Week 5
Design The City:
First part of the lecture looked at designing the structure/layout of the city. A lot of the example cities are chasing the 'Utopian' layout, which is a perfect and geometric layout that will provide the residents with the 'best' place to live. This in turn will ideally create a social utopia within the city.
Design The View:
Next covered was designing the city around views and/or creating viewpoints. This is driven by the visual experience of the city users/ It's all about wanting to capture those perspective views within a city.
Design The Grid:
Similar to the 'Utopian' theory, this is about designing the layout according to a set grid pattern.
4 main grid types were covered - Roman, Spaniard, American and British
Roman - These grids are typically based off 2 major axis, usually 2 main roads that intersect
Spaniard - Follow a similar pattern to the Roman, but is usually rotated 45 degree from north.
American - A north-south based grid that measures 6 miles x 6 miles
British - Based on the roman grid which aligns itself with the natural topography of the land. Cities with this grid design are planned well in advance to cater for future growth. Most cities that is settled by British takes the same/similar layout as an established city back in Britain. A 'belt' or circling land that separates the city centre from the outer country area.
When it comes to city layout styles, I prefer the British type grid system. Their forward thinking in terms of planning for the future growth of the city and how their respond to the natural topography and geographical features shows a more logical approach to town planning.
Assignment:
After doing a quick bit of research on our chosen city, Mainz Germany, if i were to classify the city based on the typologies covered in the lecture, it seems that Mainz follows a British/Spaniard type grid layout. This is because it uses the Rhine river as a starting point, which influences the towns structure, because of this the city's grid is at a 45 degree alignment to the north point (which fits the Spaniard style, though it is more likely to be influenced by the British because of geographical location within Europe).
The original city of Mainz took an organic style, which followed the 'Design The View' style in that even though it loosely follows a grid, it's more about 'framing' views towards the main Church (seen as being a monument) in the city centre.
Tutorial Progress
These are the notes taken during the tutorial, stating additional information for the assignment submission and key points for the report to cover.
Assignment:
~2200 words for report
>7 references from various types of sources
Scale Model must by 600mm x 600mm at a 1:1000 scale (covers a 600m square of the real city)
Nolli Map - a focus area within the city, showing a more detailed view of its structure
Report -
Background info on city
Design The City:
First part of the lecture looked at designing the structure/layout of the city. A lot of the example cities are chasing the 'Utopian' layout, which is a perfect and geometric layout that will provide the residents with the 'best' place to live. This in turn will ideally create a social utopia within the city.
Design The View:
Next covered was designing the city around views and/or creating viewpoints. This is driven by the visual experience of the city users/ It's all about wanting to capture those perspective views within a city.
Design The Grid:
Similar to the 'Utopian' theory, this is about designing the layout according to a set grid pattern.
4 main grid types were covered - Roman, Spaniard, American and British
Roman - These grids are typically based off 2 major axis, usually 2 main roads that intersect
Spaniard - Follow a similar pattern to the Roman, but is usually rotated 45 degree from north.
American - A north-south based grid that measures 6 miles x 6 miles
British - Based on the roman grid which aligns itself with the natural topography of the land. Cities with this grid design are planned well in advance to cater for future growth. Most cities that is settled by British takes the same/similar layout as an established city back in Britain. A 'belt' or circling land that separates the city centre from the outer country area.
When it comes to city layout styles, I prefer the British type grid system. Their forward thinking in terms of planning for the future growth of the city and how their respond to the natural topography and geographical features shows a more logical approach to town planning.
Assignment:
After doing a quick bit of research on our chosen city, Mainz Germany, if i were to classify the city based on the typologies covered in the lecture, it seems that Mainz follows a British/Spaniard type grid layout. This is because it uses the Rhine river as a starting point, which influences the towns structure, because of this the city's grid is at a 45 degree alignment to the north point (which fits the Spaniard style, though it is more likely to be influenced by the British because of geographical location within Europe).
The original city of Mainz took an organic style, which followed the 'Design The View' style in that even though it loosely follows a grid, it's more about 'framing' views towards the main Church (seen as being a monument) in the city centre.
Tutorial Progress
These are the notes taken during the tutorial, stating additional information for the assignment submission and key points for the report to cover.
Assignment:
~2200 words for report
>7 references from various types of sources
Scale Model must by 600mm x 600mm at a 1:1000 scale (covers a 600m square of the real city)
Nolli Map - a focus area within the city, showing a more detailed view of its structure
Report -
Background info on city
- Where it is & surrounding environemnt
- Culture
- History: When it was formed -> major events -> present/future plans
City Structure
- How it was formed & by whom
- Initial layout -> what typology does it follow?
- Changes/growth
- Present day layout
- Main features of the city - do these influence its structure?
Theories
- what theories and concepts covered in the lecture apply?
Additional points to consider covering in the report -
- Bridges - reconfiguring streets
- River life - shipping, transport, influences from the river
- Analyse how people use and move through the city
- new train lines, bus ways, how does public transport shape the city
- Specific architecture of the city, are any external influences present?
- Draw and analyse city sections
- Are the churches the focal point? look at catholic vs. protestant in Germany/Europe
- Visual timeline - how has the city expanded
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