Reading a city means that we can decipher knowledge from what we can observe in
that (part of the) city. How this changed in the city:
- Shift in priorities
- Power structures
- Societal values
- Beliefs
- Technological advantages.
Language of cities:
- Architectural styles
- Layout & design of the city and its buildings
- Shift in use of land and buildings
- Trade relations
- Technological changes
- Palaces and military installation get most attention, but the ‘common’ peoples live
tells us much more about the society at large.
Writing a city hints at possibilities to shape and transform urban spaces through
deliberate action:
- The organisation and regulation of present and future urban spaces.
- To address collective concerns around spatial issues and the quality of local and
regional environments.
- By involving multiple scales, actors & dimensions.
Analysing planning concepts: 4 step approach:
1. Identified problems (what’s wrong?).
2. Identified solutions (what to do about it?).
3. Proposed interventions (the design/the institutions).
4. The new reality (what was done in the end?).
Distinguish between rational and normative arguments.
Identify the gaps by going back and forth.
Agricultural revolution:
- Made it possible for more people to live on the same place.
- Made it possible for people to do something else then hunting & farming (division
of labour).
- With urbanization, Davis defines it as a process were urban grows faster than
rural.
- Mumford – Urbanization does not refer to statistical of urban and rural but
also the growth of cities as such.
- Wirt talks about the environment that shapes us. A specific habitat that
creates different types of social relations.
, - Davis is, also in this regard, more statistical and in many ways more simplistic.
Ancient cities (3000 B.C.E. – 467 C.E).
Urban revolution = a process of which small agriculture villages were
transformed into large socially complex, urban societies.
Sumerian civilization (Mesopotamia)
o The first cities
o The first multi-city state
o Wheel/sail boats/irrigation/trade/writing/administration/bureaucracy/civil
servants/calendar/horoscope/vacation/time keeping (60 60 12 24).
o Education – training to become certain things
o Legal code (Ur Nammu) = the first.
o The first Noah and the Flood story & the first love song
o Çatal Hüyük
Mari (in Mesopotamia)
o One of the first cities in where it was believed that the land around it
was not enough to sustain the population of the city
o Trading
Babylon (epicentre of Mesopotamia)
o First capital of urban empire
o Designed to impress people, spared no expenses for that
o Extremely powerful (temples/palaces).
Impressive walls, gates and canals
The Hanging Gardens
o The Code of Mammurabi
Legal code/law
Longest/best organised legal text.
Making a law that stipulated the consequence for not doing
something in a particular way.
Indus river civilization (Harappa).
o Little bit later in time than the Mesopotamia cities
o Extensive and intensive urbanisation
o Citadel/granaries/extensive
walls/sewage/latrines/plumbing/drainage/public baths/dikes/air-
conditioning/private bathrooms.
o Comprehensive road grid (cardinal orientation), standardised gate width
(oxen carts), standardised canal width (prams), baked adobe bricks and
residential units around the central courtyard.
o Lower city – public
Upper city – acropolis.
Memphis (3000 b.C.E) in Egypt.
o Built the first apartment blocks.
, o Along the Nile, which meant the could only expand vertically (they were
located between the river and the dessert).
Ao (Yellow river)
o Advanced civilization.
Caral (Andes)
o Inca’s etc.
o Built pyramids to sustain earthquakes.
o Requires incredibly advanced planning and engineering skills.
Teotihuacan (Mesoamerica)
o Maya’s
o Aztecs
It took 1000 years to spread around the rest of the world.
, Physical features of most ancient cities:
- Located along rivers for fertile soil, irrigation and trade.
- Mostly walled (square/circular).
- Distinct citadel (stervorming bouwwerk) precint with temple (pyramid/ziggurat (=
bouwen op verhoogd gebied))
- Palace (earthly power, mandated by the Heavenly).
- Central granary
- Public works (bathhouses/marketplaces).
- Infrastructure (road systems/sewage).
- Explicit planning principles and similar structures.
Societal features of ancient cities:
- Large populations
- Full-time specialization (advanced division of labour).
- Agricultural surplus enables a differential society.
- Long distance trade (luxury and subsistence).
- A ruling class (authority/earthly and heavenly).
- Monumental public architecture (display of power)
- Structured use of writing (literacy/bureaucracy).
- Laws, regulations, standards and taxes (civil servants).
- Arithmetic, geometry, astromony, time
- Sophisticated art (result of major surplus)
Urban economy/society:
- Needed to feed all the inhabitants.
- Also have to look outside the city -> surplus.
- Division or labour (specialization).
- Classes in society.
Urban civilisation:
- Cities conquering each other.
- Competition of land-use (military).
- Collaboration (rivers)
o Goods
o Safety.
Voordelen van het kopen van samenvattingen bij Stuvia op een rij:
Verzekerd van kwaliteit door reviews
Stuvia-klanten hebben meer dan 700.000 samenvattingen beoordeeld. Zo weet je zeker dat je de beste documenten koopt!
Snel en makkelijk kopen
Je betaalt supersnel en eenmalig met iDeal, creditcard of Stuvia-tegoed voor de samenvatting. Zonder lidmaatschap.
Focus op de essentie
Samenvattingen worden geschreven voor en door anderen. Daarom zijn de samenvattingen altijd betrouwbaar en actueel. Zo kom je snel tot de kern!
Veelgestelde vragen
Wat krijg ik als ik dit document koop?
Je krijgt een PDF, die direct beschikbaar is na je aankoop. Het gekochte document is altijd, overal en oneindig toegankelijk via je profiel.
Tevredenheidsgarantie: hoe werkt dat?
Onze tevredenheidsgarantie zorgt ervoor dat je altijd een studiedocument vindt dat goed bij je past. Je vult een formulier in en onze klantenservice regelt de rest.
Van wie koop ik deze samenvatting?
Stuvia is een marktplaats, je koop dit document dus niet van ons, maar van verkoper patriekhannema. Stuvia faciliteert de betaling aan de verkoper.
Zit ik meteen vast aan een abonnement?
Nee, je koopt alleen deze samenvatting voor €6,98. Je zit daarna nergens aan vast.
