Download Symmetry and Harmony

The University of Melbourne
FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND PLANNING
CULTURE & HISTORY of URBAN PLANNING
705-117
Lecture Notes ©1999 C.M.Gutjahr
PART
5
RENAISSANCE IN ITALY
Theory
Introduction
The term Rinascimento, literally a 'reawakening' or re-birth, was introduced by Vasari in the 16th
century and disseminated by Michelet and Burchardt during the 19th century.
The Renaissance has been called:
"an intellectual movement born from behind monastery walls where scholasticism had
flourished in almost unbroken sequence since antique times."
It grew out of 14th century Italy, where it flowered during the subsequent two centuries and from
where it spread to the rest of Europe.
Writers, painters, architects resuscitated classical culture in all fields, and while looking
nostalgically back to a long past peak of civilization, adapted old ideas with equal intellectual
excitement to new and progressive purposes.
The 'Reawakening' or revival of interest in Classical Antiquity meant:
•
intellectual limitation of medieval world were broken
•
absolute and sacrosanct beliefs were now questioned
•
rebirth of learning, of spirit of inquiry and individual creativity reminiscent of the Greece of
Periclean Athens.
•
a general search for truth in the classical and scientific fields.
Such names as Erasmus, Copernicus, Galileo, Giotto, Columbus, Cabot, Vasco da Gama
symbolize the new spirit that was abroad. The Artistotelian conception of the universe was swept
away as the earth was removed from its centre.
It was, also, a revival of classical antiquity in the field of city planning and design.
Why the interest in Classical Antiquity?
a.
Italy was spiritually and physically close to the classical past; its language was very
similar to Latin as was its literature; monasteries as caretakers, had preserved much of
classical antiquity.
b.
because of the impact of the great migration of Greek scholars from Constantinople to
Italy between 324 and the city's fall to the Turks in 1453.
Constantinople had for centuries maintained the language and tradition of Greece. It was
a haven of western culture, which when threatened by Islam, saw its scholars take refuge
westward in Italy leading to the foundation of great centres of learning in Florence,
Venice, Mantua, and Milan.
c.
discoveries of ancient murals, statues, such as the Apollo Belvedere, the Laocoon,the
Vatican Venus, and other antique remains excited the Renaissance imagination, and
gave new stimuli to creation as well as to collection.
d.
ancient books and papers were rediscovered and copied, and then read again with
enthusiasm and excitement; antiquity was seen as catalyst of discovering truth in nature.
Accelerated tempo of Renaissance's flowering was made possible and encouraged by:
1)
Weakening of the Feudal system and the consequent growth of a less dependent
middle class
-
collective achievements of feudal times gave way to the nation state where
individualism, despotism, and growing wealth (capitalism), gave rise to a ruthless and
materialist class.
-
emergence of early capitalism. After crusades, the economic system of exchange and
barter is gradually replaced by a money economy, spreading from Italy to the rest of
Europe.
-
the era of commercial acquisiton/accumulation began as merchant capitalists sought to
increase their capital through commercial accumulation. Economic activity became
heavily reliant on trade, taking advantage of differentials between the supply and demand
of commodities.
-
banking and trade companies developed
-
social changes:
•
wealthy merchants and manufacturers bargained for greater standing in the
community and favours from rulers, as the latter needed money for their
increased expenses.
•
economic system increased money in currency; devaluation occured regularly as
silver coins kept being minted. Urban proletariate formed in cities (who do
manual labour for wages), increasing gulf between the poor and the rich.
•
guilds weakened: new invention led to increased production capacity requiring
fewer skilled workers while previously self-employed tradesmen and artisans did
not have capital to buy machines and were thus squeezed out.
•
-
the huge population decreases caused by the 100 years-war (1339-1453), which
nearly wiped out the aristocracy of England and France and by the ravages of
the Black Death of the 14th century which reduced Europe's population by
betwen 1/3 and 1/2 (this resulted in smaller labour force and increased status for
the villains.)
the Medieval balance between the Church , the secular powers, and the guilds was
permanently upset.
2)
Development of Centralized Nation State
Profit motivation and the calculating nature of the contemporary commercial system
determined politics and administration.
Nation States formed alongside the Feudal states. The concept of the 'autonomous state'
appeared with its paid public servants and politics of 'reason'.
The theory of the new secular state power was developed by Niccolo Machiavelli (14691527).
This was ultimately to lead to the institution of the capital city and the centralized
machinery of power (bureaucracy), as rulers found personal supervision increasingly
difficult in the expanded nation states and, therefore, established a central bureaucracy to
house their administrative machinery in permanent locations.
3)
-
Decline of ecclesiastical domination
religious leaders extended their political power and cultivated temporal interests which
led to cynicism among the population.
-
rise of nation states helped break the unity of European christendom.
4)
-
Growth of international trade
crusades had expanded horizons of European minds.
trade was no longer confined to inland seas but expanding along intercontinental routes.
Long-distance trade flourished further.
-
expanding trade boundaries opened new and larger markets and brought new inventions.
-
increasing wealth accruing from overseas trade soon introduced a powerful group into
urban society, 'a class of merchant adventurers and trade entrepreneurs whose shrewd
enterprise enabled them to build lavish houses and gardens and to speculate with urban
land (re)development projects'.
5)
Introduction of printing ca. 1450 (J. Gutenberg)
The invention of the printing press facilitated and encouraged the dissemination of
Renaissance culture. In the urban context, Plato's The Republic and The Laws and
Aristotle's Politics inspired philosophers such as Sir Thomas More (Utopia, 1516),
Tommaso Campanella (City of the Sun, 1623) and Johann Valentin Andrae
(Christianopolis, 1619) to write of the good Christian life in an idealized urban setting.
6)
-
Technological destruction of time
improved and faster transport
These important changes in society led to the accelerated growth of cities.
Renaissance Urban Planning
The Renaissance marks the beginning of the complex conception of the modern world with
increasing specialisation and diversity. The need for planning and for creating balanced land-use
patterns is stronger than ever.
From Italy, Renaissance ideas in architecture and town planning spread gradually to France in
the 16th century, Britain in the 17th and America in the late 17th and 18th centuries; and reached
even farther afield as a consequence of the momentous voyages which established European
colonies in the Americas, Africa, India, the Far East and Australia.
The Medieval City
-
pedestrians set the scale of the town
towns confined within limitations of high and narrow walls
medieval citizens could easily identify with their cities/towns
urban society was held together by the guilds
was the work of society in general and many, mostly, anonymous artists in
particular
The Renaissance City
a)
-
-
was conceived as a centralized unit (as opposed to medieval urban
development which gradually added subsidiary parts, the 'faubourgs')
The growing secularization of life together with the emergence of capitalism
produced a wealthy merchant class which extended its patronage to artists (just
as only the Church had once fulfilled this function) who were commissioned to
execute and express the former's ambition and egocentricity;
individualism and self-expression marked the age.
b)
urban society is divided by class conflicts; identification with the city became
more difficult as it became the symbol of the invisible state and its obedient
subjects. New bonds were forged by the now fully-developed money economy,
the increasing specialization of work, and by the princes, who held the power of
the state.
c)
horizons widened, as towns lost their narrow limitations and their urban areas
expanded. The upper classes exerted decisive influence upon the life of cities,
towns and architecture, while their 'carriages' set a new scale of development.
The cities' sphere of economic influence grew and with it their interdependence,
stimulated by trading over large distances.
d)
was dominated by formal planning and design principles e.g.
SPACE
In the art of the city planning the Renaissance was a transitional period, a prelude to
the Baroque. Space was still at rest; individual spatial elements of a Renaissance town
were still bounded by the limitations of the periphery and focussed on a centre, a square,
a church, or any other feature. Professor E.A. Gutkind refers to the 'side-by-side plans' of
the Renaissance. The 'flowing together' of spatial elements came later, he suggests,
during the Baroque period, which is marked by a freer view of the world.
3 dominant characteristics of Renaissance space:
1. Spatial unity
rational design and design order.
guards against empirical change, whimsy or any aspect of form unrelated to the
concepts governing the whole.
2. Limitation of space
the finite nature of space: volumes designed by 15th century architects were
precisely calculated and visually apparent, giving the observer a clear idea of
structure and an awareness of the spatial rhythm around it.
space is an enclosed, juxtaposed element, at rest (static), not yet in motion
(dynamic).
3. Measured order
space is geometric, measured and proportioned.
structures/buildings acting as enclosing agent are employed to establish the
volumetrics of the space/square resulting in a strong articulated statement
defying alteration or addition.
Example:
Piazza Pio II, Pienza
-mid 15th century, by Bernardo Rosselino
-form already determined by the acute angle of the flanking structures.
successfully achieved sense of exaggerated perspective by opposing colonnades and
paving pattern.
View of Piazza Pio II, Pienza
Plan of Piazza Piccolomini or Pio II
Pienza
ABSOLUTE STANDARDS
Symmetry Harmony Balance Rhythm and Proportion
Renaissance architects, like their imperial predecessors, developed a self-contained system of
absolute standards:
symmetry
harmony
balance
rhythm
proportion
Absolute standards were abstracted from studies of harmonic proportion and natural form.
Symmetry and Harmony
These are the principal tenets of Renaissance aesthetics; their application could be felt in all
plans of Renaissance towns •
in the general layout
•
in the street system
•
in the shape of squares and houses
•
in the distinct and static aggregation of all the forms of Renaissance art.
From the 16th century onwards a close relationship developed between landscape planning and
town planning; and the influence of 17th century gardens became increasingly apparent in 18th
century urban planning in the context of alignment and intersection of streets and avenues,
shapes of 'places' and 'rond-points', placing of monuments and planting of avenues and other
urban spaces.
Examples shown:
Royal Naval College, Greenwich, C. Wren.
Grand Council Room, Doges Palace, Venice.
Villa Garzoni, Collodi, Tuscany, 17th century.
SCALE (of Streets)
The pedestrian had set the scale of the medieval town, now it was the carriage (although used
only by the rich) and the horseman who began to set the scale of the urban street (16th century
onwards) and that of the entire city.
Streets ceased to invite a leisurely stroll; they became longer and straighter in alignment to
facilitate speed of movement for non-pedestrian traffic; they were wider also, to accommodate
increased traffic but also to allow for footpaths.
Accompanying the new streetscape was the 'so-called' 'architecture of the carriageway' the
long, monotonous rows of uniform, parapeted, building facades of more or less identical buildings
with regular fenestration and elaborate architectural and sculptural features which became
repetitive in order to be taken in by a moving observer.
We have here, the emergence of a new style of streetscape or street facade designed to be
viewed no longer from the pedestrian's eye level but from a somewhat greater height and at a
greater speed.
Examples shown:
Corso Cavour, Verona
Corso Rinascimento with Palazzo Madama, Rome
Via Lungara, Rome
Via Giulia, Rome
Via dei Bianchi, Rome
PERSPECTIVE VISTA
Space was resolved in plan, 3 dimensionally, for the first time.
The perspective vista associated with the long row of building radiated a motive power that
concentrated the attention almost exclusively on the view at the end of the streets and induced a
steady movement forward. The urban environment became more restless than it had been
during the Middle Ages. The width of the streets was in many cases quite disproportionate to their
actual purpose. The desire to line the streets with an uninterrupted block front led to the erection
of facades, behind which rooms were arranged independently of the external appearance of the
houses, even to the absurd idea of filling gaps between two houses by a front wall capped by the
principal cornice.
Sebastiano Serlio, Tragic Scene.
Woodcut from Libro Primo....d'architettura
Venice, 1551
fol.29 v.
Royal Naval College built mainly in 1696-99 as Greenwich Hospital, Greenwich
by Sir Christopher Wren
Wren included John Webb's original King Charles' Block (1663-67) and Inigo Jones' Queen's
House1 (1618-35) in this grand symmetrical design. Note how the central architectural axis also
becomes the perspective axis of the scheme.
Examples shown:
Palazzi Strozzi, Antinori, Borghese, Serristori and Niccolini,
Florence.
Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens, Florence.
Palazzo Farnese, Rome.
Finally, the Renaissance City
e)
was strongly influenced, in character and design, by the new and growing need for
elaborate systems of fortification.
FORTIFICATIONS
Defence prior to 15th Century
Cities have been fortified ever since they emerged in prehistoric times. Fortifications protected
settlements by offering the advantage of height to the defenders, shielding them and preventing
surprise.
Topography and natural objects - hills, caves, clearings, trees and stone were traditionally used to
provide some form of natural protection against surprise.
1
Queen's House is partly out of view at the top centre of the illustration on the previous page.
Human-made defences, however, as represented in the various forms of walls served cities
longest and best. These range from the most primitive natural pile of rock, the thorn hedge or
timber palisade to walls with towers and bastions jutting from a solid girdle of stone or brick
masonry.
Up to the 15th century, defence had the upper hand over assault - the simple moat and wall
provided sufficient defence against raiding warriors who carried no heavy instruments of assault.
As long as walls were high and strong enough and artillery imperfect and used with little skill,
cities remained relatively safe.
Defense from 15th century onward
The factor which revolutionized the balance between the defender and the attacker was the
perfection of gunpowder and the cannon (invented early in the 14th Century).
The power of the cannon was principally responsible for the fall of the city of Constantinople, to
the Turks, in 1453, marking the beginning of a new age in the history of military fortifications, and
the end of the traditionally 'vertical' defences.
After resisting the power of Islam for over 700 years Constantinople's triple defensive wall system
finally crumbled under a cannon, capable of firing projectiles exceeding 800 lb. in weight. Some
decades later, Charles VIII of France invaded Italy armed with cannon balls made of iron (not any
longer of stone) moving at unheard of speed, and reversed the traditional balance between
attacker and defender.
The new artillery of the late 15th century made cities vulnerable for the first time; they were
compelled to abandon their old system of simple 'vertical' walls and forced to adopt new methods
of fortifications which were being designed and promoted, largely, by Italian military engineers.
(Towns located on inaccessible hills now turned into conspicuous targets).
The new fortifications were elaborate and provided the horizontal distance needed between the
city perimeter and the attacking artillery. (The idea was to place the city beyond the reach of the
enemy's guns). The new defences usually took a star-shaped form (stellar fortifications) and
consisted of an intricate succession of inter-dependent bastions2 (
By bringing the muskets and cannons of the defenders to the outmost positions of the bastions
one could, theoretically, put the city beyond the reach of the enemy's guns, as well as direct
enfilade fire on the attacking forces.
These ingenious new fortifications provided effective security for barely two centuries and cast a
permanent, heavy social burden upon the protected population.
Effects of new fortifications:
1.
Engineering difficulties and financial burden.
Instead of a simple masonry wall, it was now necessary to accomplish great engineering
works and spend huge sums of money in order to protect cities.
The new fortifications were difficult to build and even more difficult to alter, except at
prohibitive cost.
2
Bastion - earthworks shaped like irregular pentagons with low thick walls, battered to
withstand cannon fire and including long, sloping glacis and counterscarp for the purpose of
preventing the use of siege machinery and improving the defenders' view) and ravelins
projecting from the main defensive system.
Plan of Turin showing extensions to fortifications (ca. 1670) (from Rasmussen)
2.
Severe limitation on expansion; higher densities and congestion
Hitherto, walls were capable of being extended to include new suburbs whenever
necessary - they did not handicap natural growth; but the new fortifications prevented
lateral expansion of cities and thereby forced up population densities and building
heights(note: medieval cities are wrongfully reproached for their overcrowded conditions)
The new congestion destroyed medieval standards of building space, even in some cities
which had kept their old form.
Overcrowding in the capital cities of Europe began well before the systematic building of
high tenements which originated during the 17th century and soon became a universal
phenomenon (5-6 storeys in Paris, 8 storeys in Geneva).
3.
Wasteful use of urban space
The new cities were planned primarily as fortifications while residential quarters were
fitted into this straight jacket as best possible.
Space occupied by new fortifications often exceeded that occupied by the whole town.
The countryside was placed out of reach of urban dwellers.
Open spaces within cities, such as gardens, orchards etc. were rapidly built over as
population grew.
4.
Preoccupation with fortification rather than the city itself
The military engineer fixed the enceinte3 first, and only then did he proceed to the design
of the town within the enclosing ring e.g. Dürer's treatise on urban fortification gives only
little attention to the city proper - in most books and plans of the period the city is treated
as mere appendage to the military form.
By the 16th century the practices of Italian military engineers dominated city building.
Eventually, the new movement reached its summit in the types of fortification devised in
the 17th century under the great French military engineer Sebastien Vauban (e.g. his
classic fort of NEUF - BRISACH).
British cities were not affected by the new fortifications:
Britain's island location, combined with the internal peace which had prevailed since the 13th
century, encouraged a tradition of horizontal urban growth.
There was no need to fear attacks and people were not compelled to huddle behind walls - many
British towns, however, kept their walls to maintain commercial interests rather than for military
necessity, through into the 15th and 16th centuries.
As a result, the British evolved their 'half-acre and a cow' philosophy, an essential anti-urban
attitude maintained through to the present day together with their 'suburban - semi + a garden'
preference.
RENAISSANCE PLANNING IN ITALY: IDEAL CITIES
IDEAL CITIES and military engineering / fortifications theories: 1430-1590
Introduction
Fortification led to the wholesale replanning of existing cities and gave stimulus to the designing
of new cities from scratch.
Dante (1265-1321), Petrarch (1304-1374), Boccacio (1313-1376) heralded the revival of Classical
Antiquity in Italy, whereas Brunelleschi (1377-1446) produced the very earliest Renaissance
works of architecture in Florence, during the first years of the 15th century.
The emergence of Renaissance Urbanism was twofold:
1.
in its theories i.e. theoretical work and
2.
in its physical examples i.e. practical work
The first breakthrough occured in urban planning theory with the work of Renaissance architects
such as Alberti, Filarete and the discovery of the writings of the classical Roman architect
Vitruvius. They introduce the era of the urban theorists of the Renaissance, of the 'citta ideale',
the era of ideal city preoccupation.
City and State were interrelated in Renaissance thinking - even interchangeable concepts; the
city was seen as an expression of the 'state'; hence the literary UTOPIAS which had to be
accompanied by 'Ideal City' designs.
3
enceinte (French) = enclosure
Utopian texts reveal a philosophical connection between Constitution and State, i.e. they are
concerned with theories of the State (e.g. Savonarola, Machiavelli) while the city becomes the
object of particular interest.
UTOPIAS
-
literary utopias were intellectual experiments.
as a rule, represent ideas of a social revolution from the bottom up.
have social and revolutionary character
IDEAL CITIES the coming together of Utopia and Reality; they are
-
urban foundations brought about by people with MONEY and POWER
decided upon from the top down
attempt at general reform of existing social conditions; amelioration or improvement is the
objective while political aims of sponsor are not questioned
the 'paradoxical implementation of an utopia'.
-
known as achievable urban constructs based on state or social reform. They are ideal in
that their designers created them as formal equivalents to the utopian ideas on which
they are based
-
are usually demonstrations of concepts of communal living
From the middle of the 15th century onwards, there is a succession of published works dealing
with such theories of architecture, urban design and military engineering.
The invention of printing allowed the urban designers of the Renaissance to record their ideas
and theories and make their ideas available to others on a wide scale.
The direction this aspect of Renaissance architecture and planning was to take was clearly
indicated during the early Renaissance [1420 - 1485] by Leone Battista ALBERTI and FILARETE
(Antonio di Pietro Averlino).
(a)
Early Renaissance 1421 - 1485 (or 1500?)
-
freed the concept of town planning from its symbolic and religious medieval
interpretation
LEONE BATTISTA ALBERTI 1404 - 1472
Aristocrat, architect, sculptor, writer and humanist, wrote DE RE AEDIFICATORIA, published in
1485 after his death, by Nicolo Lorenzo Alamanno, a work which established him as the first
theoretician of the Renaissance.
In this, the first book on architecture ever to be printed, Alberti not only lays down the general
principles of architectural theory and practice but, maintaining architecture to be a civic activity,
extends his method of building to embrace the organization of cities.
In Book IV, Alberti relates architecture to a comprehensive conception of the city which called for:
-
an ideal town in which the individual buildings are subordinate to the whole and
enhance the social, political and practical life of the citizen.
-
a round or circular plan, being the most spacious, surrounded by stellar
fortifications, being the safest protection
-
an urban plan size large enough to allow for expansion.
-
good siting, efficient water supply, careful regard for health conditions.
-
streets, to be laid out 'in the manner of rivers' following an undulating pattern.
-
a number of piazzas which set proportions for squares and the heights of
surrounding buildings.
-
moderation in size and decoration (ostentation might disturb neighbourly
relations).
Alberti even insisted on the advanced principle of the subordination of private interest to public
good (Neo-Platonism). He also emphasised the necessity for adequate central communal
organisation, and called for the grouping of small and great houses in well planned streets in
which unity of design was to be achieved without individualistic ostentation.
He did not attempt the layout of a complete ideal town and advocated 'commoditas' and the
functional adaptation of sites to needs. He appreciated that the development of capitalism led to
a more egalitarian rather than a stratified society; although the class divisions were to be
retained, and the more menial and smelly jobs located on the outskirts of town, he nevertheless
saw the advantage of having shopping facilities in the neighbourhood of aristocratic residences,
thus achieving what is called at present 'a mixed development'.
From Alberti onwards, we have had up to the present day, a constant stream of theoretical
writings and utopian or idealized city plans.
ANTONIO DI PIETRO AVERLINO called FILARETTE 1400-1469
Author of first fully planned and illustrated 'Ideal City' of the Renaissance; his ideas based, in part,
on those of Alberti.
Trattato Di Architettura 1457-64
(written in Italian, rather than Latin), an imaginary dialogue between Filarete and his patron
includes a model of an idealized town of:
SFORZINDA named after his patron Francesco Sforza (1457)
a walled eight-pointed star enclosed 2 intersecting quadrangles within
a landscape (design combines town and country: first of its kind?)
roads converging on centre and an inner ring road
diagrammatic plan rather than detailed one, with:
•
segregation into zones, according to function
•
fully developed town-centre + main plaza (civic centre) and 2 subsidiary plazas
for various public functions
•
16 subsidiary communal open spaces (piazzas)
Filarete recognized social needs, his plan containing:
•
a school for boys and girls (separate)
•
prisons, artisans' cottages, a workmen's colony, a house of 'Vice and Virtue',
which was to add to the moral perfection of the citizens.
•
attention to convenient circulation by road and water and potentially successful
relationship between buildings, streets, and open spaces.
Plan of Filarete's Sforzinda
Filarete's resourceful plan inspired later radio-concentric patterns; its concept was inherent in its
civic pride, emphasis on human dignity and the playing down of religious pre-occupations.
Although Filarete's plan was never implemented and the treatise not completely published even
at the present time, the manuscripts of his work, originally in Italian and also in Latin translation,
were numerous and scattered all over Europe. His influence was considerable, outside as well
as inside Italy, and it is to be seen alongside those of Vitruvius and Alberti.
The Movement's `Classical Basis': MARCUS VITRUVIUS POLLIO
The classical basis of the urban theories of the Italian Renaissance has been ascribed to
MARCUS VITRUVIUS POLLIO, an obscure Roman architectural critic, who in Augustan times
(20 A.D.) wrote DE ARCHITECTURA LIBRI DECEM, a work composed of 10 Books dealing with
the theory and techniques of architecture and related aspects of town planning and civil
engineering during the Roman Empire.
Copies of his work were re-discovered at the Convent of St. Gall (Switzerland) in 1486; the
discovery added momentum to the development of the Renaissance in architecture, urbanism
and the arts generally. The 4th to the 7th chapters of the 1st book deal with city planning matters.
Much of the building and town planning activity of the Renaissance developed as a result of the
discovery, printing, and dissemination of Vitruvius' treatise.
The five orders of architecture, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan and Composite, were revived and
applied in designs for large, public buildings and palaces. The characteristics of classical
buildings still standing, even if in somewhat ruinous condition, were studied and their components
measured and analysed with a view to deducing rational laws for scale and proportion in terms of
individual buildings, of groups and of elements of a composition in a street or 'place'. These
studies, and the theories derived from them, led architects to believe that it was their role to
impose order in town planning and development.
The Vitruvian Theory
-
-
-
-
involves fundamental considerations to be observed in town design and gives an
example of an 'Ideal Town' of a radio-concentric form enclosed within an octagonal
defensive wall. (the figure 8 being traditional)
it appears to be a form which was never used in practice for any of the countless
Roman military camps and towns established throughout the Empire; Vitruvius was,
therefore, advocating a theoretical or 'ideal' city plan.
Vitruvius wrote at length on the factors to be observed for the successful siting of
towns (e.g. elevated sites) and like Plato designed his ideal city not on the basis of
actual surroundings but in order to satisfy conceptions of harmony, regularity, and
enclosure by a circular form.
shows no interest in the common people i.e. social questions of planning are
neglected, and the architecture caters only for the rich and powerful. Vitruvius' ideal
city is, therefore, no social utopia but a formal pattern, characteristic of his own
period.
Graphic interpretation of Vitruvius' description of his Ideal City
other Ideal City theorists are:
FRANCESCO DI GIORGIO MARTINI 1439 - 1502
Wrote Trattato di Architectura civile e militare, in 1495, its 3rd book devoted to castles and cities,
the 5th book contains a treatise on fortifications, and regarded by some authorities as marking the
beginning of the new approach to military engineering required by the rapid developments of
offensive artillery.
The most prolific of the 'Ideal City' designers, Martini is responsible for the fortifications of over
100 cities, in different locations. The variety (two examples are shown above) of his design
proposals had strong influence on contemporary and later town planners.
(b)
High Renaissance 1485 - 1527
This period further challenged the medieval tradition; however, the concept of the unity of the
town tended to disappear; the emphasis was now on the individual contributions, based on clarity
and accuracy of observation, and formal considerations of symmetry.
A period of many famous and familiar names:
in Italy
Germany
England
-
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
Sir Thomas More (Utopia) (1478-1535)
Although, these men were not primarily architects, they were fascinated in varying degrees by the
image of perfection of an ideal city. This aspect makes them rather exceptional in a period
preoccupied with personal achievement and contentment i.e. with the present rather than the
future.
LEONARDO DA VINCI 1452 - 1519
Among his little nor well authenticated theoretical work on town building and planning are:
(a)
A proposal for 10 New Towns for Milan
The plague of 1484/5, which resulted in the deaths of a large proportion of Milan's
population, was seen by him to be the direct result of the overcrowded unsanitary
conditions within the city.
In his capacity as consultant to Ludovic Sforza, ruler of Milan, he advised the rebuilding
of Milan at a lower density and moving out the excess population to 10 New Towns each
of 30,000 people or 5,000 houses.
(b)
A partly underground city (form follows function)
In his sketches for the detailed design of a city, found in the Manuscript B of the Institut
de France, Da Vinci anticipates multi-level separation of vehicular and pedestrian traffic.
He shows two levels, one high, the other below, and a network of straight streets, the
upper ones for the gentry, the lower ones for freights and services. The lower parts of
the houses and the underground streets receive no direct light, and are dependent on
opening in the streets above. The use of the lower rows of buildings - perhaps destined
for the service staff of the mansions above - is not explicitly mentioned in Leonardo's
notes.
He also investigated the possibilities of relating the widths of streets to the height of
buildings fronting onto them.
The plans of the High Renaissance (1485-1527) still had a broad appeal while those of
Mannerism (1527-1590) introduced a slow change toward specialization, marked by a rigid
conventionalism.
The Ideal City plans of this period were destined mainly for military purposes, and characterized
by layouts of formal perfection and finite regularity.
(c)
Mannerism 1527 - 1590
"Individual and social consideration were neglected in the Manneristst
phase; the unity of the town was re-established by a more restricted, purely formal, approach,
coupled with practical namely military, considerations, thus creating a dichotomy which led to
easily applicable, but socially sterile, formulae." H. Rosenau.
While the High Renaissance had a broad appeal, Mannerism introduces a slow change toward
specialization, marked by a rigid conventionalism.
The plans of this period were destined mainly for military purposes, and characterized layouts of
formal perfection and finite regularity. They do not reflect the social purpose apparent in many of
the plans of the preceding two periods.
PIETRO CATANEO
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- 1569
published the first four books of his I quattro primi libri di architettura in Venice in 1554,
and an enlarged version in 1567. These include a large number of ideal city plans based
on the regular polygon (one of which is shown below), and a number of which show a
separate citadel for the ruler of the city; this example was used some 50 years later, by
Bartel Janson, for the foundation of Mannheim in 1606.
Cataneo's plans included what we now see as the origin of the French étoile
intersections.
GIROLAMO MAGGI 1523 engineer and writer who in 1564 published a joint treatise with Iacomo F.Castriotto
(engineer of the King of France, presumably Henry III) entitled Della Fortificatione Della
Citta, in Venice. This deals not only with fortifications but also with layout of towns
themselves, still showing Filarete's influence in the market square, but adding a
dominating tower.
BUONAIUTO LORINI
by this time the extent of the fortification zone was steadily increasing in response to the
need to keep besieging artillery away from the edge of the city.
his Delle Fortificatione Libri Cinque was published in Venice in 1592; it
ideal city plan, among others:
included
this
FRANCESCO DE MARCHI
1504 - 1577
widely travelled military engineer, responsible for the fortification of VALENCIENNES,
MECHELN and ANTWERP.
wrote Delle Architettura Militare , published in 1599 in Brescia.
VINCENZO SCAMOZZI 1552 - 1616
"City should be not result of nature but product of planning"
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proposed concept of the city as 'a work of art'.
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published 6 out of a planned comprehensive 10 volume treatise L'Idea Della Architettura
Universale (1615), containing the programmatic expression of the tendencies of the
Mannerist phase.
Scamozzi's treatise, translated and re-edited in many European languages all through the 17th
century, influenced such well known popularisers' work as Freart de Chambray's Parallele de
l'architecture antique avec la moderne, published in 1650, and exerted some influence on the
work of his contemporaries Jacques Perret, in France, and Daniel Specklin (Speckle), in
Germany.
An Ideal City, Scamozzi
Examples of two Ideal Cities which were actually built:
PALMA NOVA 1593
Fortified garrison town built as defence for the city of Venice against the threat of Turkish
invasion. Frequently attributed to Scamozzi, but may have been inspired by the second book of
Maggi and Castriotto's publication. Early example of the realization of an overall planned,
homogeneous township. Palmanova remained in the backwater of future developments; it exists
today as a quiet, sleepy, country town which has retained its original plan, relatively unobscured
by subsequent changes.
Plan
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perimeter formed by a 9-sided polygon with bastions.
central square is a regular hexagon, contains a central tower (recalling Filarete's
Sforzinda)
6 secondary squares are formed in the centres of street blocks.
the polygon and the hexagon form an integrated pattern by way of a complex
arrangement of 18 radial streets.
Palma Nova reflects the political climate of its day:
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•
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centralization reflects in the regular patterning and the geometric perfection.
the problem of external threat reflects in the disproportionately large fortifications.
the growth of specialization in the form of a standing army (garrisoned in the town).
Palma Nova represents the total victory of the radio-concentric plan over the grid-iron, as does
the other 'citta ideale' to be built in Italy:
GRAMMICHELE (near Catania, Sicily) 1693
An approximate copy of the first Italian 'Ideal City' Palma Nova, and dating some 100 years
later.
It was built by architect Michele La Ferla for Count Carlo Caraffa to replace the town of
OCCHIOLA, in Sicily, destroyed by an earthquake in that year.
Plan
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•
•
•
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6-sided polygon with a hexagonal central place.
six main avenues radiate from the middle of each side of the central place to the
outer circumference, probably all to a gate.
5 concentric streets form a hexagonal spiderweb around the central place.
beyond them, 6 subsidiary squares or piazze, accessible only from the middle of
their sides, form the 'neighbourhood' centres of 6 separate quarters attached to
each side of the polygon.
the extreme angles were originally intended as gardens.
it is said, that it posthumously represents the visions of Scamozzi; being the
combination of his physical legacy of Palma Nova and his 'Ideal City' design.
IDEAL CITIES : AN ASSESSMENT
Ideal Cities and the closely related military engineering schemes for fortifying towns during the
Renaissance, were the main thrust of the theoretical work in Italy between 1430 and 1590 (to a
lesser extent elsewhere in Europe).
Ideal City concepts contain a paradox in that they try to combine, on the one hand, an emphasis
on formal design patterns with, on the other, strong utilitarian and functional aspects of
engineering brought about by the prevailing necessity for fortifications.
Because of this dichotomy (functional v. aesthetic, formal) the theoretical Ideal City work exerted
a strong influence along these two separate lines, which represent very potent forces in the
history of European architecture and planning and led to design formulae which were easily
applied and repeated but often socially sterile.
Aims of the theorists?
Renaissance theorists saw city as a total concept; not as product of incremental growth or
historical accident but as a TOTAL PLAN which to function logically and rationally must have
ORDER i.e. city outline, interior layout, building blocks, disposition of major buildings must be
clear and orderly.
Order, in the Renaissance context could be achieved only by the application of Geometry: hence
the exclusive use of square, star or polygonal plans + either grid-iron or radio-concentric street
patterns.
The Renaissance view of the Ideal City and their geometric plans is a complete break with the
past and represents an innovation in the following respects:
(a)
while medieval cities often outgrew their original plan and acquired large areas of
unplanned new suburbs the Ideal City of the Renaissance was characterized by strict,
formal, geometric completeness and finality in all its elements. It was considered as a
total, perfect form which was not to be interfered with subsequently.
(b)
although, at first glance, there is much to connect Ideal Cities with earlier geometric plans
(indeed the latter may have served as models) there is a difference in the mentality that
they betray. Where, previously, geometric concepts were applied for practical military
considerations, for ease of setting up of new colonies, and for the equitable distribution
of land plots, the Renaissance adopted geometric plans first and foremost for their
perfection and beauty.
(c)
the Ideal City was considered quite independently of any physical or spiritual
relationship with its environment i.e. nature.
CRITICAL EVALUATION OF PERIOD 1430-1590
No doubt, Ideal Cities are a necessary and important stage in the development of planning and
urban form. From the 16th century on, the city becomes more and more a symbol of a definite
social and governmental order, ideal cities being characteristic of this symbolism.
The design philosophy 'beauty is the product of reason and human will' and 'order means
geometry' is fundamental to the period.
The designers of Renaissance ideal plans visualized the city as a work of art, a composition of
complete and finite forms; the formality and symmetry of their designs, and of new towns built
completely or partially in their likeness, reflect this uncompromising tyranny of the drawing board
and geometry.
This tyranny is the obvious weakness of the Renaissance Ideal City design philosophy.
The cardinal fault in Ideal City planning was the attempt to contain within a static and rigid
physical structure something that is neither static nor rigid but dynamic and variable. It tried to
make the urban population subservient and to circumscribe it by a symmetrical pattern.
It has since become accepted that formal, rational planning philosophies cannot explain, let alone
anticipate, the structure of a city and its urban processes.
A true city is a living phenomenon dependent on economic and social conditions with all their
limitations.
The Ideal Cities planning formula 'beauty is product of reason and human will', as applied during
the following centuries did not stand up to the multiplicity of planning problems which required a
deep understanding of as well as more intuition of the processes of nature.
This rigid, anthropocentric Renaissance view resulted in a formalistic design attitude which
narrowed the horizon of Europeans between 1500-1900 so much, that they failed to fully
understand their role as urban colonisators.