modern France, ‘quoted on page 211 2. Sir Patrick Abercrombie, ‘ra of Architect Planning’, Town Planing Reviw, vol V, 1914 21.'S Giedion, Spc, Tima and Architecture, 1961 22. Abererombie, Town and Country Planning; #62 io Bacon, Design of Cites, for whom the primary fist street has extra-special signicance as an TownHISTORY OF URBAN FORM . ; routes west from palaces in Paris and Berlin respectively. New urban plans, either based on primary straight streets oF incorporating HT) < fnajor clements, include Versailles, Karlsruhe and St Petets®it8 Europe; and Washington, most important among the exampick 19 1° USA. Sir Christopher Wren’s unrealized proposals for rebuilding Ut Gity of London after the fire of 1666 were also based on the use of su Streets. | addition to effecting changes in its function, the Renaissance also introduced the aesthetic concept of the street as an architectural whole. Although at first itis clear, from Alberti’s contemporary writings, that streets could be considered to consist of individual building elevations — best appreciated from curved approaches ~ as the period progressed architectural uniformity became de rigueur. ‘From the end of the fifteenth century,” Zucker observes, ‘threc-dimensional distinctness corresponded to structural clarity. Definite laws and rules directed the limits of space and volume. Purity of stercometric form was in itself considered beautiful." Perspective effects were emphasized by the location of terminal features, both architectural and sculptural, in the form of statues, fountains and obclisks (notably in Rome). “The monu- ment at the end is the recompense, as it were, for walking along a straight road (devoid of the surprises and romantic charm of the twist- ing streets) and economics are met by keeping the fronting buildings plain so as to enhance the climax — private simplicity and public magnificence.” THE orspinox During the Renaissance period in Europe three main uses are made of the gridiron, history's oldest known urban form determinant: frst, and by far the most widespread, as the basis of residential districts added to existing urban areas; second, for the entire layout of a limited number of new towns; third, in combination with a primary strect system, for the layout of other new urban arcas.*® Because of the comparatively greater arca that they covered, gridiron districts, in contrast to primary Streets and enclosed-space components, are seldom found in rede oped parts of Renaissance cities. In addition to being efficient. wn Producing an equality of land subdivision ~ the same reasons for its use in preceding historical periods ~ the gridiron also conformed to the even if the resulting town: . re monotony, Camill a major new gridiron-hased town (see Chen at all streets intersect perpendicularly 7 Howe Renaissance ideal of aesthetic uniformity, scape all to frequently reveals this to be re writing of Mannheim, 7) refers to the rule th ing of the Industrial Revoluti New housing districts were most f t bounded by primar i ri ost frequently either pr New housing dst e ently cither bounded b routes or divided into sections by their inclusion, wa h the gridiron + mn e. Those. closed vista, lengthened the aise? ray fon once stanton ono hing. This was an aesthetic pram net arch, ofa single building to tannin” rays of the cornice lines and the sn? we aeecn wana tone tone yes mons cram Irs discovered by the painter The ‘more important than the objectreyenge ot ‘ance window is definitely picture yon *% actual opening would reveal. ved 23. In Western Europe the diac c pe vresher ysterssgenaray Wom te eto west wth the fet of lowing one Bolliton of oftcol domes Fes aa at races over the easter parts of tow. Hew lteremarked istnce ofthe sims deem urban form whereby thove that col P99! lived onthe windward estar ceo Inaction to Pari and Bein. condi ta cy whose money cls resent 32 located tothe wast sthough as evpane8! 8) there were other contutory Bc" 24 Zucker, Town and Savre. 25, Abercrombie, Town and County Pat 26. During the European Renaissance pei lay 30 in tay thore was consieral cular city planning. Most examples we's OS ‘paper’ exeriee Buta fo were but. M28 Nova, in northern italy (Figure 5.18). See N22" Gites in the Round, 1982 27.C Sine, Cy Paming Acorns ples tansated by Gm Coline and C2 Enoish dion 28. The earliest workings hous ing inal towns uwaly cost! 9 srowth, small-scale addins: lel PS « Sons tothe et my the grdron was used asthe 88 88. Gridiron ‘by-law’ housing layouts. O° hot standards otha ard 20 the mitinetonn carta See AE planned Towns’, Official Architect, 3 Aor 1871: ana Pitannropi Hoh) tecture and Penning, August 1971) TMs rou be en ga? tases comples questans orb Ma determined he stance rm oO toanii” ji 8mitigate the effects of otherwise more or less straightfor- anning. Craig’s New Town, the major later eighteenth Edinburgh, was saved from medio sares which ar ridiron Pl nto B ocrity by its tw ‘addition 10 : 4 y its two cet orignal) limited extent, and the open-sided nature ot the ar houndary strects ~ most famously Princes Strect, with tg quo long pe views south across the valley to the old city. Berlin, as a incomprrr example, added less interestingly planned districts on thd Te ofthe Unter den Linden in the late seventeenth eentury dil {chose SPACE X . ' : sscroecemantic difficulties raised by this aspect of Renaissance ee They have been resolved here by using the English word “quate for enclosed spaces in Britain and other European countries, "apthe exceptions of Italy and France for which ‘piazza’ and ‘place: peavey are used On the basis of their urban mobility funetions Renaissance urban spaces can be grouped under thrce broad headings: fox, trafic space, forming part of the main urban route system and tae by both pedestrians and horsedrawn vehicles; second, residential aque intended for local access traffic only and with a predominantly pedestrian recreational purpose; third, pedestrian space, from which wheeled traffic was normally excluded. In addition to the above physical uses, Renaissance spaces frequently served aesthetic and aggrandize- ment purposes, either as a setting for a statue or a monument, or as a forecourt in front of an important building; and there arc also the uniquely Spanish plazas mayores described in Chapter 9,2 Spatial enclosure was effected with thrce main types of buildings fist, civic oF religious architecture; second, residential buildings, usu- ally in terrace form; third, market and related commercial buildings. Renaissance urbanists also defined space by the use of architectural landscape elements, e.g. colonnades, screens and terraces, and by vari- aus forms of tree and shrub planting. These ways of enclosing space were often used in combination and in a number of instances existing buldings and natural features were incorporated into the design: {SCLOSED SPACE: TRAFFIC SPACE bi imeteenth-century increases in urban traffic there were few Ha etmally designed spaces at intersections of main streets.”” infome agited On the urban perimeter ~ e.g. the Piazza del Popolo ings ony eee squares on the west side of Berlin: Potsdamer, Dtormedang eatB8et Platz. The Place de la Concorde, which also he edge of function at the eastern end of the Champs Blysé Sichaldinge et Patis; was a unique form of space, combining ther thee see on Hs northern side and landscape clements on the ed as the seating ation © resolving the junction of routes, it also IS Elysee. ine, Statue of Louis XV. Westward along the Le chitome of trafic lace de I’Etoile around the Arc de Triomphe, teenth centun ‘psbace, was not completcd until the middle of the impressive aa ‘aris also had the Place des Victoires, surrounded her oF theoretical earth’ Containing a statue of Louis XIV. A “Gt Publshed iy alli Spaces for Paris were recorded on a map of sag i purpose Te in 1765, for which see Figure 6.14. hast of the of these proposals was to provide a setting for a cted by ulon, and British cities gene rally, were in contrast 'S aspect of Renaissance urbanism: Nash's layout Figure 52~ Ystad in southern Sweden,» smal fishing town that became internationally famous inthe later Midate Ages for its neving catches, The rudimentary riiron ofthe new housing district in stark contrast to the organic growth form of the original madieval ‘cleus. Thisis an example ofthe gridiron used merely 2 an erin itself: hat of expedient land subdivision, which cannot be accorded the status of ‘ty planning {See K Asttom, City Planning in Sweden, 1967) In one place, however, baroque planning rose above is political and mitary premises: here it created form Independent of th purposes ofthe palace This was the conception of the residential square, The open square nad never dizappeared; but by he same token t hhad never, even in the Middle Ages, been used ently for residential purposes, if only because the counting ‘house and the shop were then part ofthe home. Gut the seventeenth contury i reappeared in a ew guise ‘or rather, it now performed 2 new urban purpose, that ‘of bringing together, in ful view of each other, » group of residences occupied by people ofthe same general calling and postion. Or Mario Labo is rght in regarding the Strada Nuova n Genoa as more of a quarter than 9 Street; but the now squares gave 9 freeh definition to this kindof class grouping, In the older type of city, particularly on the Continent the rich and the poor. the great and the humble had ‘often mingled inthe same quarter, and in Paris for in stance, they long continued to occupy the same built ings, the wealthier on the ground floor, the poorest in the ati, fve or six storeys above. But now, beginning. it would seem, withthe extabizhment of Gray's Inn in London in 1800, anew kind of square was formed: an ‘pen space surrounded solely by walling houses, without shops or publi buildings, except perhaps 9 church. Gray's Inn indeed was a transitional form be ‘nween the mecioval walled enclosure, with inner gar ens, dedicated toa convent or a great lord's mansion, ‘and the square, walled in only by its own houses con ‘ceived as part ofthe new street pattern, UL Mumford, Tae City in History) hhave instances of royal aggrandizement 1) and sesthotie considerations in com: bination a8 primary form datorminant. 230, Increase inthe scale of utban traffic rom pades- tulanor horseback, to carts ana private or hire carriages, Fequlted appropriately spacious Junctions. AS focal points in thecityroutesystem, other doterminants than tame Into effet{ISTORY OF URBAN FORM f Piccadilly Circus as a traffic space to accommodate a change in lirection of Regent Street is an exceptional cxample."" ENCLOSED SPACE: RESIDENTIAL SPACE, The creation of an enclosure ‘with no more monumental object than that of uniformity within itself, is perhaps the most attractive con tion of the whole Renaissance period’.* Such enclosures were almost all of a privileged social class, residential nature; wheeled traffic was limited to serving the individual dwellings. In Paris, where the residen- tial space originated with the Place des Vosges (originally Place Royale, 1605-12) and elsewhere in France, such spaces were also fre- quently used as the setting for a royal statue. The first of London's squares — probably the most famous examples of this kind of space — was Covent Garden (1630). London’s expansion to the west was largely based on a combination of residential squares and gridiron strects. The squares — usually containing a planted central arca ~ provided a basis for urban family life which is held in the highest esteem by mid- twenticth-century planners faced with mass housing problems. It must not be overlooked, however, that only a small minority of urban homes had such an advantageous situation. By the time nineteenth-century London squares in Bloomsbury and Belgravia, and the comparable larger scaled development of Regent's Park (1810-30) were under way the Industrial Revolution had already created great tracts of effectively uncontrolled, high-density housing in other parts of London and prim- ary manufacturing centres, lacking almost all of even the minimum. basic necessities of life. Residential spaces are a characteristic of control- led seventeenth- and cightcenth-century urban growth in Britain; few cities and towns of any size were without at Icast one pleasantly unpre- tentious square, those at Bath and Edinburgh being especially disting- uished by unusual qualities of spatial organization and architectural attention to detail. ENCLOSED SPACE: PEDESTRIAN SPACE A number of extremely important enclosed spaces were either com- pletely closed to wheeled traffic, or arranged so that pedestrians were not unduly affected there — e.g. wheeled traffic was not continuous across the space or was restricted to one side only."* The majority of these spaces served as forecourts or public assembly areas in front of important civic, religious and royal buildings. ‘The most important cx- amples are Italian, two of which arc in Rome: the Piazza of St Peter's, where the east front of the church dominates the colonnade-enclosed space; and Michelangelo's Capitoline Piazza where identically designed buildings form the sides of the forecourt to the Palace of the Senators the fourth side consisting of a monumental flight of steps up the hill, side. Venice has the incomparable Piazza of St Mark, where the enclos, ing buildings had civic, commercial and religious functions, Venice, ne a unique watcr-orientated city with only pedestrian land traffic, cone tains several spaces of great beauty. Elsewhere in Europe there were few opportunities to create forecourt spaces for pedestrians only. ‘Urban designers By the time that Renaissance attitudes and style had been firmly estab- lished, the new technique of printing enabled new designs and theories Figure 53 ~ Man coco ng tty seventeenth century, ws une ee Sisto TSo0 MC Brave Connon {oTe forthe 182 SDUK Mop ws ae Bory fifo adore! Towns ‘Milan seems to have held trom the rt hae tion among the cites of Lombardy Inthe ey: jes of our era it was hardly less imporantin te of taly than Rome wasn the South, The net cutting across the peninsula, or perhaps sce the Apennine chain, originally vied rao cally and potticatly. 9 dvsion which ste some degree in the character and series fespective inhabitants on eter sie. Te | rove out the Etruscans and seta in Lor the sith century (BC, were a race of S| They had notes of ood with te Roms gated thom later, and thei country cles ‘querors,Cisapine Gaul ~ was as much 3197 Vinee of the Latin dominion 35 the Go! B= {E Noyes, The Story of Mian, 1908) crs 31. See Chapter 8 for the section esa 8 prostigious rout 32. Zucker, Town and Square 33. | have used the torm “cont father than planned’ because th N45" lah residential davolopmens. ct 9 27 requirements of any preconceived "™ lantre urban oreo. wt 44, See B Rudofaky, Stvets for PoP as 35. Avalobity of books 380 M24 yl ouraging the ‘rand Tour. wnerebY My travelled to ee for themselves 1 1 bullings and examples of urban der wae ane such mid-soventeenth P00" por amateur urbanist, who vise father cites, where nis finda Se Diary, from which a nurmber of M96 is) Boswal, Boswell onthe G2 sca and France, ed. F Brady and F* rote vt"