HUMAN SETTLEMENT

PLANNING
UNIT – 1 : INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN SETTLEMENT
Introduction
WHAT IS HUMAN SETTLEMENT?
A HUMAN SETTLEMENT is defined as a place inhabited more or less

permanently. It includes buildings in which they live or use and the

paths and streets over which they travel. It also includes the

temporary camps of the hunters and herders. It may consists of only

a few dwelling units called hamlets or big cluster of buildings called

urban cities.
DEFINITION OF HUMAN
SETTELEMENT
Define
 The physical components comprise shelter, i.e, the
• people’s existence
superstructures of different shape, size, type and
• places – large and small, urban and rural, formal materials erected by mankind for security, privacy and

and informal – where people live, learn, work and protection from the elements and for his singularity

create. within a community; infrastructure, i.e, the complex

networks designed to deliver or remove from the shelter

• They also comprise an important component of the
people, goods, energy of information.
entire environment, namely the built environment.
Services cover those required by a community for the
• The fabric of human settlements consists of
fulfillment of its functions as a social body, such as
physical elements and services to which these education, health, culture, welfare, recreation and
elements provide the material support. nutrition.

•\
Vancouver Declaration

defined HUMAN SETTLEMENTS as follows:

Human settlements means the totality of the

human community - whether city, town or village
- with all the SOCIAL, MATERIAL,
ORGANIZATIONAL, SPIRITUAL AND CULTURAL
ELEMENTS THAT SUSTAIN IT. The fabric of
human settlements consists of physical elements
and services to which these elements provide the
material support
 Important Features of HUMAN SETTLEMENTS
• It is now contended that human settlements are the spatial dimension as well as the physical expression of
economic and social activity.

• No creative act takes place without being influenced by settlement conditions.

• In turn, the creation of workable human settlements inevitably becomes an objective of, an indicator of
and a prerequisite for social and economic development.

• Settlements are an objective of development in that places where people can live, learn and work in
conditions of safety, comfort and efficiency are a fundamental and elementary need.

• Settlements are also an indicator, in that they are the most visible expression of a society's ability to
satisfy some of the fundamental needs of its members: they can mark accomplishments as well as expose
destitution, neglect and inequality.

• Finally, settlements are a prerequisite for social and economic development, in that no social progress for
sustainable economic growth can occur without efficient settlements systems and settlement networks.
 ORGIN of HUMAN SETTLEMENTS
Earth estimated to be formed about 4 billion years
ago.

Earliest man did not settle anywhere as they

wandered around in search of food.

Occasionally took shelter on top of trees to protect

themselves from the wild animals. Later man began
to live in caves by the side of rivers and springs.
Caves not used as places for fixed residences when
food gathering in the vicinity became difficult, early
man moved to another location. Man learned to
practice cultivation, began to settle down near the
fields cultivated by them and also learned to build
huts and mud houses. Some of the earliest
settlements began to take shape
EVOLUTION OF HUMAN SETTLEMENT

PHASE
PRIMITIVE NON PHASE PRIMITIVE PHASE PHASE UNIVERSAL
PHASE3
STATIIC URBAN DYNAMIC URBAN
1 ORGANISED 2 ORGANISED 4 5
• Primitive non-organised human settlements Primitive non-organised human
(started with the evolution of man.) There
are no physical lines connecting this primitive settlements (started with the evolution
settlement with others; there are no networks of man.)
between settlements.
• Man began to modify the nature
• Man settled temporarily or permanently in
different location
• Began with fire and went on to animal
husbandry and domestication of grazing animals
• Deforestation and agriculture complemented
with permanent human settlements
• Settlements: Natural shelters – hollows in the
ground, hollow trees or shallow caves
• Settlements have no link, communication lines
and transportation
Primitive organised settlements • Due to the loss of space between them, they developed
more regular shapes with no space lost between them. The
(the period of villages – eopolis which lasted evolution reached the stage at which a rectilinear pattern
develops into a regular grid-iron one.
about 10,000 years.)
• Entry to the era of organized agriculture coupled with
organized settlements
• Human settlements with one-room dwelling in circular form
then expansion of dwelling by placing many round forms
side by side, then elongated to eliptical ones and rectilinear
forms
• Due to loss of space between them, more regular shapes of
settlements were formed to a regular gridiron pattern
• Micro-scale – Man must divide the land, construct one or
more shells (rooms and houses), and circulate within a
built-up area (neighborhood)
• Macro-scale – Man must own and use space but not build
it, and circulate within it, although to a much lesser
degree than before (usually not more than one movement
to and from every day), man continues to follow the
course of nature towards hexagonal pattern
• Population is still small
• Villages are found in plains, near the rivers and near the
sea
• When population density increased, new patterns were
developed with the villages covering the entire plain based
on small hexagonal pattern and the hills and mountains on
a larger hexagonal pattern.
Static urban settlements or Cities (polis which lasted about 5000-6000 years.)

• As settlements grew in size, man came to realise that the principle of the single-nucleus
was not always valid in the internal organisation of the total shells of the community, at
this single nodal point, which was adequate for the village and for small cities, no longer
sufficed.
• First urban settlement appeared as small cities in a plain or as fortresses on hills and
mountains (5,000 – 6,000 years ago)
• Expansion of nucleus in one or more directions (single nucleus principle / nodal point not
valid anymore)
Dynamic urban settlements (Dynapolis which lasted 200-400 years.)

• In the dynamic urban phase, settlements in space are characterised by continuous growth.
Dynamic settlements, created as a result of an industrial technological revolution,
multiplying in number and form, and now being created at an even higher rate.
• Started in the 17th century
• Characterized by continuous growth
• Emerged due to industrial technological revolution
• All part of the land it covers is not sterilized
• Microorganisms in the soil no longer exist
• Original animal inhabitants have largely been banished
The Universal city (ecumenopolis – which is now beginning)

• Regardless of whether dynamic settlements are simple (Dynapolis) or composite

(Metropolises and megalopolises), they have been growing continuously during the last
centuries and this is apparent everywhere at present that is the whole earth will be
covered by one human settlement.
• Possible occurrence of population explosion
• Earth will be covered by one settlement
• Cities will be interconnected, in one continuous network, into one universal city called
Ecumenic City
• Ecumenopolis on the earth in the year 2120 by which time it is expected that the
population of the earth will have leveled off at a minimum of 20,000,000,000 people
and the population of the definitely urban areas at a minimum of 18,000,000,000 people
(Doxiadis)
EKISTICS
 EKISTICS FRAME

FIRST SECOND
DIMENSION DIMENSION
FIRST DIMENSION
SECOND DIMENSION

• These elements always interact with one

another. A human being has some invisible
spheres around him. These spheres are the
spheres of the senses like touch, smell,
sight, hearing and also supernatural or
spiritual. The spiritual sphere is directly
proportional to his intellect. People
interact with one another by direct
interaction of these spheres. Human
habitation requires a certain amount of
overlapping of these spheres, and the
planning of habitation would mean, social
planning’. Human desires and endurances
have remained the same throughout the
years and manifestations of which have
changed by evolution.