THE CITY ASSEMBLED

BY : SPIRO KOSTOF

Ch : 1
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SPIRO KOSTOF
• Born: 7 May 1936, Istanbul, Turkey
• Died: 7 December 1991, Berkeley,
California, United States
• Education: Yale University (1961)
• Awards: Guggenheim Fellowship
for Humanities, US & Canada
• Leading architectural historian, and
professor at the University of
California, Berkeley.
• Kostof's approach to architectural
history emphasized urbanism as
well as architecture and showed
how architectural works are
embedded in their physical and
social contexts.
• Tended to emphasize the
sequence of styles and to study
architectural works in relative
isolation from their settings.
DISCLAIMER
• Cities are too particular as phenomena-specific to moments in time
and to the alterations of site and culture-to be pinned down by
absolute taxonomies.
• Urbanism as a process the many ways in which a city’s physical frame
is adjusted according to changing contingencies.
• This book looks at the factors affecting change and modification of
urban form, what elements constitute it, how they assemble together
to weave the pattern of urban fabric
• The review attempts to study the chapter on the city edge. It takes
into account historical, topographical, political, socio-cultural factors
which brought about a change in the defined city edge over time.
THE CITY EDGE
• A certain legal restrains and local rules of
conduct and agreeing to its taxes and
rules in order to have residencial rule
defines a city boundry or city edge.
• THE CUSTOMS BOUNDARY:
 Custom barrier is there to regulate the
collection of tolls. Built a proper wall and punctuate
 Location had to be reasonably it with manned stations.
Purpose to stop smuggling and
coordinated with physical limits of the increase revenue and having a
built up area. proper city boundry.
 This barrier developed its own related
land use.
 Barrier du trone, Paris (1784-87)
• THE MULTIPLE EDGE :
 Turin (Italy) from northeast 1750 c
 The city rises above the bastioned walls , moat and earthworks.
 Increase in the city outside the fortified boundry creating
multiple edges.

TURIN ,ITALTY
(1646-58).
Town extension
beyond the area of
the Roman city.
• THE WALLED EDGE :
 Alternative boundries – single outer wall , ruins of Aztec.
 Nature of city walls – the defensive possibilities of the site.
 The fringe belt- growth of the city concentrated on a particular area
 City gates: Fringe belts concentrated outside such gates leaving in between
land to agriculture.

The process of
leapfrogging as
the built up
area expands
leaving gaps
and zones at
subsequent
phases.
Fringe belt
• MEETING THE WATER:
 River towns : cities constructed on the banks of rivers were named after the
river. River defining the edge
 Ports and Resorts: construction of such to protect and help in trading ,
marked the entrance of the city.
 18 th c introduction of resorts – townscapes of leisure. A prototype far
removed from working water upfront.’
 Built of piers and boardwalks along the edge of the city meets the water.

Brighton (England ),
Marine promonade
and chain piers –
defining an edge
• ON THE PERIPHERY:
 Early suburbs : almost as old cities
 People living in close quarters get
attracted to periphery outside
having spacious areas.
 Planned extensions : organic plan .
 Suburbs creating around the
bastioned walls with the growth of
the city in a planned way.
 Industrial Extremities:
introduction of squatter
settlements an edge fixture.

Planned extensions of city of Berlin in

1723
• THE OPEN CITY
 Controls at the fringe : greenbelts
and allotment garden, adelaide
 The regulating plan : Regeneration
of mater plan of cities with certain
criterias, eg – Italy in 1865 .

• THE SOFT EDGE OF

SUBURBIA
 Transportation and city edge

Open city – adelaide in 1700s

CHP: 2 THE URBAN DIVISIONS
• An urban territory was usually divided in four
kinds:
1. The administrative districts
2. The religious districts
3. The district of business and commerce
4. The residential component.
• Later the divison was laid in terms of new city and
old city or medieval/modern.
THE SOVEREIGN DISTRICT
• The more potent the elite , the grander the city.
• The city was termed a sovereign district depending upon its ruler
, it’s palace or residency and the settlement of its subordinates
and people under it.
• This could be judged by its grandeur and architecture, the
selection of site and the way the city further is divided.

RICHER LIVELIHOOD RICHER

THE CITY
 GOD IN THE CITY
• In some case the settlement of cities
are seen depending on the allocation
of god.
• EG: the bishops of Rome, city of mecca
, the pharaoh of old kingdom Egypt.
• The Christian parish worshipping
community and social organization
dedicated to the welfare of its SETTLEMENTS ACCORDING TO CASTE

members - keep church buildings in

good order and to generate revenue
for the same - with parallel association
all around the world it became a
potent force that ruled the cities.
• Gods in the neighbourhood.

HAGIA SOPHIA DEFINIG THE REIGN OF POWER

PAGUS MERCATORUM
(historical markets)
• Trade has been an economic concern
for the cities over the years.
• In some cases the cities were formed
around the market place.

KEEPING APART
• Urban divisions could be relied on visible and invisible barriers.
• Visible barriers such as walled ward system, streets etc and
invisible barriers divide by topography.
• Divisions on basis of religious and ethnic isolation .
THE STREET
 THE STREET IS SUBJECT ECONOMIC FUNCTION AND SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE, PURPOSES TO
TRAFFIC, EXCHANGE OF GOODS ,SOCIAL COMMUNICATION AND COMMUCATION.

GRIDION FRAGMENTED PARALLEL WRAPED PARALLEL LOOPS STICK FORMETION

STREET AS A PUBLIC SPACE
• PRIVATE STREET : • CULTURE AND CLASS:

I. Devlopedby the community , I. Cultural characteristic

indepedently owned. matter.
II. Aim to exclusive live without II. Depened on
city interferance . traditional needs and
III. For avoiding accompaying attitudes of society .
nuisances of urban structure
SIDE WALK AND PAVING:
I. Separation of vehicles from
pedestrians.
II. Improve quality of street surface.
III. Beginnings of late 18th ce 1st time
developed in England.
TYPE OF STREET BRIDGE STREET: WATERAY STREET:

• WATERAY STREET
• BRIDGE STREET
• COVERED STREET
• THE BOULEVARD STREET

THE BOULEVARD
STREET:
• ROAD RUNNING THROGHOUT THE CITY . COVERED STREET:
 PUBLIC PLACES :  TOWN SQUARE

 COURTYARDS MADRID IN EUROPE

• PUBLIC SPACES IN AN
ISLAMIC CITY (IRAQ) • It is an enclosed
MOSQUE square in the
COURTYARDS AND heart of the
MAIDANS ASSOCIATED town having
WITH MOSQUES AND
OTHER PUBLIC
rowdiness of
BUILDING the great open
piazza where
• Courtyards have activity such as
historically been market ,
used for many
religious
purposes including
cooking, sleeping,
gathering was
working, playing, held.
gardening, and even • Madril , puerta
places to keep del sol, looking
animals. toward west
• IT ALSO USE TO direction , and a
SERVE PURPOSE OF
statue known as
LIGHT AND
VENTILATING THE
a la mariblance.
BUILDING.
CORDOBA MOSQUE IN SPAIN
STATUE OF LA MARIBLANCE
TYPOLOGIES
• DEPEND ON THE
BASIC SHAPE

• BASE ON
REGULATING
STREET

• DEPEND ON THE
BASIC SHAPE

• PATCH ARROUND
STREET
Perception of viewer’s distance
• A person’s range of clear vision
corresponded to an angle of 27
degrees.
• Which was calculated and
translated into rtio of 1:2 between
the size of the object and distance
from observer.
• So the normal standpoint for
viewing a building clearly and easily
was at distance equal to twice its
height.

• At viewing angle of 18 degrees with the

• A point still further back viewing point moved back to a point three
at an angle of 12 degree time as distance as the building wall tall ,
and ratio increse and a so get sharper picture by surrounding .
structure would
• As observe changed ones location
appreciated a part of
srrounding. continuously the width of the building was
not relevant but the height was only
important in determination.
 CHAPTER 5: URBAN PROCESS
THE FALL AND RISE OF CITIES:
• How the cities rises from the fall,
for eg: london in 1666 was caught in a massive fire burning down most of the surbubs in london. It
took almost 3 years to reconstruct half the part of the city.
• This led to new reforms in building construction making it a serious matter to look at.
• Wider roads, explicit use material that doesn’t catch fire easily.
• Another such example was of Lisbon- the lisbon’s holocaust – the city caught in the waves of
river because of two earthquake shocks.
• New street plans were laid out , new reformaries to be made keeping in mind of such natural
calamities.
URBAN LONGEVITY:
• A CITY ONCE MADE NEVER DIES –whether be natural calamity or the war Shaw.
• For eg: Mohenjo-Daro and Hiroshima Nagasaki.
• A new layer just comes above it.
 Rebuilting plan of london city after
the great fire

Destruction of berlin city due to fire

Ruins of mohenjo – daro – still make the city

once lived
LONDON BEFORE AND
AFTER THE GREAT FIRE IN
1666
ITS ORIGIN AND SPREAD
DISASTER AND THEIR AFTERMATHS
• STAYING PUT:
Rebuilding of cities over where it was destructed.
• URBAN CONFLAGRATION:
Taking measures to protect the city from ruins due to fire .
It created awareness among people and gave birth to new strict building norms.
• EARTHQUAKE, FLOOD AND HURRICANES:
Each calamity has its own different effect but leads to common thing that’s destruction of
home of people of city.

Destruction of city due to earthquake, cyclone and floods.

THE DESTRUCTION OF WAR

• DAMNATIO MEMORIAE (war):

• Destruction of cities were in various ways :
• In most cases in ancient times it was due to the city catching fire as
due to hazardous town planning and building material.
• In some cases ruler itself destroys his kingdom so as not to give in
hands of enemy.
• Sometimes a force may lead cities to its own destruction.

• SACAKS, LIGHT AND THOROUGH:

• Two ways of dealing with targets of damatio memoriae
- To build something over the condemned property which
symbolically shows the defeat of other and the ascent of the
new power. Hagia sophia converted
- To convert the condemned monument to another use. Eg: the from church to mosque.
hagia sophia being converted into a mosque at the time the
Cordoba mosque was being converted to Christian cathedral.
A rein of power of religion
• This usually happens when one chooses to be represented
through aura of building.
THE SECOND WORLD WAR
• The bombing of the areas was to destruct the
economy of cities through the destruction of
its built ups all at once.
RECONSTRUCTION:
• Post-war reconstruction – the most haphazard
planning for the period. Hiroshima war aftermaths
• Use of rubble masonry as was locally availabe
and cheap during post-war reconstruction
while the money was not available.

Group of women doing reconstruction work Rubble masonary temporary houses

after the ww2
HAUSSMANNIZATION •
• It is a theme to reconstruction as a In 19th century
response to planned demolition for the america
the purposes of urban renewal. grid
tranformed by
the urban
renewal .
• With urban
renewal , site
are wiped ,
clean and the
scale radically
changed .

19TH CE AMERICAN GRID TANSFORMATION

• Small units
are replaced
by large
monolithic
structures
and open
• A haussmannization in spaces .
montpellier in france , the
devlopment of the street patern
widing and planning a new road
with the urban context , and • DEVLOVMENT OF THE
topography of the city
CITY PATCH
LIMITS OF HAUSSMANNIZATION

• In an initial phase of the urban

land development that of low
density of a single family
residences , street, driveways
and garages occupied 25per
cent of overall area which rise
over 50per cent and later 70per
cent by the passing of the time.

• Maryland : ten stages in city growth solid black

area is Chesapeake bay.
• Widening a street by • Development started in 1745 – 88 , and final
partial demolition of development done in 1918 ( last raw
one sie. development) .
 ANALYSIS OF CITY ASSEMBLED IN
BARDOLI
• THE CITY EDGE
- Bardoli city growth has been as a
gradual increase leading to
multiple boundary edges.
- The city at start was
concentrated near the river and
gradually increasing leaving small
open plots in middle
- Visible boundary that is railway
line and natural boundary that is
river.
• THE URBAN DIVISIONS
- The district of business and
commerce
- Through streets creating a market
of trade.
- Divisions within the area on the
basis of the religion they followed
forming a community.
• THE URBAN PROCESS:
- Flood in 1968 leading to various
settlements.