266 PART Tunn / The Occidental Urban House
A p T E R T H R E E
Chester. Leche House, Watergate Street
(after W. A. Pontin)
there, but form part of continuous rows of build-
ings that have survived almost as they were when
they were built. With the exception of interior
modernizations and relatively minor changes to
OF
E RENAISSANCE
i.l....a
\o
o zo 5oPt:
~ • '
~
0 S- \0/\JVI.,.
}E IMPRESSIVE CITY
:jngthe Middle Ages cities increased in number
Wormidable rate; between 1~~0 and 1350, three
their exterior, the houses along Kesslergasse! , \!red bastides, or new towns, were founded in
Bern, the Market Square in Hirschberg, the q ce and it is estimated that in the course of four
Market in Gorlitz, and The Rows in Chester are sti
0
, • turies (1000-1400) ~.500 cities were founded
as they were in the Late Middle Ages. ' ()ermany alone. The population of these cities
\\,multiplied significantly, often doubling in Jess
\ a century. The population growth was espe-
,.Y impressive in France, England, and Italy.
-,_e Black Death epidemic that struck Europe
''ng the fourteenth century had a catastrophic
, ~ct. It halted city growth, killed between one-
}d to one-half of the total population, touching
~ry family whether rural or urban, educated or
~chooled, rich or poor. In the resulting social
'.order desperate citizens repudiated the church
4 democratic government in favor of secular
Cfopots. Gradually many medieval institutions
';e demoralized, including the Universal Church,
lich now sold indulgences and ordained illiter-
J8 as priests.
!Also, in the 13oos the medieval defense system
lc•me obsolete. Gunpowder (long known in Asia)
r• developed as an effective explosive, and with
,I widespread use the fortification walls of
-edieval cities became useless. A well-fortified
',ty was no longer impregnable, as traditional
ffenses were no longer a match for the new form
of assault. An improved and costly fortification
system that consumed a lot of land was now
required. With the exception of cities in England,
which were relatively safe from attack because of
their position on an island, most cities on the
European continent had to carry the additional
financial burden of erecting new lines of defense.
In addition, the physical expansion of these cities
became more and more difficult because the
replacement cost of fortifications was prohibitive.
Thus, many cities were overcrowded. Expansion
could only be internal, consequently buildings
grew upward. For example, during the Middle Ages
(between 1~00 and 1450), the area of Strasbourg
was extended four times; in a later period, between
1580 and 1870, Strasbourg did not change in area
although its population increased threefold.
During the fifteenth century classical influence
upon the arts and literature revived, accompanied
by an intellectual ferment that gave birth to the
beginnings of modern science. This movement
came to be known as the Renaissance. It is tempt-
ing to attribute to it the rebirth of humanism and
urbanism as well, but the greater surge of urban
development was in the Middle Ages, since "the
real renaissance of European culture, the great age
of city building and intellectual triumph, was that
which began in the twelfth century and had
achieved a symbolic apotheosis in the work of an
Aquinas, an Albertus Magnus, a Dante, a Giotto"
(Mumford 196,, 345).
268 PART THREE / The Occidental Urban House
Sir Christopher Wren's plan for London (1667)
Few new towns were built during the Renais-
sance except as fortifications or princely resi -
dences, hut considerable building activity com-
menced in the reconstruction and extension of
existing towns. Basically, planning principles of
this era advocated (1) wide avenues and straight
streets with a vista, (~) the chessboard pattern of
ancient city building, and (3) the extensive use of
squares and groups of squares not merely as mon-
umental, market, or traffic places, hut also as
domestic or residential squares.
Where a ruler had near absolute power, it was
possible to apply these principles of Renaissance
planning. Medieval streets, which had been nar-
row and crooked, were now subjected to geometric
clarification, and wide avenues with a distant van-
ishing point were cut through the intricate and
intimate maze of their medieval urban fabric. The
human scale of the medieval cities gradually van-
ished and was too readily exchanged for a monu-
mental and impressive scale.
Aesthetic appeal and order were not solely
responsible for the transformation of the city-
scape. Wheeled vehicles came into general use
during the sixteenth century and demanded new
standards, especially for the principal streets.
Military considerations too were contributing fac-
tors to the change in street dimensions and pat-
terns, not to mention the desire by despotic:
to eliminate any physical reminder of them/
urban setting that reflected the haphazard iud) ..
ualism enjoyed by their burghers. For exampl"
survival of medieval narrow streets and cul'
sacs in Paris provided enough justificatiol\,
Napoleon Ill to raze "whole quarters to pro
wide boulevards" (Mumford 1961, 369). Ave:
were envisaged as important symbols in,,
postmedieval city; they forced people to focus:!
attention upon an axis that usually ended •\
palace or at a large building or monument(
recalled the authority of the ruler. No other ex'
pies illustrate this contention better than the pl
of Versailles and Karlsruhe.
Ambitious plans to cut avenues through m('
eval cities did not always succeed. For example(·
Christopher Wren's plan for London, which w(
bring order into the city after the Great Fire,
1670, was never realized; it was "foiled byte:.
cious mercantile habits and jealous prope"
rights." Where Wren failed, Baron Haussma:
succeeded in Paris. He built the Boulevard Sa'.
Michel, which "tore through the heart of ancie
Latin Quarter, which had been an almil
autonomous entity since the Middle Ages," an
full of life and for which there was no justificati',
(Mumford 196,, 386,388).
'.in the postmedieval period court life had an
'er-increasing influence upon the city and its
'·' abitants, especially those of the middle class.
"d as Mumford insists, "one must not think of
he dominance of the palace in terms of a single
~uilding with its courtly functions, the palatial
fyle of life spread everywhere" (Mumford 196,,
78). Court etiquette influenced the manners of
,,idinarycitizens, and the word "courtship," dating
fom the late sixteenth century, illustrates the
1<,
,xtent to which courtly behavior had penetrated
"rivate and intimate affairs.
Hn cities the home and workplace became sepa-
"ate during the Renaissance, a separation that up to
• en had no precedent in the evolution of urban
ousing. From this time onward the home was a
lace for entertaining, eating, sleeping, and child
earing, but not where one worked to support a
. mily. This separation first affected wealthier
ban dwellers, but, as we will see, it eventually
·eacbed all city inhabitants.
The trend to separate the home from the place of
usiness seems unimportant at first, but it had
rofound repercussions upon city development
uring subsequent centuries. Eventually, women
at lost touch with affairs in the outside world, and
men, in turn, lost touch with domestic affairs. The
,C•
·basic social unit, the family, underwent a profound
3 / THE AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE 269
change. In fact, the separation of home life and
business life also affected life beyond the walls of
the home, and Lewis Mumford's contention that it
triggered the lapse of citizenship and neighborli -
ness is probably not exaggerated. In Mumford's
words, the city became "nobody's business"
(Mumford, 196,, p. 383).
The various classes of citizens began to keep to
themselves. Middle-class families especially
extricated themselves from daily city life and
installed themselves behind the anonymous
fa9ades of town houses, which in their collectivity
emulated royal palaces. If one could not afford to
live in a palace, the next best thing was to live in a
sector of a row of houses that looked like a palace.
The medieval individualism expressed in the pic-
turesque gabled houses of the burghers became a
thing of the past. It was replaced by an enthusiasm
for impersonal collectivism that employed the
impressive classical order as a courtly setting for a
new kind of family life.
The apparent strength and outward pomp of the
absolute ruler and that of the privileged classes did
not endure. The growing middle class was destined
to assume power through their demand for social
equality and political representation. According to
Arthur Korn, the bourgeoisie and artisans num-
bered about half a million just before the French
270 PART THREE / The Occidental Urban House
Place des Vasges (Place Raya le)
(after Jean-Pierre Babelon)
Revolution, while the privileged classes of the cler-
gy and nobility numbered about 130,000. The
remainder of the French people, about twenty-four
million, were peasants and workers with little
political power at all. Both in France and in
England the bourgeoisie was an ambitious class
dissatisfied with absolutism and in constant con-
flict with it. It was this group that brought about the
victory which freed trade and ended feudalism.
RESIDENTIAL SQUARES AND
CRESCENTS
At the beginning of the seventeenth century Henri
N of France planned the earliest of the residential
squares in France, the Place Royale (now Place des
Vosges). This enterprise was an effort to join the
homes of the aristocracy with that of the king, and
to recreate the great pageantry of the court in the
heart of Paris. Thirty-eight three-storied build-
ings united at the ground level by an arcade, but
articulated at the top by steeply hipped roofs, sur-
rounded the square, Henry IV envisaged this
square as providing the setting of "cosmopolitan
living in the otherwise cramped city" (Rasmussen
1951, 6~). The architectural treatment of the
fa9ades of these buildings was uniform, they,''
built of red brick masonry walls with pale,~
quoins, and windows and dormers were arr
symmetrically. Two taller buildings straddled;g
ways in the center of the north and south side d$
square. The square itself was first used for tou'.,
ments and jousting, then it became a menu •
square with the statue of Louis XIII in its ceri:
and later still it was turned into a fenced 1( .
scaped park surrounded by narrow access r~a
ways.
The concept of a residential square was a::
and epoch-making idea, one that was soon ado,
ed by other aristocrats, who thereby becamer
first building speculators on a grand sc;;
However, a government decree prohibitedj
construction of buildings on open land within:.,
city. The Duke of Vendome, an impoverishr
nobleman with some landholdings, circumve11t:,
the decree with a seductive proposition to crei •
on his land a monumental place with a statue tll•
would glorify the monarchy. Mansart was asked1
draw up the plans, and in 1701, after many changes
the fa9ades of Place Vendome were built, before \Ji;
building lots behind the fa9ades were sold. " '.llasmussen 1934, 157). Moreover, before perma-
Residential square development was introduce,
to London by the fourth Earl of Bedford, whos;
family had received after the Reformation a con;
fiscated convent from Henry V111 in payment O,
3 / THE AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE 271
been quite dangerous to walk in the square at night
because there was little police protection provided
in this district up to the nineteenth century.
Now that it was considered fashionable to live in
town residences facing a square, many other resi-
dential squares were erected, Leicester Square
(1635), Soho Square (1681), Red Lion Square
(1684), St. James's Square (1684), Grosvenor
Square (1695), and Berkeley Square (1698), to
name a few of London's squares built during the
seventeenth century. Of course, the residential
square was soon found in other cities in the British
Isles, such as Edinburgh, none more successful
than those built in Bath.
Early in the eighteenth century, Queen Anne
stayed at Bath on the advice of her physician, It was
'dn: Covent Gorden a spa that had been popular during the Roman
/map from c. 1680-85) period in England and became fashionable again
because of the queen's visit. An architect, John
\,es rendered to the royal house. A 7-acre
Wood the Elder, acquired a leasehold from a
/hectare) area of this property was designated
landowner, Mr. Gay, for ninety-nine years on a
,residential square, or piazza, and Inigo Jones
large property in Bath. Wood undertook a specula-
,;lelected to draw up the plans. The large rectan-
tive venture that resulted in a large sector of the
ar "square," now called Covent Garden, was
'iounded on two sides by arcaded residential
llings with a classical fa9ade, while a church ~-~""-";..,,
ced along one axis and the gardens of Bedford's " ' ~'""'""
~
~e along the other closed the views of its two
·..
:n ,;
access streets. Behind the uniform arcades . ', .
. .
·· Ja9ades of the square were individual houses of \_
.. ing depth and breadth. This enterprise was an
!ant success. Aristocratic and wealthy families L
~~d it very fashionable to live in the stately row of
,'·ses and continued to think so even after the
] i /4)
' , e of Bedford obtained from the crown in 1671
J right to have a daily vegetable-market in .• ~,i> a
~/<;;
QYent Garden. This "did not in any way embellish
:fl~
·.e noble square. Early in the morning people
'J Kl ~
Iived from the country with their carts and bas-
~ts and the whole morning Inigo Jones' Roman ...•
001,)IJ•~·Le=~'\
~g~ I
)azza rang with street cries and screams and it was ' \""""',L_ [J~~
,'erflowing with cabbage leaves and radishes"
ent market halls were erected during the first
flecades of the nineteenth century, the square was
filled with unsightly stalls and sheds. Finally, as Both: nineteenth century
, teen Eiler Rasmussen remarked, it must have (after Walter Ison)
272 PART THREE / The Occidental Urban House 3 / THE AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE 273

1
Queen's Square, north side
~
':

.er A. Mowbray Green)

'ture along Gay Street to the King's Circus
'.54), This circular "square" surrounded by thir-
•three attached town houses has three regularly
ced entrances with a view towards a concave
ade. The fac;ades of the three-storied town
defining the circus were articulated by
three rows of classical columns, one above the
other. King's Circus has a diameter of about 3~o ft
(97 m) and its fac;ade "resembles the fac;ade of a
Roman amphitheatre which has been turned out·
side in and made concave instead of convex"
(Rasmussen 1934, 163).

Bath: Queen's Square, Jahn Wood the Elders original plan Bath: Queen's Square
(after Walter ison) (after Walter Ison)

city being wholly built with interconnected resi -
dential squares. Wood began with Queen's Square
(17~7) and, following the trend already established
in London, he built a series of town houses whose
future residents were to own them as leasehold
rather than freehold property. Wood's design
approach for Queen's Square emulated a palace
forecourt, the principal building occupied the
north side and the buildings on the east and west
sides formed wings. This ensemble was to be
viewed from the south side of the square because
only then would the elaborate fac;ade of the north
building-benefitting from the light and shade
offered by its south aspect-be appreciated.
Queen's Square was built according to Wood's
plan except for the west side, which "eventually
took the form of a large mansion, set back from the
frontage line, with its enclosed forecourt flanked
by two equally imposing buildings, each ,(
two houses into an elaborate composition,,;; i
1948, 1~9). But the north front of Queen's~;
still dominates the space as Wood intended','
seven large houses of varying size are grou •
that they form a symmetrical composition,
central pavilion of five bays, flanked by wi
terminal pavilions of six and three bays r .
lively" (Ison 1948, 1~9).
The central square garden of Queen's Squar '
four wide iron gates in the middle of each side)_
garden was divided into four parterres, and ip
center was a basin from which rose an obelisk,1
pathways were gravel walks, and the parterres W
planted with flowering shrubs and espaliered li
and elm trees.
After his success with the developmen.\ • Bath: Kings Circus
Queen's Square, Wood continued his specula, ! (after Walter Ison)
,[S

274 PART THREE / The Occidental Urban House
Both: Kings Circus
Shortly after construction began on the King's
Circus, Wood died, but his work was completed by
his son, John Wood the Younger continued in the
tradition of his father, and in 1767 he began to
build the Royal Crescent, which took about eight
years to complete. This impressive row of thirty
stately houses, following the concave lines of a lawn
semielliptical in plan, was a palatial housing devel-
opment that, perhaps more than any other, ful-
filled the aspirations of the wealthy concerning
housing. The varieiy of interiors of this row of
individual town houses was concealed behind a
unified palatial fa9ade with 114 colossal Ionic
columns spanning two stories and sitting on a high
rustic plinth. Facing an extensive green (a park),
the old town of Bath on the banks of the Avon
River, and the rolling hills beyond, the architec-
tural ensemble of the Royal Crescent was "royal"
not only in name, but also in concept. Although the
occupants of this great complex with its magnifi-
cent view and physical setting were not royaliy,
their environment, nevertheless, projected a
courtly life.
I
3 / THE AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE 275
tith: The Royal Crescent (1767-75)
By the end of the eighteenth century London's London. Initially, an area of 11~ acres (4,5 hectares)
(idential squares, hitherto hard surfaced, began was subdivided into a number of properties along
,have a central landscaped enclosure similar in tree-lined streets and squares; the fronts of hous-
qncept to the squares and crescents in Bath. In es were to face public places, planted with gardens
Bath: The Royal Crescent
rgfried Giedion's opinion, London's claim to high of grass and plane trees. Bedford Square was one of
l~vels of modern planning came about during this the first squares to be built (1775-1780), followed
During the last decades of the eighteenth cen ' by others, such as Russell Square, Southampton
Jriod and manifested itself in the harmonious
ry and the beginning of the nineteenth century, l /terrelation of residential squares, places, and Square (later called Bloomsbury Square), Tor-
Royal Crescent was copied by many builders, / • rington Square, Tavistock Square, as well as elon-
rescents. "On such sites as Bloomsbury, well-
crescents surpassed residential squares in po~,\i gated places such as Woburn Place and Bedford
.dered spaces of every shape-oblong, circular,
lariiy. Camden Crescent (1788), Lands down Gr&g
• are, elliptical-accumulated to form a new and Place. Of course, the Duke of Bedford did not
cent (1789), Somerset Place (1791), and Win',
pmposite organism. In them the late baroque undertake the development of Bloomsbury alone;
combe Crescent (1805), are some examples oftd,
iiheritance was carried on in a completely native he leased his lands to speculators and builders. It
raced house developments in Bath, and these, .;
, anner, perfectly adapted to the conditions pecu- was they who planned, designed, and built the var-
course, influenced builders in other parts oft
farto London" (Giedion 1954a, 6~6). ious projects.
British Isles. John Palmer's design for Landsdo
;· The district of Bloomsbury was under develop- James Burton, a speculator and builder, devel-
Crescent is noteworthy because "the concave
ment for a period of over one and a half centuries, a oped the site of Bedford House, which was pulled
cent and its convex wings form a serpentine line ·•.·
~eriod that encompassed the reign of Louis XIV, the down in 1800 and replaced by Bedford Place "with
buildings following the curving contours of th'
'f,rench Revolution, and the rise of the bourgeoisie its magnificently coordinated houses. , . . He
south-east slopes of Landsdown, and are one of th
.\\, the wake of free trade. The town planning princi- planted the land behind the houses on Bedford
most conspicuous elements in the Bath scene'
ples employed in the development of Bloomsbury Place, which runs between Bloomsbury and Russell
(Ison 1948, 1~8). The three curves of the building
:~uring this period resulted in a residential urban Squares, with lawns and shrubbery. The result was
in accordance with the rise and fall of the land
.environment where parts of the Duke of Bedford's particularly pleasing, for the low mews or stables
make Landsdown an interesting example of plan·
-'landscaped garden survived in squares, crescents, behind the houses did not obstruct the view, and
ning. The natural features of the land were take 11
the openings at the end of the rows of houses
:~nd wide avenuelike places. But, in contrast to
11
into account by the developer without the sacrifice
\!he palatial town houses in Bath, the buildings in linked the parallel areas of greenery so that there
of light and sun exposure in any of the dwellings; in
,:S!oomsbury had a less imposing character. were no closed blocks" (Giedion 1954a, 631).
addition, an aesthetically pleasing urban environ-
.':. It was again a Duke of Bedford who began to par- Thomas Cubit! followed Burton's work and built
ment was achieved.
. eel out an estate in the Bloomsbury district of Torrington Square in 18~7, an elongated quadrangle
276 PART THREE / The Occidental Urban House
London: Bloomsbury area (nineteenth century)
(after Survey of London)
in form with a long central enclosure landscaped in
the naturalistic English tradition of the early nine-
teenth century.
Of the various squares built in London during
the eighteenth century, Bedford Square in
Bloomsbury probably best illustrates the typical
residential square of this period when town-house
living became affordable to a large segment of the
middle class. The square's design is attributed to
the architect Thomas Leverton, but its execution
was left to several builders. The four sides of the
square were leased to speculative builders, who
erected nearly uniform rows of town houses along
them. The land was leased for ninety-nine years,
and after the expiration date the land and the
buildings on it reverted to the ownership of the
Bedford Estate. The original lease for the land of
one terraced house is estimated to have been £3
per annum. After the first expiration date the
estate renewed the leases for the land and build -
ings to existing or new tenants, but the lease from
then on was much shorter (usually between twenty
and fiftyyears) and the amount as well as the length
of the lease was a function of the size of the~.,
ty, its state of repair, and the amount that ••
leaseholder was willing to spend upon its i. •
ment. The Bedford Estate viewed the r.
staggering of leases as an advantage bee
renewal of leases from then on would ave'
over bad and good years, thereby a w~
renewal during a period of depression was C) •
vented. This policy, of course, resulted\
preservation of the square in its original fo~
prevented any temptation of economic ?.··
tunism to redevelop it.
Until the end of the nineteenth century Bl~
bury's approaches from Euston Road and d • •
Street were controlled by gates and "peopf
had no business in Bloomsbury were not ad!]l
to the quarter. The grocer could not even sei/
errand-boy across to Bedford Square, he ~
bring the goods himself in order to ge.
(Rasmussen 1934, 166). This arrangementw(
unlike that found in the close, the ecclesia!
precinct common throughout England durin
Middle Ages until the dissolution of monaste
~~­
~c0,....,,
~l
. ~on: Bedford Square (1914)
;r Survey of London)
!he sixteenth century. (The Inns of Court, that
.·he Inner and Middle Temples, are a survival of
iY precinct in today's London.) With its con-
:~ed access Bloomsbury also resembled the ori-
•~ mahalahs, but while Bloomsbury was a pure-
:~sidential district with a homogeneous popula-
. ·• with roughly similar incomes, mahalahs had
<'
ot)i. residential and commercial land use and were
' ally a city within a city, with a population of
'ied income levels.
. ypical of residential squares, the fronts of the
pomsbury town houses were regime,;_ted hand -
'.me fa9ades reflecting the fact that they sheltered
,ople of a similar class, with similar values and
~pirations. In contrast, the rear of the properties,
, •ch were not meant to be seen, contained the
,ables and service buildings, reached through a
ack lane, the mews. These were built to the spec-
ications and needs of each owner. A small yard
eparated the front building from the rear stables,
his yard was most often used for outdoor house-
)ld chores.
/ Originally, town houses in Bloomsbury and
3 / THE AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE 277
along Bedford Square had no private gardens, but
residents facing a square had access to the land-
scaped park occupying the central area of the
square. This communal outdoor space was sur-
rounded by a street for access to the front
entrances of the town houses. The central garden
was planted with grass and trees in the English tra-
dition of simulating a natural landscape and was
fenced in; access to it was limited to :members of a
household that possessed a key to one of its small
gates. The resident families of Bedford Square
were entitled to use their park for outdoor recre-
ational needs, but in full view of the public. This
feature of occidental urban living is in antithesis to
oriental urban living.
In the Orient, as discussed in Part II, the court
garden of a home was a small private outdoor space
hidden from both the view of the public and neigh-
bors, and outdoor family recreation was a strictly
private affair. In London the courtyards of town
houses were merely service yards, and the semi-
public landscaped park of the square functioned as
oversized court-gardens, instead of being private,
 278 PART THREE / The Occidental Urban House
11111111111111111i
London: Bedford Square, typical town house
(after Steen Eiler Rasmussen)
l.J.";-<>~
J,,..,,.
~ 1st .;:;:;::~
,l""· · · -
.se outdoor spaces were overlooked by the gen-
'public, and family recreation in the outdoors
s became a public affair,
·everal cities founded in North America incor-
~ted the "square" concept, Cities were laid out
: gridiron street pattern with at least one large
; re designed as a civic center, In 1683 when
omas Holme, William Penn's surveyor general,
e,w up the plan for Philadelphia, he provided, in
~ition to one central square, four smaller
: ·ares for the recreation of the future city's
,'abitants, At this time residential squares were
1eady very fashionable in London,
'In 1733, when Savannah was settled in the colony
'Peorgia, James Edward Oglethorpe and his n5
,Jonists adopted the concept of residential
f!ltares for their new city. The original plan for
hannah included six wards, each with a central
ht..it.,J~ \ ' are. The wards were about 10 acres (4 hectares)
. area and the central squares about ~ acres (o.8
,ectares) between building lines. Squares were
3 / THE AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE 279
ll
linked axially to each other by 75-ft (~~,8-m) wide
avenues, while north-south streets dividing the
wards were given a width of only 40 ft (1~ m), In
the four corners of each ward were two rows of five
building lots 60 ft (18.~ m) wide and 90 ft (~7,4 m)
deep; the two rows of lots were separated from
each other by a narrow lane, "Each corner set of
ten lots constituted a tithing, so that the whole
ward contained forty lots, or four tithings, The
total for the city thus came to ~40 lots" (Bannister
1961, 4,8).
To the east and west sides of each square were
two "Trustee" lots intended for various public
structures and official residences, The six wards
were arranged in two sets of three, separated from
each other by a wide avenue. The overall area of the
six-ward city was 68.8 acres (~7,8 hectares), and
before 1790 the total number of inhabitants did
not exceed ~.ooo. In anticipation of a possible
Spanish attack from the south, Savannah was forti-
fied with ramparts; six gates linked the city with its

280 PART THREE / The Occidental Urban House
Savannah, Georgia
(after eighteenth-century map [1757])
surrounding countryside. Immediately beyond the
ramparts were a burying ground and the "com-
mon," both in public ownership.
In 1790, when the city received its city charter,
Savannah had to be extended beyond its original
limits. As the city grew, new districts were added
following the original ward plan until the common
land holdings of the community were exhausted.
Thus, by 1856 the city possessed twenty-four
squares within the city, all but one-Ellis Square,
which became the marketplace-landscaped and
defined by a barrier chain.
As Edmund Bacon described, the vi.sual effect of
the sequential squares in Savannah is very pleasing
because each square has its own special character.
Since squares are linked to each other along two
axes, the spatial urban effects are in great contrast
to the monumental single axial plans employed in
Paris, Washington, and other cities. The squares of
Savannah are tranquil places, and "when one is
within any of these squares, one feels entirely
removed from the rushing traffic of the surround -
l
3 / THE AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE 281
•:.-savannah, Georgia,
'nineteenth-century city (1856)
ing streets, which crosses but does not parallel,_
JI
lines of sight" (Bacon 1976, ~~1).
In keeping with the architectural style of·:·
. Uw;; "-· = =
Georgian era, many dwellings in Savannah W:g J11111 I
town houses, three to four stories high, built clp -~<WW, st. J
to the edge of the sidewalk. In contrast to t~~,
London counterparts, these dwellings had·
basements or cellars because of the heavy vapo ·
given off by the nearby swamps. The first or gro"
level of the typical town house in Savannah W
used for offices, dining room, kitchen, and servi,¢
rooms. The second or main floor, one story abo'
the ground level, comprised the reception rooms
parlors, and drawing rooms, while the upper floq'
contained the bedrooms. A steep stairway Jed t;
the front door; the doors were usually arched, wi,
a fan transom. The stairways were embellishf
with wrought-iron handrails and ran parallj
rather than at right angles to the sidewalk. "
Savannah is a unique example of a city that bu;,,
residential squares on a citywide basis until t~, Savannah, Georgia: Grid of wards
middle of the nineteenth century. The diagram~) (after Stanford Anderson)
282 PART THRRE / The Occidental Urban House 3 / THE AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE 283

based on Stanford Anderson's analysis of Sa-

vannah, illustrate clearly that the city's geometric
order established two types of hierarchies, one
internal to each ward and another that evolved in
the additive growth of the city.

THE TOWN HOUSE

In the occident the "private" house evolved as a
result of the separation of private and public life.
As Mumford (1961) observed, the dwelling became
spatially separated from any visible means of
income. Thus, a generic building type came into
existence for the middle class, the town house.
The town house had its roots in medieval
attached urban dwellings, but all commercial and
business accoutrements, which were an intrinsic
part of the medieval house, were eliminated.
Gradually, with the development of residential
squares and crescents by larg·e-scale building
speculators, the town house evolved as a mass-
produced product, at the time not considered to be
"real architecture." Nevertheless, it was a refined
building type, and developers paid considerable
attention to its aesthetic appearance, if for no
other reason than that of public appeal. After all,
builders of town houses had to sell or lease the
buildings. Therefore, they attempted to satisfy the
prevailing ideas of beauty; they had to be careful to
employ a design and building materials that were
acceptable at the time of construction.
The fa,;ade of a typical London town house con-
sisted of two window bays and an entrance door.
The ground-floor level was a few steps above the
sidewalk and was reached through a vestibule. The
front section of the house was occupied by a parlor;
behind it, overlooldng the yard, was a dining room.
Both of these spaces were accessible through the
stair hall with its curved and spiraling staircase,
which was the vertical communication link of the
entire dwelling. The parlor functioned as a recep-
tion room for visitors other than relatives or close
friends of the family. The dining room's position at
London: Typical 20-ft town house
(after Hermann Muthesius)
ground-floor level was
nience, since all service rooms as well ast
kitchen were located below it. The level below: •
ground floor was partially a basement (at leas(
its height above grade) and partially a cellar (1. s
than half above grade), That this was so beco'
evident when one examines a cross sect'
,'.,}
I.don: Cadogan Square No. 68; R. Norman Shaw, architect
through a typical Georgian town house. It pres~
.i r Hermann Muthesius)
a peculiarity in terms of grade levels characteri~ •
of many town-house developments-namely, '.!
yard level was much lower than the street le ifhe second level of a typical town house, known vants. To the rear of the property and abutting a
apparently because of the gradual buildup o~ ; the piano nobile-a floor with a high ceiling- narrow back lane were the stables and related facil -
time of the road surface. Hence, the front sect{ ,ntained two drawing rooms in addition to the ities. Living accommodation for a coachman was
of the house had a cellar, while the rear section .j air hall; a broad room used predominantly by often located above the stables.
either a basement or entirely above the yard lev;. ,en occupied the entire front of the house, while Both exterior and interior details as well as the
Between the edge of the sidewalk and the front( '.'the rear a narrower room where smoking was
1
proportions of town houses were classical, but
the building was an area well with a narrow servi. ?!permitted, was designed for use by women. The ornamentation was often subdued and, on the
stair. Coal bins were dug below the sidewalk, an, '.'rd floor contained the master bedroom as well front fa,;ade, was limited to the main entrance, as
small bridge with a few steps spanning the w.f ,: children's rooms, while the garret, lit through exemplified in the town houses in Bedford Square.
linked the front door to the sidewalk. ,orrner windows, contained the rooms of the ser- After the introduction of a window tax, the relative

284 PART THREE/ The Occidental Urban House
London: Grosvenor Squore town house by Robert Adam, 1773
(after Hermann Muthesius)
area of the exterior wall in comparison with that of
the windows, was increased and the English town
house of the eighteenth century emerged as a sim-
ple and dignified building with very little orna -
mentation on its faqade.
The separation of the family from everyday busi-
ness affairs also brought about a change in house-
hold organization. Domestic responsibilities,
which hitherto had been shared by husband and
wife, now became the sole responsibility of the
woman and, in a sense, a specialized job. Of
course, housework had been a necessary activity
since time immemoriali it now became ritualized.
Rugged furniture, which had been scoured with lye
periodically during the Middle .~ges, was replaced
with baroque furniture with a mirrorlike finish,
which had to be dusted every day and polished
often. Metalwork, silver, and brass had to be
polished, and a lot of useless but decorative vases
and bric-a-brac demanded constant attention. In
fact, housework became so time-consuming that
" window and a front entrance. However, in the
0
"woman's work was never done.'' Servants i ground -floor level, and the bedrooms were on the
needed to assist in household cleaning, coo, ,
and child rearing. And, just as the head of thef
ily supervised his staff at his office, so did his;
hers at home. Wealthy households somet{
employed half a dozen people or more.
While the upper and middle classes in Eng\
evolved a new domestic life pattern disassoci;
from making a living, the majority of crafts"
and workers continued to live as they had ,{
during the Middle Ages. The workshop of a era,
man was still an integral part of his home,t
shopkeeper lived above his store.
Town-house living initially was exclusive to l
aristocracy and the wealthy bourgeoisie. Ev~,
tually, the concept was adopted by others, and/
1830 even some artisans embraced the concept,;
town-house living. Houses in Munster Square.',,
Pancras, London, have in principle a simi,
arrangement to those in Bedford Square, but the,
accommodation is smaller and less luxurioR
i
I
3 / THE AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE 285
Paris: Typical town houses on Rue d'Offremont
These artisans' homes, designed by the famous
architect John Nash, are also narrower, less deep,
and not so high as those of the fashionable squares,
They have neither a garret nor a coachhouse, The
houses were only two bays wide, with one wide
functional distribution of spaces within the
dwelling these houses followed the tradition estab-
lished in their predecessors, the kitchen was in the
basement, the parlor and dining rooms were at
upper floors. Although Munster Square had a cen-
tral fenced-in park that was the semipublic
domain of the residents living around the square,
the artisans' homes also had gardens in the rear,
since a service yard was not required in the
absence of coachhouses. The residents, therefore,
had a choice between a private garden and a semi-
public park for outdoor recreation.
The town-house concept of middle-class housing
also found application in many western European
countries. Although formality, a characteristic of
the nineteenth-century bourgeoisie, was retained
in most European town-house developments, con-
tinental urban houses differed from their English
counterparts in several other respects. First,
European town- house developments lacked a col-
lective landscaped outdoor space; instead, many
town houses had tiny gardens at the back of the
london: Munster House artisans' houses
'',by John Nash, 1830 property in the absence of stables and service
;(after P. N. Davies-Colley as cited in F. R. Hiorns) lanes. Nineteenth-century examples in Paris,
286 PART THREE / The Occidental Urban House
Typical North American town houses
(ofter J. Stubben)
Brussels, and Cologne illustrate this rear-courtyard
treatment. Second, European town houses were
not built on the same large scale as they were in
London; thus, they lacked the harmony and conti-
nuity of Bloomsbury, for example. Finally, the
internal arrangement of the servants' quarters,
ordinarily at ground-floor level in European hous-
es, made area wells, so characteristic of English
terraced houses, superfluous.
In the New World as well, the town house became
popular during the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. Probably Philadelphia was the first
American city to adopt this English concept of
urban living. According to H. Dickson McKenna,
by 1700 brick town houses similar to those built in
London were common in Philadelphia. Even today,
these urban dwellings are still the most charming
features of Philadelphia around both the
house Square and Society Hill areas. High l,;
values as well as the gridiron plan of street layq
and the subdivision of city blocks into narrow•~
deep lots favored the use of attached rather tll'
freestanding urban house forms. . 9ws of these town houses have survived in
The design of Boston's first town houses, erecte'
towards the end of the eighteenth century,
attributed to the famous architect Charles Bu,
finch. Upon his return from a visit to London an
Bath, Bulfinch designed several town-house row/
Colonnade Row on Tremont Street facing t4,
Common and Tontine Crescent are best knowi;i
Later, during the nineteenth century, several co{
tractors embarked upon speculative ventures
erecting groups of ten to twelve attached hous~,
from identical plans and elevations, and mant
Eii
·'·)
, York City: Typical town house
' r T. l van der Bent)
\;t """~ "'-- \"'""'--
+ joof (;,o•s-)
r'i'.k~ i~~t ~.~ \iI
''Is'-"~ ~0-V
~w York City: Small town house
fter J. Stubben)
Jlston's Beacon Hill area as well as in other parts
i the city.
:town-house construction in New York City
egan toward the end ofthe eighteenth and begin-
'ng of the nineteenth century. In most cases the
'ondon town- house plan was used as a model, but
hone significant respect the American plan dif-
ered, there was no cellar or basement accommo-
~ation, Hence, the service entrance was at or near
, ade level and a stoop or exterior flight of stairs
.'d to the front entrance of the parlor floor.
3 / THE AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE 287
I
Calvin Polard, an architect and surveyor, was one
of the most prolific designers of town houses in
New York City during the first half of the nine-
teenth century. The standard layout of a typical
Polard New York town house consisted of a ground
floor with service entrance, servants' parlor, and
dining room in the front and a large kitchen in the
rear. An intrinsic feature of the kitchen was a stove
niche flanked by masonry supports for the fire-
place in the room above; "the coal stove fit neatly
between the masonry supports and vented into the
chimney flue-usually around the clock, it was

288 PART THREE / The Occidental Urban House
banked at night, then opened up in the morning to
prepare breakfast" (McKenna 1971, ~3).
A stoop, reminiscent of early Dutch settlers'
homes, led to the front entrance of the house,
which in turn led into the vestibule. From the
vestibule one entered the stair hall located, as was
the entrance door, near the party wall. A parlor
occupied the front section of the house; a dining
room, the rear section. The dining room was
linked through a butler's pantry equipped with a
dumbwaiter and a stair to the ldtchen below. Both
the parlor and the dining room had identical fire-
places, and a central wide opening with sliding
doors allowed the two rooms to combine into a sin-
gle space. In some instances the dining room was
placed below the parlor floor, in which case the
main-floor level had a double parlor.
The floor above the parlor contained a large
master bedroom on the street side and a smaller
bedroom facing the rear yard, with a bathroom
tucked into the corner behind the staircase. The
master bedroom functioned as a bed-sitting room
and was usually L-shaped so as to provide clear-
ance for the ascending staircase. Between the bed -
rooms were the clothes closets, which also acted as
an acoustic barrier between the two rooms. The top
floor of the typical town house had a similar layout
to the main bedroom floor but, instead of the bath-
room, an additional bedroom occupied the corner.
The early nineteenth-century town house was
designed in the Federal style based on the classical
tradition in architecture of the previous century;
this style was believed to represent universal prin -
ciples and forms that appealed in all times and cir-
cumstances. Certainly, the Federal style resulted in
street fa9ades of a pleasing simplicity that was
acceptable to New Yorkers not yet demanding pre-
tentious dwellings. The most elaborate feature of
the restrained town-house fa9ade was the front
door with a transom light and, frequently, side-
lights as well. Usually, windows were modest in
scale, small-paned and double-hung, but in some
instances the sills of parlor windows were lowered
to the floor and iron guardrails protected the lower
panes of these triple-hung tall and elegant win-
dows. While back windows were often equipped
with exterior shutters, those facing the stre
fitted with hinged narrow-panel interior •
8
that were folded back and concealed in side·
when not in use.
Many early town houses in America were •
bricks brought to this continent as ballast on
but around the middle of the nineteenth 0
stone replaced brick, in particular a soft san
stained evenly by traces of iron ore. These ")j
stone" houses became very popular in Ne'
City and were also eventually built in othe
such as Boston and Chicago and on occasi/
in Montreal, although the gray stone house)
more prevalent there. •
In cities on the west coast town houses wet
}~- .
marily constructed of wood. Many of these}
town houses were destroyed by fire or demo
but some have survived, especially in San Fra,i:'
After 1830, the Federal style was gradualf
ceeded by a series of Revivalist styles, such as'•
Revival, Gothic Revival, and Colonial Revivii)
suiting in various degrees of elaborate archit(
al ornamentation to town- house fa9ades.
The rectangular street layouts and the narro':
deep building lots prevalent in most Amei-1
cities admirably suited the application ofthe t6 ,
house concept. With the mounting pressure,
effective land utilization, town houses became;
rower and deeper over time-two ~5-ft (7.6i
lots were divided into three, and a third r'
(without direct daylight) was inserted betwee* ;
front parlor and the rear dining room. In mid'
class homes this windowless room was used_!'.,
example, as a music room; however, in war~~
houses it was used as a bedroom. This building pr •
tice was later exploited in lower-income housin~.
In America, the town-house concept was
copied for worker's housing. Built of wood, o
story row houses were constructed in many
towns. In larger cities, because of fire hazar,
modest town houses were built of brick. Th~
dwellings served a large segment of the worki,
population until the great influx of immigr"1'
created a housing shortage and an opportunity
landlords to exploit the housing market. T,
"dumbbell" tenements were then invented. • "ensured that common fields as well as common
F O U R
1.:,
.HE NINETEENTH
.DUSTRIALISM AND
··e Industrial Revolution was one of the most
'•portant and far-reaching periods of modern
)tory. Since industrialization was neither sudden
or violent, it could be argued that the term "evo-
)ion" rather than "revolution" would be more
·propriate. However, the gradual changes precip-
l~ted by industrialization invariably had such an
·.ormous impact upon societies that the term
industrial revolution" is not inappropriate.
•A,, is the case with most other historic periods,
lie Industrial Revolution occurred at different
1\nes in different nations. England was the first to
';,:perience it, for it was the only country in the
jighteenth century that possessed the precondi-
,ions for a change from a basic local market econ-
pmy to that of an international industrial one.
;: ese were stable political institutions with inter-
.nal free trade, experience in foreign trade (notably
;'with the New World), abundant energy (primarily
:coal), advantageous climatic conditions (impor-
;tant for the textile industry), and favorable geo-
,igraphic location (England was a maritime nation).
( The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain,
i ,which began roughly around 1760, was preceded
.''by an agrarian revolution. The Enclosure Acts
7
waste land were enclosed and brought under
intensive cultivation. This additional land avail-
able for farming, coupled with improved agricul -
tural technology, resulted in improved productivi-
ty. To facilitate the marketing and distribution of
the surplus produce, improved roads and canals
provided an unprecedented network of good
transportation routes.
In the initial stages of the Industrial Revolution
the basic source of energy was flowing water. Thus,
most new industries were located by river banks,
since the operation of their great machines relied
on the latent kinetic energy of the flowing water. I
·1
The harnessing of water power was accompanied 11
by the construction of industrial buildings in wood I
and stone. The scale of these early industrial build-
ings was in harmony with all other buildings in
their respective surroundings, and to live near an
industrial building was not only acceptable but
often considered an advantage, since it meant a
desirable proximity to the place of work and to the
amenities of the river bank.
Although the industrial community was com-
posed of residential, commercial, and industrial
buildings, it was a harmonious urban entity. The
interrelationship of homes, public buildings, and
factories in this early era of industrialization was
marked by compatibility, and all components of a
settlement had their roots in a common pool of
natural resources. For example, the river was a
source of energy for industry; it served as a highway