Urban planning is a technical and political process concerned with the use of land and design of the urban environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas such as transportation and distribution networks.
The history of urban planning runs parallel to the history of the city, as planning is in evidence at some of the earliest known urban sites.
Prehistory The pre-Classical and Classical periods saw a number of cities laid out according to fixed plans, though many tended to develop organically. Designed cities were characteristic of the Minoan, Mesopotamian, Harrapan, and Egyptian civilisations of the third millennium BC (see Urban planning in ancient Egypt). The first recorded description of urban planning appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh: "Go up on to the wall of Uruk and walk around. Inspect the foundation platform and scrutinise the brickwork. Testify that its bricks are baked bricks, And that the Seven Counsellors must have laid its foundations. One square mile is city, one square mile is orchards, one square mile is claypits, as well as the open ground of Ishtar's temple.Three square miles and the open ground comprise Uruk. Look for the copper tablet-box, Undo its bronze lock, Open the door to its secret, Lift out the lapis lazuli tablet and read."Dalley 1989, p.120.
Distinct characteristics of urban planning from remains of the cities of Harappa, Lothal, Dholavira, and Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley civilisation (in modern-day northwestern India and Pakistan) lead archeologists to interpret them as the earliest known examples of deliberately planned and managed cities.Davreu, Robert (1978). "Cities of Mystery: The Lost Empire of the Indus Valley". The World's Last Mysteries. (second edition). Sydney: Reader's Digest. pp. 121-129. .Kipfer, Barbara Ann (2000). Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology. (Illustrated edition). New York: Springer. p. 229. . The streets of many of these early cities were paved and laid out at right angles in a grid pattern, with a hierarchy of streets from major boulevards to residential alleys. Archaeological evidence suggests that many Harrapan houses were laid out to protect from noise and to enhance residential privacy; many also had their own water wells, probably both for sanitary and for ritual purposes. These ancient cities were unique in that they often had drainage systems, seemingly tied to a well-developed ideal of urban sanitation. Cities laid out on the grid plan could have been an outgrowth of agriculture based on rectangular fields.Eran Ben-Joseph, "Codes and Standards"; in Weber & Crane (2012), p. 357: "Other excavations, such as those in the Indus Valley, at Mohenjo-Daro and at Harappa in Punjam, show that the valley had cities planned and built in rectangular blocks lined with two-story houses along broad, straight streets. Such evidence of the pervasive use of orthogonal arrangements tells of an enduring continuity of farm, village, and city. The farmer's custom of long narrow fields and right-angled boundaries carried easily to streets and squares. However, the innovative geometry of towns and cities was influenced more by the mechanics of supplying water and draining sewage than in the imposition of right-angled street corners."
Most Mesoamerican cities in the late Postclassic period had highly organized central portions, typically consisting of one or more public plazas bordered by public buildings. In contrast, the surrounding residential areas typically showed little or no signs of planning.
East Asia
China has a tradition of urban planning dating back thousands of years.
In Japan, some cities, such as Nara and Heian-kyo, followed classic Chinese planning principles; later, during the feudal period, a type of town called Jōkamachi emerged. Those were castle towns, planned for – and oriented around – defense. Roads were laid out to make the paths to castles longer; the castles and other buildings were often situated in order to hide the castles through densely packed surrounding buildings. Edo, later Tokyo, is one example of a castle town.
Greco-Roman culture
Traditionally, the Greek philosopher Hippodamus (498–408 BC) is regarded as the first town planner and 'inventor' of the orthogonal urban layout. Aristotle called him "the father of city planning",Aristotle, Politics II and until well into the 20th century, he was indeed regarded as such. This is, however, only partly justified as Greek cities with orthogonal plans were built long before Hippodamus. The Hippodamian plan that was called after him is an orthogonal urban layout with more or less square street blocks. Archaeological finds from ancient Egypt—among others—demonstrate that Hippodamus cannot truly have been the inventor of this layout.Urban planning in ancient Egypt Aristotle's critique and indeed ridicule of Hippodamus, which appears in Politics 2. 8, is perhaps the first known example of a criticism of urban planning.
From about the late 8th century on, Greek city-states started to found colonies along the coasts of the Mediterranean, which were centred on newly created towns and cities with more or less regular orthogonal plans. Gradually, the new layouts became more regular.Kolb, Frank (1984). Die Stadt im Altertum. München: Verlag C.H. Beck. pp. 51-141: Morris, A.E.J. (1972). History of Urban Form. Prehistory to the Renaissance. London. pp. 22-23. After the city of Miletus was destroyed by the Persians in 494 BC, it was rebuilt in a regular form that, according to tradition, was determined by the ideas of Hippodamus of Miletus.Hippodamus is also reported to have played an important role in the (re-)planning of the city of Piraeus, and he is also associated to Thurii and Rhodes. It seems that the importance of Hippodamus' ideas was not so much in the orthogonal plan, but rather in the distribution of functions and social classes across the city. (Kolb 1984, pp. 115-120; Cahill, Nicholas (2002). Household and City Organization at Olynthus. New Haven. par. 1.2) Regular orthogonal plans particularly appear to have been laid out for new colonial cities and cities that were rebuilt in a short period of time after destruction.
Following in the tradition of Hippodamus about a century later, Alexander commissioned the architect Dinocrates to lay out his new city of Alexandria, the grandest example of idealised urban planning of the ancient Hellenistic world, where the city's regularity was facilitated by its level site near a mouth of the Nile.
The ancient Romans also employed regular orthogonal structures on which they molded their colonies.Morris 1972, pp. 39-41, 51-60; Kolb 1984, pp. 169-238; Benevolo, Leonardo (1993). Die Geschichte der Stadt. Frankfurt am Main/New York. pp. 256-267. They probably were inspired by Greek and Hellenic examples, as well as by regularly planned cities that were built by the Etruscans in Italy.Harris, W. (1989). "Invisible Cities: the Beginning of Etruscan Urbanization". Atti del Secondo Congresso Internazionale Etrusco. Roma, 1989. pp. 375-392. p. 85. The Etruscans were, in their turn, probably also influenced in this respect by Greek and Hellenic culture. (See Marzabotto.) The Roman engineer Vitruvius established principles of good design whose influence is still felt today.Jerke, Porter & Lassar (2008), pp. 8–9: "In his [Mark Salette of Gehry Partners] view, the core qualities of good design—loosely based on principles laid down by Vitruvius in the first century B.C. and countless reconceptualizations since—generally are functionality and durability, contextual compatibility, and enduring respect and value."
The Romans used a consolidated scheme for city planning, developed for civil convenience. The basic plan consisted of a central forum with city services, surrounded by a compact, rectilinear grid of streets. A river sometimes flowed near or through the city, providing water, transport, and sewage disposal. Hundreds of towns and cities were built by the Romans throughout their empire. Many European towns, such as Turin, preserve the remains of these schemes, which show the very logical way the Romans designed their cities. They would lay out the streets at right angles, in the form of a square grid. All roads were equal in width and length, except for two, which were slightly wider than the others. The decumanus, running east–west, and the cardo, running north–south, intersected in the middle to form the centre of the grid. All roads were made of carefully fitted flag stones and filled in with smaller, hard-packed rocks and pebbles. Bridges were constructed where needed. Each square marked by four roads was called an insula, the Roman equivalent of a modern city block. Each insula was about square. As the city developed, it could eventually be filled with buildings of various shapes and sizes and criss-crossed with back roads and alleys.
The city may have been surrounded by a wall to protect it from invaders and to mark the city limits. Areas outside city limits were left open as farmland. At the end of each main road was a large gateway with watchtowers. A portcullis covered the opening when the city was under siege, and additional watchtowers were constructed along the city walls. An aqueduct was built outside the city walls.
The development of Greek and Roman urbanisation is relatively well-known, as there are relatively many written sources, and there has been much attention to the subject since the Romans and Greeks are generally regarded as the main ancestors of modern Western culture. It should not be forgotten, though, that there were also other cultures with more or less urban settlements in Europe, primarily of Celtic origin.Demandt, Alexander (1998) Die Kelten. München: Verlag Ch. Beck. In fact, many sites where the Romans created towns, such as Paris, Vienna and Bratislava, had previously been Celtic settlements of more or less urban character. Among these, there are also cases that appear to have been newly planned, such as the Lusatian town of Biskupin in Poland.
Medieval Europe (500–1400)
After the gradual disintegration and fall of the West-Roman empire in the 5th century and the devastation by the invasions of Huns, Germanic peoples, Byzantines, Moors, Magyars, and Normans in the next five centuries, little remained of urban culture in western and central Europe. In the 10th and 11th centuries, though, there appears to have been a general improvement in the political stability and economy. This made it possible for trade and craft to grow and for the monetary economy and urban culture to revive. Initially, urban culture recovered particularly in existing settlements, often in remnants of Roman towns and cities, but later on, ever more towns were created anew. Meanwhile, the population of western Europe increased rapidly and the utilised agricultural area grew with it. The agricultural areas of existing villages were extended and new villages and towns were created in uncultivated areas as cores for new reclamations.Bartlett, Robert (1993) The Making of Europe. Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change 950-1350. London/New York. pp. 5-60, 106-197; Gutkind, A.E. (1964) International History of City Development. Vol.I: Urban Development in Central-Europe. New York / London. pp. 13-20, 63.