H3.

1 02.11.2017

Space - what is a space? — place/location

- is endless

- can be defined

- is perceived by oneself

Most of the towns in Europe are founded in the 13th century:

- prosperous time

- trading

- religion

- towns expanding in the next centuries

Medieval town history:

Medieval towns have very clear border (esp. wall around), well defined

Town planning is very hierarchical: well separated power

Parishes: Gemeinde

- Medieval: organic development

- Baroque: clear, mirroring geometry

- Renaissance: thick fortification

- 19th century: train station connecting the extension part to the old town

- industrial revolution in Germany: peak around 1850s

- early 20th century: tendency towards modernisation

- 20s: Bandstadt

- after WWII: modernists trying to make the old city less packed and crowded, widening and
opening up the streets

- 20th century: cities growing together, extending together


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Renaissance town planning:

- clear order / pattern / composition can be seen, but the buildings are not necessarily same
(only same shape)

- Mantua:

- protected by water and fortifications

- medieval town planning plus traces of antiquity — integration between old and new
(Renaissance) town

Baroque idealised towns:

- circle plan: circle resembles power (sun / world)

- Karlsruhe

- Mannheim

per-force hunting (hunting with force)


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Modern architecture: modern town planning

1. Zoning: according to functions

1. work

2. residential

3. recreational

4. infrastructure

5. open space

6. relation of volume (a solid volume defines space by relating: height/width/length to the

ground)

2. Space concept:

1. air

2. light

3. accessibility of ways

oblong

high up

concentrated

lower buildings on the corners

serial

homogenous

monotonous - equality for everyone

repetitive

worldwide architecture - starting from 1950s

Leonardo Benevolo - History of the City

Nikolaus Pevsner - Visual Planning and the Picturesque


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Post-war modern architecture

Pre-fabricated houses: pre-fab concrete and steel

Pre-fab: every element is put in before construction

Critique in 60s and 70s about pre-fab houses - decreased partly

Nowadays still used, but mixed with other materials and techniques

West Germany:

Pre-fab buildings as university buildings: mixed with metal and plastic (mostly natural sciences)

Development of natural sciences needed new buildings

Esp. used in science buildings because of rationalism (1970s) - scientific reasoning

Simple construction: buildings can be extended in every direction / taken away because they are
pre-fab

Cheaper: many series of columns and beams

East Germany:

Serial building: always the same - steel frame

Principal catalogue - Bau-Enzyklopädie

VGB: Vereinigter Geschossbau - unified storey-building system

Combining different systems e.g. unified storey-building system + unified hall-building system

Plattenbau: making the same thing for everybody - one type of house built for a thousand times

Each building is standing free on an ongoing space

P1: lower slabs P2: taller slabs every phase has its own idea of what’s right

Planning of a new town with Plattenbau: main street and town centre, rectangular, zic-zac streets

Defining characteristics: simplicity, unify, repetitiveness, clarity, calmness and order

Additional: contrasts, polarity, tensions and liveliness

Special urbanism