Research Catalog

Title

The Nature of Cities : Origin, Growth, and Decline, Pattern and Form, Planning Problems / L. Hilberseimer.

Author

Hilberseimer, Ludwig.

Publication

Chicago : Paul Theobald & Co., 1955.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

286 p. illus., maps.; 29 cm.

Summary

"The Nature of Cities embodies three parallel studies. Each deals with one aspect of the city; together they form a unity. The first study deals with the city's origin, growth, and decline. It is a history of city types rather than of particular cities. The second study, on pattern and form, has to do with the two orders of planning: the geometric and the organic, which govern city types, city architecture, and city landscape. The third region are confronted in our industrial age. The first two studies show that cities change with the changing concepts of their times. Cities are an expression of particular spiritual and material, production and the means of communication. The Greek city and the Roman city were both based on the work of slaves; but they differed from those of Rome. Greek cities were small city-states; Roman cities, part of a vast empire. Medieval and Baroque cities differed from each other as well as from Greek and Roman cities. Medieval cities were based on free work and were free communities; Baroque cities were parts of growing territorial states, where manufacturing, the economic stage of production between handicraft and industry, was being developed. The cities of our industrial age have very little in common with the cities of past ages. They depend on large national states; they are based on a national economy tending to become world economy. In their extraordinary material achievement, they far surpass any cities the world has ever known. The cities of our industrial age, however, have not yet found the pattern adequate to their potentialities, according to their function and technological development. They are a mere conglomeration of unrelated parts, each disturbing the other. They are paralyzed by insurmountable traffic and parking problems. They achieve no harmony in their component parts, no unity in their diversity. The discrepancy between what might be and what is grows ever wider. The very forces which made those cities grow seem to be now working toward their destruction. Yet the problems of our cities and our regions could be solved. The planning methods and the planning elements we propose in these studies could work a transformation. New cities, small or large, could be built upon them. Old cities could be replanned and remade into well-functioning organisms, in which each part is related to other parts and to a harmonious whole. Today, as in the past, cities and regions are influenced by ideas and concepts. The Medieval city was dominated by the cathedral and ruled by the church. Renaissance and Baroque cities were dominated by the palace and ruled by princes. The cities of our age are dominated by industry and commerce and ruled by interest. Some day, perhaps, cities and regions will be planned and developed according to the needs of man and ruled by reason." --

Subject

• Cities and towns > History
• City planning
• City planning > History
• Cities > history
• City Planning
• Villes > Histoire
• Urbanisme > Histoire
• Urbanisme
• urban planning
• Cities and towns
• City planning
• Stadtplanung
• plattelandskern
• rural settlement
• steden
• towns
• stedelijke planning
• urban planning
• dorpen
• villages
• Urban Plans
• Stedelijke plannen

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Contents

[Table of Contents] -- Preface -- I. ORIGIN, GROWTH, AND DECLINE -- From Savagery to Civilization -- The Neolithic Age -- Achievements and Conflicts - Types of Settlements -- Their Location in Relation to Defence -- The Bronze Age and the Rise of Towns -- The Fertile Crescent -- Peasants and Nomads -- Conflicts and Inter-action -- Hoe and Plough -- Early Despotic States -- Trade Interchange -- Summer -- Ur -- Amorite and Chaldean Babylon -- Trade Location -- Seleucia and Ctesiphon -- Rome's Politics and its Consequences -- Mohammed -- Baghdad, City of the Caliphs -- Royal Cities in the Near East and in Egypt -- The Aegean Sea -- Piracy and Trade -- King Minos -- Knossos -- Outposts -- Gournia -- The Greeks -- Destruction and Creation -- Greek Ideas about Cities -- Plato and Aristotle -- Synoecism and Polis -- Types of Cities -- Exceptions -- Sparta -- Conquest -- Landownership -- Thucydides' Comparison -- Athens -- Theseus -- A New Economic Concept -- Trade and Industry -- The Athenean Empire -- Piraeus -- Defeat and Decline -- Greek Colonization -- Reasons -- Homer's Suggestion -- The Oracle of Delphi -- Miletus -- Colonies around the Euxine Sea, in Italy and Sicily -- Italy -- Latins -- Alba Longa -- Rome Septem Pagi -- Synoecism of Romulus -- The Founding Rites -- Population -- Severian Wall -- Momsen's Description -- Water Supply -- Unification of Italy -- Colonies and Roads -- Rome and Carthage -- Economic Changes -- The Small Farmer -- Slave Economy -- Money -- Civil Wars -- Caesarism -- Rome of the Emperors -- Changes in the City -- Rome, World Capitol -- High Density and Increasing Population -- Housing Shortage -- Roman Cities -- Libanios' Eulogy of Antioch -- Wall of Servius Tullius -- Rome's Decline -- Constantinople the New Capitol -- Trade Position -- Despotism -- Architectural Character -- Rome's Greatest Achievement -- Did Barbarians Destroy the Cities? -- Their Kingdoms -- The Coming of Islam -- Marseilles and Venice -- Carolingian Empire -- Cloister Plan -- The Monks -- The Medieval City -- Free Work and Independence -- Feudalism -- Changing Economy -- Crafts -- Diversified Production -- Fair and Weekly Market -- Difference in the Sizes of Cities -- Population Groups -- A New Concept of Life -- Decline of Feudalism -- Conflicts -- Colonization -- Bastides in France -- Eastern Germany -- Teutonic Order -- Hansa -- Expansion of the Economic Sphere -- Merchants -- Princes -- Territorial States -- Division of Labor -- The Role of the State -- Berlin -- London -- Paris -- Huguenots -- Industrial Revolution -- National States -- Railroads -- Finance-Economy -- Changing Cities -- Planless Growth -- Extensive Land Use -- Disorder -- Traffic and Parking Problems -- Slums -- Crime -- Health -- Dr. Foreman's Opinion -- Urban Land Institute -- Concentration -- Decentralization -- Planless Suburbanization -- New Communities -- II. PATTERN AND FORM -- Determinant Factors of a City -- Site, Function, People -- Site and Defence -- Islands -- Riverbends -- Cape Formations -- Hills -- Impress of spirit -- Athens -- Roman Building Groups -- Forum of Trojan -- Acropolis -- Doxiades Explanation -- Optical Order -- Plato and Aristotle -- Hippocratic Treatise -- Orientation -- Socrates -- St. Augustin -- Geometric and Organic Order -- Castellazzo di Fontanellato -- Glastonbury -- Autocratic Cities -- Stasicrates Suggestion -- Alexandria -- Peking -- Kioto -- Versailles -- Free Cities -- Thera -- Heraclea -- Nagasaki -- Cordes -- Herrenberg -- Noerdlingen -- Miletus -- Colonial Cities -- Tent-Camps -- Ethnic Differences -- Geometric and Organic Planning -- Verona and Berne -- Market Places -- Rome's Capitol Square -- Padua Piazza del Santo -- Geometric and Organic Landscapes -- City Architecture -- Utility and Beauty -- Material -- Two Space Concepts -- Proportion -- Relative and absolute scale contrast -- Horizontality and Verticality -- Priene -- Luebeck -- Dominant Edifices -- Perspective -- Venice S. Marks Square -- Renaissance -- Static concept -- Bramande's Plan for S. Peter's -- Filarete's Ideal City -- Fra Giocondo -- Palma Nova -- Grammichele -- Baroque -- Dynamic concept -- Berninis S. Peter's Square -- Fontana's Proposal -- Versailles -- Radiating Streets -- Piazza del Popolo -- Nancy -- Capitol Square -- Rome -- Paris Place de la Concorde -- Trend towards openness, Bath -- Ledoux -- Regression -- III. PLANNING PROBLEMS -- Our Cities -- Obsolete Street System -- New City Element -- Settlement Unit -- Characteristics -- Combination -- Air Pollution -- Techno-Chemical Devices -- Planning Possibilities -- Prevailing Winds -- To Wind Diagrams -- Integrated Industries -- Industrial Area -- Commercial Area -- Residential Area -- Density -- Orientation Consequences -- Zoning -- Architectural Problem -- Six Studies -- Mixed Building -- Communities -- City Aggregates -- Unlimited Variations -- Traffic -- Small Farms -- City Architecture -- Two dimensional Plan -- Three dimensional Reality -- Space Concept -- New Possibilities -- Some Examples -- Can we Change Our Cities? -- Eliminate Defects? -- Can we Transform them into Functioning Organism? -- Residential Area -- Commercial Area -- Recreation Area -- Elkhorn Replanned -- Rockford -- Present Conditions -- Gradual Replanning -- Chicago -- Burnham's Opinion -- Slums -- How to Transform the Metropolis -- Four Studies for Gradual Changes -- Railroads -- Fire breaks -- Plans with Rectangular and Square Communities -- Commercial Area -- Detailed South Side Studies -- Decentralized Washington -- Decentralization -- Integration of Industry and Agriculture -- Possible Consequences -- Regional Planning -- Physical Structure -- What is a Region -- Eastern U.S.A. -- Decentralization -- New Industrial Settlements -- Main Belts -- Branch Belts -- Examples -- Ruralizing Cities -- Urbanizing the Country -- The Cultivated Landscape -- Main Sources of Life -- Hydrologic Cycle -- Soils -- Ecology -- Physical Structure -- Political-Economic Problem -- Hawaiian Islands -- Danger of Specialization -- Maui -- Physical Structure -- Stabilization -- Proposed Plan -- Possible Variations -- India -- Problems -- The Villages -- New Patterns -- Combining Agriculture and Industry -- Complexity of Planning -- Perfection of Work -- Influence on Man -- Henry Ford -- Peter Kropotkin -- Patrick Geddes Comparison -- Transition -- Decentralization, a Means of Defence -- Defence Requirements -- Physical, Legislative and Administrative Problems of Planning -- Financial Problems and Possibilities -- Conclusion

LCCN

56000523

OCLC

• ocm00296012
• 296012
• SCSB-286942

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library