LANDSCAPE URBANISM

AIM & OBJECTIVES

• AIM-
• To understand the grassroots of landscape urbanism and to bring
out the objectives of the same.

• OBJECTIVES-
• To understand how urban spaces have been treated through the
centuries from the grass roots of civilization up until the term
landscape urbanism was coined.
• To look into the recent cases of landscape urbanism and to cite the
objectives of the theory.
• Too see how landscape urbanism has shaped the urban
environment in the Indian context and to understand them through
case studies.
• To analyse landscape urbanism from a critical point of view.
 METHODOLOGY

REVIEW 1:
• Brief introduction on landscape urbanism
• Understanding the urban space
• Historical overview of urban spaces- up to industrial
revolution

REVIEW 2:
• Post-industrial scenario leading towards landscape
urbanism
• Examples of landscape urbanism

REVIEW 3:
• The effects of landscape urbanism in the Indian context-
case examples
• Objectives of landscape urbanism
• Critical analysis.
 STRUCTURE

• Definition of landscape
• Introduction of landscape urbanism
• Understanding urban spaces
• The physical elements of an urban space
• Historical overview of urban spaces
• Harappa civilization
• Greek cities
• Roman cities
• Medieval cities
• Renaissance
• Industrial revolution
• The parks movement
• The city beautiful movement
• The garden city movement
 LANDSCAPE

“Is a setting that may include elements that are mostly natural
with manmade features that blend into the surroundings.”
 The physical landscape evolves as a result of interaction between man, as an
individual and as part of the human society and nonhuman nature, as a set of
processes and as a storehouse of materials.

“Mankind from a very early stage realized that any form of

pleasure may be attained by unifying variety; ordering disorder”
- Urban Landscape Design-Garrett Eckbo
AN INTRODUCTION
 LANDSCAPE URBANISM

Landscape Urbanism is a theory of

planning and design for urbanism arguing
that landscape, rather than architecture, is
more capable of organizing the city and
enhancing the urban experience.

AN INTRODUCTION
 LANDSCAPE URBANISM
 Landscape urbanism basically brings together various professional
fields like architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, urban
planning and landscape planning.

Architecture+ Landscape + Urban Design + urban

Planning + Landscape Planning
= Landscape Urbanism

 Landscape urbanism began about 10 years ago .

 It has evolved to gain an individual identity for the last decade for
over exploitation of natural resources and rapid urbanization.

AN INTRODUCTION
 LANDSCAPE URBANISM

 Instead of using buildings as the medium of design, landscapes are used

in public space, open space.
 Rabid urbanization has brought about the need to think about the future of
our environments.
 In the last two decades numerous areas have developed in a way that one
can read them as urban regions.
1. In the early stages one could characterize these developments as a
form of suburbanization--that is, a dualistic pattern of central city
and suburb
2. Today we are dealing with a polycentric model in so far as different
cores and nodes have developed in a network of land uses and
functions.
 Taking the Indian context these two models actually are taking place
together.

AN INTRODUCTION
 URBAN SPACE

 Over the last few centuries tremendous change have taken place
 A constant renewal and updating has taken place
 However the nature of our environment has increasingly been neglected
and considerations of self requirements have dominated our choice.
 Such tendencies develop in the-

absence of adequate foresight, control and organization

 It is only when man realized that his actions were reflecting on the health
of his own present and will only worsen did the though of nature oriented
design process came into existence.
 Considering the environment is becoming key to a sustainable future.

AN INTRODUCTION
 URBAN SPACE
 The quality of our physical environment is the relations
established between three primary elements.:
a) STRUCTURE:
• Buildings
• Streets
• Roads
• Highways
• Utilities above and below ground
b) OPEN SPACE FOR PEDESTRIANS
c) NATURE:
• Ground forms
• Rocks
• Plants
• Landforms
 Process of urbanization maximizes structures, minimizes open
spaces and completely eliminates nature

AN INTRODUCTION
 URBAN SPACE
Bronze Age:

 Somewhere around 8000 to 10,000 BC man began to exercise some kind

of control over the supply of food by a system of cultivation of certain
crops and plants that were required for their sustenance-barley, wheat,
some forms of wild grass.
 At the same time some form of domestication of animals also as initiated
 The first urban civilization formed somewhere in the bronze age
between 3000 to 3500 BC and lasting for around 2000 years
 Reasons for the first city pattern
1. Surplus food due to agriculture
2. The art of writing was formed
3. Scientific innovations like the wheel, the plough, the potters
wheel
 Other reason is that social organization ensured food security at all
times.
 Examples of civilizations during the bronze age mostly concentrated
around fertile areas or near the river.
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE
Case Example : the Sumerian Civilization-the city of UR

 The city was basically divided into 3 distinct parts:

• The old walled city
• The Temenos or the religious precinct
• The outer town.
 The rest of the city was around the Temenos and
was predominantly residential quarters.
 The houses were generally 2 or 3 storeyed and
consisted majorly of around 13 to 14 rooms and
were generally centred around a central courtyard.
 The street setup was generally narrowed, noisy and overly polluted.
 The formation of these streets was completely organic and was a
result of uncontrolled expansion.
 Looking into the urban space within the society there was no planned
spaces for recreation and life revolved around their working lifestyle.
 The only urban open space for the commoners was private and was
within the courtyard of the house that was a result of the dirty and
noisy street life.
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE
GREEK CITIES:
 Greek cities the town and country side were closely knit except in a
few of the cities.
 Their climate helped in the existence of outdoor activities.
 For the Greeks-home life was secondary to communal activities.
 The basic urban elements of any Greek city include:
• Acropolis
• The enclosing city wall
• The agora
• Residential districts
• One or more leisure and cultural area
• A religious precinct
• The harbour and port
• If possible an industrial area
 The houses were strictly to maintain their bare minimum necessities
and were in direct contrast to their civic buildings
 Examples of Greek cities include the planned city of Miletus and
Priene and the more organic city of Athens
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE
Case Example: The Greek City of Miletus

 Prepared by architect
Hippodamus-father of the
grid iron pattern.
 One of the major factors that
contributed to the commercial
activities and its proximity to
most of the important
settlements like Priene.
 The agora was a centrally
placed rectangle with the long
side leading from the defended
harbour inlet

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE

 West of this agora and grouped around the second inlet is the
spaces including the gymnasium, the theatre and the stadium.
 City life was more dominating and the civic spaces were
more concentrated upon than compared to domestic housing.

A. The harbour and port facilities.

B. Large colonnaded courtyard
surrounded by shops and offices.
C. Council house
D. The agora.

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE
ROMAN CITIES:

 Rome consists of some of the most

fascinating urban forms in history
 Castra- These were usually for
temporary military settlements. The
more permanent urban settlements
were given equally simple
standardised plans.
 Two major streets.-Decumanus; the
cardo bisects this.
 A forum is formed usually at the intersection
if the Decumanus and the Cardo.
 The forum is the roman equivalent of the Greek agora.
 This forum was usually a colonnaded courtyard and
housed temples, theatres and public baths.
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE
Case Example: The City of Pompeii
 The city was roughly oval in shape and covered an area of around 160
acres.
 Enclosed in double walls
 Eight gates to the city leading to the heart of the city through well
paved streets.
 Between 32 to 26ft-the main roads and the more minor roads were
between 18 to12ft
 The forum was located
roughly in the centre of the
city near the harbour.
 This forum allowed only for
pedestrian movement
blocking any form of vehicular
access through gateways.
 Forum -main shopping and commercial facilities.
 Smaller shops were also aligned along the main streets

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE
 Smaller shops were part of the
household they were treated as distinct
entities
 The city had two theatres that could
seat 3000 to 5000 spectators ;amphi-
theatre that could hold 20,000
spectators.
 Houses were somewhere between 2 to 6
storey high and the all the rooms
usually faced the central courtyard.
 The only opening onto the streets was
the door.
 The streets though they were planned as
really wide carriageways they were
merely meant for travel.
 These streets were least planned for any
form of urban activity.
 The only space dedicated for activity
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE
THE MEDIAEVAL TOWNS:

 The component parts of the medieval towns

are normally the wall, towers and gates,
streets, market place, commercial
buildings, the church-standing in its own
space and the great mass of general town
buildings and related private gardens.
 Trade went on in all parts of the city – open,
closed, public and private.
 Movement through was largely
pedestrianized and thus the streets were
narrow.
 The street layout was congested and
cramped and probably the only open spaces
were limited to market area and the areas
around the church other than the private
open spaces of the upper class society.
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE
THE RENAISSANCE:
 Renaissance is basically divided into four phases
1. Early renaissance ( 1420 – 1500)
2. Late renaissance ( 1500 – 1600)
3. Baroque ( 1600 – 1750)
4. Rococo ( 1750- 1900)
 The baroque is the only phase that is relevant to urban history.
 The main reasons that lead to the spread of renaissance was the
development of printing that allowed the publication of the writing of
Vitruvius
 Four broad areas of renaissance urban planning can be categorized as
Fortification system
1. Regeneration of parts of cities by the creation of new public
spaces
2. Re-structuring of existing city
3. Addition of new districts – primarily residential
 Renaissance introduced the concept of streets as an architectural
tool.
 Perspective effectsHISTORICAL
were emphasizedOVERVIEW
were the location of terminal
 URBAN SPACE
THE RENAISSANCE:

 Piazzas and squares were enclosed open spaces within the city; they can be
grouped under three broad headings.
1. Traffic space – forming part of the
main urban root system and is used
by both pedestrian and vehicular
movement
2. Residential space – local access
traffic only, predominantly
3. pedestrian
Pedestrian space where wheel
traffic was completely eliminated
 The renaissance urbanists also defined space by architectural landscape
elements like colonnades, screens and terraces and by tree and shrub
planting
 These ways of enclosing space were often used in combination and in a
number of instances, existing building and natural features were
incorporated into the design.
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE
Case Example: The Capitol Piazza, Rome

 Objectives in Michelangelo's plan for the capitol piazza.

1. To refine and simplify the existing palazzo del Sentore, eliminating

the medieval angle towers and battlemented parapets and
substituting it with a new organised elevation.
2. To clear the whole area of shops, houses other unsuitable uses
and the many ruins.
3. To reconstruct the palazzo Conservatori eliminating all medieval
character and creating an elevational design compatible with that of
the palazzo dei Senatore.
4. To build a new palace balancing the palazzo dei Conservatori
about the axis through the centre and the tower of the palazzo dei
Senatore and the statue of Marcus.
5. To construct a new access stairs up to the piazza on the main
access.
6. To use to statue of Marcus as the focal point.
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE

BEFOR AFTER
E

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE
 First monumental squares to have initiated during the renaissance
 The piazza space enclosed on three sides positioned on the edge of the
hill
 There was a false perspective
created within the new space
and enhanced the importance
of Palazzo Dei Senatore.
 Even the positioning of the
sculpture is the first of its kind
for till then these sculptures
were only used as part of the
architectural building.
 Even if it was positioned outside the building it was still under the
buildings cover.
 The Capitol palazzo was the first time the sculpture was used as a
focal point to enhance the urban space.

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION:

 In the beginning of the 19th century major

innovations in the fields of agriculture,
science, transportation was made
 Rapid increase in population
 The upper class benefited from this
revolution but it drastically hit the poor .
 As the quality of life rapidly decreased in the
cities the upper-class took refuge in the
suburbs
 The city life reflected poor sanitation,
unhealthy environments, diseases, corruption
and congested living environments.
 Led to numerous progressive reforms
including the parks movement, the city
beautiful movement and the garden city
movement.
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE
THE PUBLIC PARKS MOVEMENT:

 Parks- symbol of civic pride

 To encourage their use- music, sports facilities and horticulture displays
 frequently coupled to a museum, art gallery or library.
 After the first few years ;more councils throughout America sought to
secure parks and recreation grounds
 To aide their efforts legislations were also passed from the central
governments side.
 To further make the situation on their side the peak of the movement
coincided with the time when it was fashionable for the upper-class
members of the society to donate or gift to the city a park which then
became a common scenario.
 more public parks were opened between the years 1885 and 1914 then
either before or after that period.

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE
Case Example: The Central Park, New York

 Encompassing 843 acres

 Open meadows and lawns.
 Border planting with native plants
 They provided completely separate systems for carriageways, horsemen,
pedestrians, and ordinary street traffic crossing from one side to the
other.
 To articulate this network underpasses were provided at all intersections.
 A grand mall road was created

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE
THE CITY BEAUTIFUL MOVEMENT:

 The proponents of the city beautiful movement believed that by beatifying

an urban area with wide, elegant avenues, careful planed landscape
designs and opulent –beaux arts style buildings, the pride of the cities
would maintain their central position within the expanding city
 emphasized on order, dignity and harmony of the urban environment.
 The World Columbian Exposition in 1893 held in Chicago was the first
large scale implementation of the city beautiful movement’s ideas and was
headed by architect Daniel Burnham

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE
Case Example: The Plan of Washington D.C.

 Eliminated all the inappropriate

buildings along the mall area and
replaced them by roman classic
structure within a park like setting
 These buildings were to reflect the
grandeur of the U.S. Capitol, the
white house and the Washington
 The roman-styled super-blocks in and
around the main mall road were to be
symmetrical in form but still strived not
to disturb its distinct identity
 Height restrictions within the district
was also emphasized as a result of this
plan.
 The success of this plan prompted
similar city beautiful plans in other
major cities.

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE
THE GARDEN CITY MOVEMENT:
The measures he proposed to deal with
growth included:
1. Determine a threshold for the city
2. Create satellite towns around a mother
town when the size of a city reaches
that threshold.
3. Surround each city with a green belt
that would serve a dual purpose of
containing city growth and providing
ample natural environment for the
urban inhabitants.
 planned to house around 32000 people on
a site of around 6000 acres.
 The spaces are segregated concentrically
and all of the spaces are connected radially
through boulevards each around 37m
wide
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 URBAN SPACE
Case Example:Welwyn Garden City

 First -C.M. Crickmer

 Next -Louis de Soissons; similar to
Unwins
 style chosen for the town-red brick
Georgian Architecture
 Roads had a rough finish; countryside
effect.
 Tree’s were retained where ever
possible and more trees lined the roads
 The roads were not drafted but was
rather done on site-took advantage of
the existing contours.

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 SO FAR……

• Introduction on landscape urbanism

• Understanding the urban space
• Historical overview of urban spaces- up to
industrial revolution

FURTHER AHEAD……

• Post-industrial scenario leading towards

landscape urbanism
• Examples of landscape urbanism

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
 CREDITS
• Books:

• Urban Landscape Design-Garrett Eckbo

• History Of Urban Form-A.E.J. Morris

• Magazine:

• Journal Of Landscape Architecutre:april-june, 2011

• Journals:

• Landscape Urbanism - Gunilla Lindholm, Sr Lecturer Dept Of

Achitecture, SLU
• Landscape Urbanism-By Detlev Ipsen and Holger Weichler

• Web links:

• http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/C/CI007.html
• http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/lenfant.htm
• http://www.rickmansworthherts.freeserve.co.uk/howard1.htm

THANK YOU