The city

Urban design(s) and the Ideal City

The Question!

Considering three of the –described, designed, and/or built– urban designs presented during the course, discuss the evolution and different facets of the concept of “ideal city”, in the context of the economic, political, and socio-cultural challenges that promoted their creation.

Tip 1: Your three case studies are meant to help you construct an argument, so choose them wisely. Choosing *one* case study not covered in the course is not forbidden, but it is very much discouraged.

Tip 2: the “ideal city” concept will be mostly discussed in lecture 1 and 2 – and will often reappear throughout the course. Make sure you have a solid understanding of it through extensive reading, and that you convey it in your essay.
tip 3: obviously, a mere description and comparison of three urban designs is insufficient, and factual understanding is only the starting point. Your three cities need to be assessed and compared as “ideal cities”, and as urban designs responding to specific challenges.

tip 4: Do not proceed with 21st-century goggles on when assessing an outcome: try not to apply/project our current expectations or standards onto earlier models in a judgmental way

The Essay should be about 2000 words long, with a leeway of max 200 words more or less. The word count includes footnotes, references, quotations, but it excludes bibliography. An essay without footnoting and references is very rarely an acceptable one.

You are encouraged to use illustrations that are pertinent and relevant to the discussion, and not mere eye-candies; all illustrations should be numbered and captioned and referred to in the text by number.
Essays must be submitted in Word or Pdf format, with a font not smaller than Arial 10 or the like. Please include one cover sheet on the essay containing your name, class, matriculation number, essay title and word count.
Please write in paragraphs, as this makes it easier for your reader to separate your thoughts. Also subtitles can help your structure
Please illustrate your essay. Each picture needs a caption and a source. You can have your pictures with the main text where relevant, or all together at the end, as you prefer.

These are the three of the –described, designed, and/or built– urban designs presented during the course:

1. Introduction to the course and Antiquity: The Greek and the Roman traditions – Plato and Vitruvius – Friday 24th September 11am-12pm

Pre-Lecture Reading: Martin Meyerson; ‘Utopian Traditions and the Planning of Cities’, Daedalus Vol. 90, No. 1, The Future Metropolis (Winter, 1961), pp. 180-193.

Relevant bibliography:
– Yves Charbit, and Arundhati Virmani; ‘The Platonic City: History and Utopia’, Population, 2002/2 (Vol. 57), 207 – 235.
– Anthony Edwin James Morris, History of urban form, prehistory to the Renaissance, London (4 Catherine St., W.C.2: George Godwin Ltd, 1972).
Chapter 3 is available in digitalised format (you can also read Chapter 2 by borrowing the book in the library)
– Ruth Eaton; Ideal Cities: Utopianism and the (Un)built Environment (London: Thames & Hudson, 2002).
Chapter 2: Sources of the Ideal City: From High Antiquity to the Middle Ages is available in digitalized format.
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2. Renaissance – Friday 1st October 11am-12pm

Pre-Lecture Reading: Nancy Volkman and Phil Pregill; Landscapes in History: Design and Planning in the Western Tradition (New York; Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993).
The section called ‘Humanism and Ideal landscapes’ is available in digitalized format, pp. 216-223

Relevant bibliography:
– Wolfgang Braunfels, Urban design in Western Europe: regime and architecture, 900-1900, Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press, 1988.
Chapter 5 ‘the ideal cities, pp. 148-175 is available in digitalized format
– Anthony Edwin James Morris, History of urban form, prehistory to the Renaissance, London: George Godwin Ltd, 1972.
Chapter 2 and 3 are available in digitalised format.
– Tessa Morrison; Unbuilt Utopian Cities 1460 to 1900: Reconstructing their Architecture and Political Philosophy (London and New York; Routledge, 2015.
Available as e-book at GSA library
– Giulio Carlo Argan and Susan Bassnett-McGuire, The Renaissance City (New York: George Braziller, 1969).
Chapters Called: “Cultural Factors. Political-military, Doctrinal and Theoretical, Historical- Artistic” and “Renaissance New Towns: Leghorn; Sabbioneta” are available in digitalized format
– Anthony Edwin James Morris, History of urban form before the industrial revolutions (4 Catherine St., W.C.2: George Godwin Ltd, 1979).
Available as ebook at GSA library
– Spyro Kostof, The City Shaped: Urban patterns and meanings through history (Thames and Hudson, 2009), pp. 158-65, and pp. 186-89, in digitalized format
– Helen Rosenau; The ideal city in its architectural evolution (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1959).
Chapter 3 – The Renaissance Development and the Mannerist Phase is available in digitalized format

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3. The Enlightened city – Friday 8th October, 11-12pm

Pre-Lecture activity: – Nicholas Olsberg, ‘The Mirage of an Ideal Metropolis’, The Architectural Review, 13 June 2016. https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/the-mirage-of-an-ideal-metropolis/10007142.article

Relevant bibliography:
– A.J. Youngson, The Making of Classical Edinburgh 1750-1840 (Edinburgh, any edition)
e-book is available at GSA library
– John Lowrey, ‘From Caesarea to Athens: Greek Revival Edinburgh and the Question of Scottish Identity within the Unionist State’, in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 60, No. 2 (Jun., 2001), pp. 136-157.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/991701
– Charles McKean, ‘Twinning Cities: modernisation versus improvement in the two towns of Edinburgh’, in
Edinburgh the making of a capital city, edited by Brian Edwards and Paul Jenkins (Edinburgh, 2005) – available in digitalised format.
– Thomas D. Wilson; The Oglethorpe Plan: Enlightenment Design in Savannah and Beyond (University of Virginia Press, 2015).
e-book is available at GSA library
– Mark Reinberger, Oglethorpe’s Plan of Savannah: Urban Design, Speculative Freemasonry, and Enlightenment Charity, The Georgia Historical Quarterly Vol. 81, No. 4 (WINTER 1997), pp. 839-862 is available remotely