TOWN PLANNING

RIMT –COLLEGE OF
ARCHITECTURE
COURSE NAME – TOWN PLANNING
COURSE CODE – BARC907C
 TOWN PLANNING

SUBMITTED TO:- SUBMITTED BY:-

AR.MANDEEP KAUR JASLEEN KAUR
B.ARCH (9TH SEM)
21-B-ARCH-MIG-001
GREEK SETTLEMENTS
 LOOKING BACK AT HISTORY
…THE GREEKS

The Greek, Mr. Hippodamus Miletves (c. 480 BC) is considered the father
of the Greek town planning.

His plans of Greek cities were characterized by order and regularity in

contrast to the more intricacy and confusion common to cities of that
period, even Athens. He introduced the principle of straight and wide
streets and made provisions for the proper grouping of dwellings, special
attention to the combination of different parts of a town in a harmonious
whole, all around the markrt place.

He is seen as the originator of the idea that a town plan might formally
embody and clarify a rational social order.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF GREEK TOWNS

 Gridiron street system to obtain a rational arrangement of buildings and

circulations.
 Square or rectangular open spaces surrounded by colonnaded porticoes.
 Streets terminated at agora rather crossing it.
 Design of city plan for all people.
 Individual dwelling was common denominator.
 Blocks were shaped to provide appropriate orientation for dwellings
within them.
 Assembly halls were placed on top of hill.
 People were almost on foot, the principal traffic streets were placed to
allow circulation of horse drawn vehicles.
 INTRODUCTION

 Ancient Greece was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark

Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (c. AD 600), that
comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically related  city-states and other
territories—unified only once, for 13 years, under Alexander the Great's empire (336-323
BC).
 Greek civilizations developed in the mainland that extends into the Mediterranean sea.
 Greek mainland was rocky and barren and therefore bad for agriculture
 Greeks lived along the costal islands where the soil was also good for farming.
 The Aegean and Mediterranean seas enhanced the communication and trade with other
places.
 BASIC PLANNING PRINCIPLES OF
GREEK TOWNS

Old cities such as Athens had irregular street plans reflecting their gradual organic development.
New cities especially colonial cities stablished during the hellenistic period, had a grid iron plan.
Usually city is divided in to Arcopolis, Agora and town
Towns had fixed boundaries and sometimes with fortification

ATHENS MESSENE
 DIFFERENT PERIODS OF GREEK
SETTLEMENT

 The period of ancient Greek history can be divided into four as follows:-
 1100B.C-750BC :- Greek dark ages
 750 B.C -490 B.C :- Archaic period
 5000 BC-323BC :- Classic period
 323BC-147BC :- Hellenistic period

 Different periods of Greek settlement shows

 different pattern of settlements and towns
 Some of the important cities of ancient
 Greece are :-
 Athens
 Miletus
 Sparta
 Messenia
 GREEK DARK AGES
 The Greek Dark Ages is the period of Greek history from the end of the Mycenaean palatial civilization around
1100 BC to the beginning of the Archaic age around 750 BC.
 The archaeological evidence shows a widespread collapse of Bronze Age civilization in the Eastern
Mediterranean world at the outset of the period, as the great palaces and cities of the Mycenaean's were destroyed or
abandoned. At about the same time, the Hittite civilization suffered serious disruption and cities
from Troy to Gaza were destroyed .
 With the collapse of the palatial centres, no more monumental stone buildings were built and the practice of wall
painting may have ceased; writing in the Linear B script ceased, vital trade links were lost, and towns and villages were
abandoned.
 The population of Greece was reduced, and the world of organized state armies, kings, officials, and redistributive
systems disappeared. Most of the information about the period comes from burial sites and the grave goods contained
within them.
 The fragmented, localized, and autonomous cultures lacked cultural and aesthetic cohesion and are noted for their
diversity of material cultures in pottery styles ,burial practices, and settlement structures. The Protogeometric style of
pottery was stylistically simpler than earlier designs, characterized by lines and curves.  
 GREEK DARK AGES
Tholos toms are the most prominent structure of these times. A Tholos tomb, also known as a Beehive
tomb is a burial structure characterized by its false dome created by corbelling, the superposition of
successively smaller rings of mudbricks or, more often, stones. The resulting structure resembles
a beehive.
 ARCHAIC PERIOD
 Archaic Greece was the period in Greek history lasting from circa 800 BC to the second
Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC. In the archaic period, Greeks settled across the
Mediterranean and the Black Seas.
 The archaic period began with a massive increase in the Greek population. According
to Anthony Snodgrass, the archaic period was bounded by two revolutions in the Greek world.
It began with a "structural revolution" that "drew the political map of the Greek world" and
established the poleis, the distinctively Greek city-states.. The archaic period saw
developments in Greek politics, economics, international relations, warfare and culture. Many
colonies were settled during this period.
 ARCHAIC PERIOD
 The urbanisation process in archaic Greece known as "synoecism" – the amalgamation of
several small settlements into a single urban centre – took place in much of Greece in the
eighth century BC. Both Athens and Argos, for instance, began to coalesce into single
settlements around the end of that century.
 In some settlements, this physical unification was marked by the construction of defensive city
walls, as was the case in Smyrna by the middle of the eighth century BC, and Corinth by the
middle of the seventh century BC.
 CLASSICAL PERIOD
 Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in Ancient
Greece, marked by much of the eastern Aegean and northern regions of Greek culture (such
as Ionia and Macedonia) gaining increased autonomy from the Persian Empire; the peak
flourishing of democratic Athens; the First and Second Peloponnesian Wars; the Spartan and then Theban
hegemonies; and the expansion of Macedonia.
 The city of Athens more commonly, during the classical period of ancient Greece (480–323 BC) was the
major urban centre of the notable polis.
 In the classical period, Athens was a centre for the arts, learning and philosophy, home
of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum, Athens was also the birthplace of Socrates,
Plato, Pericles, Aristophanes, Sophocles, and many other prominent philosophers, writers and politicians of
the ancient world. It is widely referred to as the cradle of Western Civilization, and the birthplace
of democracy.
 ATHENS
 Athens was in Attica, about 30 stadia from the sea, on the southwest slope of Mount
Lycabettus, between the small rivers Cephissus to the west, Ilissos to the south, and
the Eridanos to the north, the latter of which flowed through the town. The walled city
measured about 1.5 km (0.93 mi) in diameter, although at its peak the city had suburbs
extending well beyond these walls. 
 The City, properly so called, divided into The Upper City or Acropolis, and The Lower City,
surrounded with walls by Themistocles.
 The city was surrounded by defensive walls from the Bronze Age and they were rebuilt and
extended over the centuries.
 There were many gates, among the more important there were:
 On west side :-Dipylon, the most frequented gate of the city, leading from the
inner Kerameikos to the outer Kerameikos.
 On the South side: The Gate of the Dead in the neighbourhood of the Mouseion. The Itonian
Gate, near the Ilissos, where the road to Phalerum began.
 On the East side: The Gate of Diochares, leading to the Lyceum. The Diomean Gate, leading
to Cynosarges and the deme Diomea.
 On the North side: The Acharnian Gate, leading to the deme Acharnai.
 ACROPOLIS-ATHENS
 It’s an ancient citadel located on an extremely rocky outcrop above the city of Athens.
 Its has the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance.
 The most famous being the Parthenon
 The acropolis combined Doric and Ionic orders.
 DORIC ORDER-ATHENS
 The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and
later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and
the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top
of columns.
 The Parthenon combines elements of the Doric and Ionic orders. 
IONIC ORDER-ATHENS

• The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two
being the Doric and the Corinthian. Of the three classical canonic orders, the Ionic order
has the narrowest columns. The Ionic capital is characterized by the use of volutes. The
Ionic columns normally stand on a base which separates the shaft of the column from
the stylobate or platform while the cap is usually enriched with egg-and-dart.
• The Parthenon combines elements of the Doric and Ionic orders. 

 AGORA-ATHENS

 Located to the
northwest of the
acropolis.
 Most important
gathering place in a
Greek city
 Open area where the
council met to take
decisions.
 It emerged as the heart
of Greek intellectual
life and discourse.
 A place for combined
social, commercial and
political activities.
 Usually located on a
flat ground for ease of
communication.
 It is also located close
to the acropolis.
 TOWN-ATHENS

 Town was where the people lived.

 This was the domain of women, who
did not have any public role.
 Early Greek towns have irregular
street patterns, resulting from its
organic growth
 The town was made up of only
residential houses.
 A typical house would have had a
kitchen, a storage room, an animal
shed, possibly a bathroom, and a
lounge-type room for men's
gatherings. The upstairs rooms (if
they had them) would have housed
women, children and, if they were
reasonably wealthy, slaves.
 PUBLIC BUILDINGS-ATHENS

 Here are some of the important public buildings of Athens :-

 Temples- The Temple of Hephaestus, located to the west of the Agora. 
 Theatres- The Theatre of Dionysus, on the southeast slope of the Acropolis, was the great theatre of the state. 
 Panathenaic Stadium, south of the Ilissos, in the district Agrai, where the athletic portion of the Panathenaic Games were
held.
 The Tholos, a round building close to the Bouleuterion, built c. 470 BC by Cimon, which served as the Prytaneion, in which
the Prytaneis took their meals and offered their sacrifices.
 The Bouleuterion (Senate House), at the west side of the Agora.
 HELLENISTIC PERIOD

 The Hellenistic period spans the period

of Mediterranean history between the death of
Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence
of the Roman Empire.
 The states of the Hellenistic period were deeply
fixated with the past and its seemingly lost
glories. The preservation of many classical and
archaic works of art and literature (including the
works of the three great classical
tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides)
are due to the efforts of the Hellenistic Greeks.
The museum and library of Alexandria was the
center of this conservationist activity.
 The identification of local gods with similar Greek
deities, a practice termed 'Interpretatio graeca',
stimulated the building of Greek-style temples,
and Greek culture in the cities meant that
buildings such as gymnasia and theaters became
common. Greek dedications, statues, architecture,
and inscriptions have all been found.
 MESSENE CITY-HELLENISTIC
PERIOD

• Under the hellenistic period, they created urban

centers (new cities).
• Under centers, followed a Hippodamian structure.
• The hippodamian system was an urban planning
concept that follows orthogonal grid system.
• This plan was pre-determined, strictly geometric
in nature, and based on the virtues of the
democratic constitution.
• Hippodamian system resulted in the creation of
public space of human scale.
• In the hellenistic era, city were fully walled.
• The location of ancient Messene is not random.
• Surrounded by the mountains of Ithome and Eva
both acting as a natural fortifications or the city.
• New city was geographically located in the centre
of the new state of Messenia.
• There was a dominant water feature within the
city walls.
MESSENE CITY-HELLENISTIC
PERIOD