1.
URBAN DESIGN HISTORY
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
(ROMAN - GREEK - MEDIVAL AGE URBAN PLANNING)

2.
TOWN PLANNING IN ROMAN CIVILIZATION
The architecture of Romans was essentially an art of shaping space around rituals.
Many structures were utilitarian type such as aqueducts and bridges The plans were
complex in appearance and hidden in design and display in impression of vastness.
CHARACTERISTICS:
• The towns planning scheme were laid on a grid iron geometry.
• The streets which divided the blocks were 15 to 16 ft. wide; the two main streets,
which ran to the principal gates, were further widened by colonnades and paved
with superior flagging. All the streets had well-built sewers beneath them.
• They built walls, gates, temples, baths, palaces, amphitheaters.
• Throughout their empire the Romans built towns in exactly the same style. They
were designed in the form of a grid, with streets built at right angles to each other
and parallel with one of the two main roads.
• Each town had two main roads. One heading North-South and the other East-West.
At the point where these roads met was the town centre, where the administrative
centre and the forum were found.
• The central part of the town contained the main businesses, with the homes and
dwellings of the citizens further towards the edges of the town.
• In the middle there was a large square, called the forum. It was used as
a market place and for meetings. It had shops and offices on three sides and
government offices on the other side.
• Many towns had running water and sewers.
• Aqueducts were bridges for bringing water to the towns.
• At one end of the forum was a large building called the basilica. There were
temples too where the Roman gods were worshipped. Some towns had public
baths, an open-air theatre and huge monumental arches.
• Example: Ostia
Ostia

3.
TOWN PLANNING IN GREEK CIVILIZATION
The ancient Greek civilization had established principles for planning and
designing cities.
The cities formed were of two types old cities (organic development) and new
cities (grid iron pattern). Certain things were common among cities such as
division of spaces in three parts: acropolis, agora and town.
CHARACTERISTICS:
• These occurred in variety of forms, shapes reflecting different planning
ideas and needs. The plans depended on location, time, method and
purpose of the city’s foundation, and the existence of any previous
settlements.
• Towns had fixed boundaries and some were protected by fortification.
• Much of the town was devoted to public use.
• Site planning and design was centerd on the appreciation of the building from
the outside.
Example: ATHENS
 The city has the three components of acropolis, agora and town found in a
Greek city
 The acropolis in Athens was a religious precinct located on one of the hills of
the city.
 The Agora at Athens contains other administrative buildings.
 The town was where the common people lived, it was usually located on a flat
ground.
Athens

4.
TOWN PLANNING IN MEDIVAL AGE
Irregular pattern in planning was devised to confuse enemies, as enemies
unfamiliar with town. Open spaces, streets, plazas developed as an integral
part of site. Streets were used for pedestrian while wheels were restricted to
main roads.
CHARACTERISTICS:
• Towns which grew by slow stages out of a village or group of villages under
the protection of a monastery, a church, or a castle
• Structures can be regarded as the archetype of the industrial settlement
with a long, narrow street flanked by houses of tradespeople. linear plans
have one or more axes with longitudinal main streets, lined with continuous
buildings running through the settlement.
• Radial plans grew gradually, house by house, around a central nucleus
such as a church, monastery/abbey, or castle.
• Planned towns this category comprises the numerous planned new
foundations of the high middle ages: i.e. the colonial towns, laid out on the
grid-iron plan and commonly referred to as Bastides. These represent a
significant aspect of medieval city development.
• Three elements, in combination, form the total organization of the medieval
city and its community. The first two elements church and feudal castle
dominated medieval townscape in its formative and adolescent stages; the
mature stage, however, saw the growing strength and development of the
merchant community.
• Example : Noerdlinger.
Noerdlinger