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LECTURE 1
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Architecture, MIT
Human settlements have always been created by man's moving in space and
defining the boundaries of his territorial interest and therefore of his settlements,
for which he later created a physical and institutional structure.
environment.
The fabric of human settlements consists of
physical elements and services to which these
elements provide the material support. The
physical components comprise shelter, i.e.
the superstructures of different shape, size, type
and materials erected by mankind for security,
privacy, and protection from the elements and for
his singularity within a community; infrastructure,
i.e. the complex networks designed to deliver or
remove from the shelter people, goods, energy of
information.
Services cover those required by a community for
the fulfillment of its functions as a social body, such
as education, health, culture, welfare, recreation
and nutrition.
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. The
physical components comprise:
Shelter, i.e. the superstructures of different shapes, size, type and materials
erected by mankind for security, privacy and protection from the elements and
for his singularity within a community;
Infrastructure, i.e. the complex networks designed to deliver to or remove from
the shelter people, goods, energy or information;
Services cover those required by a community for the fulfillment of its functions
as a social body, such as education, health, culture, welfare, recreation and
nutrition.
Primitive Settlements
Non - organized settlements
organized settlements
Circular Layout
But human settlements have always been created by man's moving in space and
defining the boundaries of his territorial interest and therefore of his
settlements, for which he later created a physical and institutional structure;
When we view human settlements as systems of energy mobilized by man - either
as basal metabolic or as muscular or, recently, as commercial energy systems
we get new insights.
Primarily one factor which defines the extent of human settlements: the distance man wants to
go or can go in the course of his daily life;
The shortest of the two distances defines the extent of the real human settlement, through
definition of a "daily urban system
Urban Area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in
comparison to areas surrounding it.
Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended
to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.
Urban areas are created and further developed by the process of urbanization.
Measuring the extent of an urban area helps in analysing population density and urban
sprawl, and in determining urban and rural populations.
Transitory
Changing from time to time
Differing across political boundaries
Being modified depending on the purpose that the definition of
urban could serve.
Concepts concerning the meaning of the term urban based on certain criteria such
as function and space.
in Mesopotamia and Nile Valley, the Indus Valley and the Hoang-Ho Valley;
There were several organizational factors that may have precipitated the formation of early
cities, including commercial and trade, religious and political factors;
There is evidence that relatively large agglomerations existing in Babylon
(250,000),
Patna (350,000) and Rome (650,000) between about 400 BC to AD 100;
Radio-centric Layout
Radio-centric Layout
Acropolis
b. At least 75 per cent of the male main working population engaged in non-agricultural
pursuits; and
c. A density of population of at least 400 persons per sq. km.
The first category of urban units is known as Statutory Towns. These towns are notified under law
by the concerned State/UT Government and have local bodies like municipal corporations,
municipalities, municipal committees, etc., irrespective of their demographic characteristics as
reckoned on 31st December 2009. Examples: Vadodara (M Corp.), Shimla (M Corp.) etc.
The second category of Towns is known as Census Town. These were identified on the basis of
Census 2001 data.
Urban Agglomeration
The outgrowths of urban areas have also been incorporated in
larger urban areas and are designated as urban agglomeration
which comprise:
An urban area with continuous urban outgrowth which is outside the
statutory urban limits but falling within the boundaries of the adjoining
village or villages;
Two or more adjoining urban areas with their outgrowths, so as to form
a continuous urban spread;
Two or more adjoining areas without outgrowths, but which form a
continuous urban spread
C- Organic growth
nucleus with planned grid
iron extension;
D- Planned grid-iron
nucleus with organic growth
extension
TIMGAD
Characteristic topographical
circumstances for urban settlements and
subsequent growth
Plan of
Barcelona,Spain
VENICE- LAGOON
Venice
Hilltop Origin: Prague, The Prague castle overlooks the whole city from atop a hill
Climate
different forms depending on local climatic
circumstances.
Grouping of rooms, no. of stories, with of the
lane, courtyards, use of shade and sun,
architectural elements, Privacy for women of
the family were the crucial climatic factors
decided the form of the settlements in Hot and dry
climate led to design of climate response shelter.
Settlements in hot humid required houses to
be constructed on several storeys with screened
bay windows opening onto the public streets.
Man-made Determinants
Primary motivating forces are trade, political, social power and religion;
Economic base in the form of the emergence of a sufficient surplus is the fundamental prerequisite;
Above all religion was a primary
changes and focused on social life.
The wall of Siena
divides the well
governed city from its
countryside.
Ambrogio Lorenzettis
fresco in the Palazzio
Pubblico, painted
c.1340
causative factor,
Economic
Economy shaped the role of the city as market-place, which required buildings, spaces for making and
sale of goods;
In European towns urban spaces have accommodated communal trading activities later transformed to
major markets and covered market halls
In Medieval towns the entire city was a market.
In Islamic cities a clear distinction between home and workshop and trading used take place in
wide market street with temporary stalls.
Political
The city as a military and latterly Ballot-box power base embodied the citadels, castles,
and places of past ruling elites.
Religious
The city as a devotional centre
Characters- Tallest, visually most assertive spire, towers
and domes as skyline elements
Promoted extensive building activities across the world
Man-made Determinants
The pre-urban Cadastre It is the most
useful term refers to the pattern of pre existing
man-made rural property boundaries, regional
routes, drainage ditches, etc.
Man-made Determinants
Defence
Need for defence against external attack
became primary in medieval cities.
Turin(Italy) from the Northeast, 1750. The city rises above a broad band bastioned walls, moat
and earthworks.
Man-made Determinants
Aggrandizement
From earliest times, religious,
monarchical, political and other
vested interests have been glorified
in cities.
A- A typical Sumerian city with its Ziggurat ;
B- Harappan city with its western citadel;
C- An ancient Greek with temple on its
acropolis;
D- A Norman castle 11th century , England;
E- A church in Medieval European Village;
F- A church in Latin American City;
G- A royal Statue square in Paris;
H- Royal Aggrandizement at Versailles;
J- Democratic aggrandizement at Washington
Acropolis
The Grid-iron
It was rectilinear grid-iron pattern of land
subdivision formed the basis of planned
settlements.
A Grid-iron plan ordinarily comprises an
orthogonal network of streets diving the
planned area into primary building blocks
which are further divided into rectilinear
individual plots as a basis of urban land
distribution.
Attempts made in the history
1) Harappan Cities,
2) Greek
Planned Cities,
3) Romans with their imperial urban
planning
policies,
4) Numerous medieval monarchs and land
owners and
5) European city planners in the USA
URBAN MOBILITY
Measures taken to increase
capacity of an existing system,
without affecting urban form;
Planning of extensions and
alteration of the existing systemcan have radical effect.
Once, Delhis Chandni Chowk area had 24 trams running. Kolkata is the only Indian city to
have retained trams to this date.
In a classic example of Baroque planning, the encircling arms of the colonnade of Berninis St
Peters basilica, crowned with sculptures by the same artist, reach out into the wider vista
towards the Tiber river. (Thomas Mawson, Civic Art, 1911, p107)
Piazza Di Campidoglio,Rome
SERIAL VISION
The Rashtrapati Bhavan is gradually revealed and the mystery culminates
Role of levels & screening
Each view enlarging the centre of the previous view & bringing us near to the terminal building
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