Urban Design_ Lecture_01_Origins and Forms of Urban Settlements

URBAN DESIGN IV Lecture 1:

Urban Settlements

Lawrence Ogunsanya [email protected] [email protected]

Definition: Urban Settlements  Urban Settlement :  a geographical area constituting a city or town An urban settlement is an area that is more densely

populated than surrounding areas An urban settlement is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or metropolitans Urban settlements feature an abundance of manmade structures as opposed to rural areas, which contain more open space.

Origins of urban settlements: Around 10,000 years ago the Neolithic humans began

to stop living nomadic lifestyles and began to establish permanent settlements In order for these settlements to grow they needed: A favourable physical environment Advances in knowledge and technology Social organization Population growth

Origins of urban settlements:  A favourable physical environment. The river valleys provided:

fresh water (drinking, cooking, washing, irrigation). Fertile alluvial soils for farming, food supply and a mode of transport for trade  Advances in technology. Overtime the development of technology meant that humans were able to go from small scale farming (just for their families) to having surplus food left to trade. Over time advances were made and other industries began to establish themselves e.g. leather, cloth and mining.  Social Organisation. The class system, Rules and laws were important in early urban settlements. They provided peace, security and order.  Population Growth. At the most around 10 million people lived in these early Neolithic settlements. By 1650 AD it had reached about 500 million

Formation of urban settlements: Urban settlements are formed or developed

through the following reasons: Physical environment Religious Cultural Political/Military Economic

Formation of urban settlements:  Physical environment – river , fertile ground

 Maliseet village , South America  Mesopotamia (Modern day Iraq)

Formation of urban settlements:

Cliff palace Colorado The Pueblo people, the Native Americans of the US southwest, flourished between 900 and 1200 AD. ‘Cliff Palace’ was constructed in this Golden age of the Anasazi.

Formation of urban settlements:

 Ancient Egypt and the river nile

Formation of urban settlements:  Religious - churches, temples, graves

 Vatican: Rome

Mount temple: Jerusalem

Formation of urban settlements:  Cultural – Heritage sites, ancient civilisations

 Athens , Greece

Ile Ife, Nigeria

Formation of urban settlements:  Political/Military – King or leader’s house, defensive walls

 Forbidden city, Beijing

Formation of urban settlements:  Economic – Cities or ports of trade and economic activities

 Antioch, Turkey

Growth of urban settlements Urbanisation : Urbanization - the process by which an area changes

from being rural to being urban. It includes a great increase in population density and includes expansion of urban functions like manufacturing and services Urbanization occurs because of changes in the economy, Advance in technology and lifestyle More creation of jobs Migration

Growth of urban settlements Reasons for urban growth : Manufacturing Transportation Resource Use Service Centre Cumulative causation Decentralization Gentrification Industrial growth Mall development Urban renewal Urban sprawl

Growth of urban settlements  Manufacturing –  manufacturing made sense because there were raw materials

(mainly agricultural) that could be used. Markets were also interested in buying the products of the factories - some of these customers were local and others were outside the area and received it by rail  Transportation - railways were constructed and allowed people to move to and from the town. It also encouraged the growth of manufacturing  Resource Use - clay and mineral deposits led directly to the existence of a town or city. The multiplier effect is a result - ie. a new brick factory opens and employs 100 workers.  These workers and their families need housing, schools, stores, banks, restaurants, medical facilities, and other services. In order to supply these, perhaps 900 other workers and their families would come to live in the rapidly growing city. As a result 1200 people would be added to the population because of the 100 jobs opening up in the new factory.

Growth of urban settlements  Cumulative Causation  the process by which one region of a country becomes

increasingly the centre of economic activity.  Service Centre  there is a hierarchy of urban services. A small town will offer a grocery store, a post office, an elementary school.  A larger town will offer shopping, a hospital, and a high school. Very large cities will offer television production, large universities, specialized hospitals, and entertainments (sports teams or opera companies)  Decentralization  the spread of power, economic activities and development away from the centre to neighbouring areas.  Gentrification  The restoration and upgrading of deteriorated urban property by middle-class or affluent people, often resulting in displacement of lower-income people.

Conurbation A conurbation is a region comprising a number of cities,

large towns, and other urban areas that, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban and industrially developed area. In most cases, a conurbation is a polycentric urban agglomeration, in which transportation has developed to link areas to create a single urban labour market or travel to a work area A conurbation can be confused with a metropolitan area. As the term is used in North America, a metropolitan area can be defined by the Census Bureau or it may consist of a central city and its suburbs, while a conurbation consists of adjacent metropolitan areas that are connected with one another by urbanization.

Conurbation and Megalopolis

Conurbation: examples • Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni (East Rand), and Tshwane (greater Pretoria) • Lagos • Manila, Philippines • Mumbai Metropolitan Region • Germany has three conurbations along the River Rhine, namely Rhine-Main, Rhine-Neckar and Rhine-Ruhr. • Greater London is by far the largest urban area and is usually counted as a conurbation • New York

Urban hierarchy A ranking of settlements according to their size and

functions.  The settlements of it (in order from smallest to largest): There is a hierarchy of urban services. A small town will offer a grocery store, a post office, an elementary school. A larger town will offer shopping, a hospital, and a high school. Very large cities will offer television production, large universities, specialized hospitals, and entertainments (sports teams or opera companies)

Urban hierarchy

Urban sprawl Urban sprawl refers to the outgrowth of urban areas

caused by uncontrolled, uncoordinated and unplanned growth. the expansion of human populations away from central urban areas into previously remote and rural areas, particularly resulting in low-density communities reliant upon heavy automobile usage. The term "sprawl" is most often associated with land use.

Urban sprawl

• Low-density Sprawl • Low-density continuous sprawl is a phenomenon caused by outward spreading of low-density suburban land use as currently being experienced by many of cities as their population becoming bigger and bigger and there is no lack of land supply. • this highly consumptive use of land for urban purposes is supported by piecemeal extensions of basic urban infrastructure such as water, sewer, power and roads.

Urban sprawl

• Ribbon sprawl is a type of sprawl • characterized by concentration of development along major transportation arteries, primarily roads. • While development occurs on land adjacent to the major roads, areas without accessibility to the roads tend to remain as green areas, waiting for conversion into urban land uses when land values increase and infrastructure is extended from the major roads.

San Jose, California

Virgina, USA

Urban sprawl

•Leapfrog Development Sprawl •Leapfrog development sprawl is a scattered form of urbanization with disjointed patched of urban land uses, interspersed with green areas. •Leapfrog development may be caused by obvious physical limitations such as prohibitive topography, water bodies and wetlands or by more subtle reasons such as differences in development policies between political jurisdictions.

Florida, USA

Crays Hill, UK

Urban structure Models  Urban structure models are used to help explain where different

types of people tend to live in urban areas and the use of land.  There are 3 types: Concentric, sector and nuclei models  Concentric Zone Model  Conceived by E.W. Burgess (1923)  City grows outward from a central area in a series of concentric rings  Precise size and width of rings vary, but basic types of rings appear in all cities in the same orders

Urban structure Models  Sector Model  Developed by Homer Hoyt (1939)  City develops in sectors, not rings  As cities grow, they do so outward in a wedge from the center

Urban structure Models  Multiple Nuclei Model

 Conceived by C.D. Harris and E.L. Lillman (1945)  Cities are complex structures which has more than one center around which activities revolve  Some activities are attracted to certain nodes while others try to avoid them  Incompatible land-use activities avoid locating in the same area

Urban structure Models

 Durban

THE BIG QUESTION IS!!!!!

How does architecture relate to the

urban context?

Architecture and the Urban Context Architecture is the physical language of city Architecture is part of implementing an urban

design project which entails gathering insights into urban fabric and how people use urban spaces. Society, culture, religion is represented and reflected through the architecture of public buildings and public spaces.

Questions