I would like to introduce the area of urban planning and problems it brings. These problems are quite self-evident nowadays, and in the recent history we have a good knowledge of. This applies mainly to the second half of the 20th century. You might ask, what was the origin of an urban and land planning. I will focus on it today.
Planning of settlements is even older than the mankind. People began to build real organized settlements in the Neolithic era and were very common in the Bronze Age. Throughout these periods, settlements were built clearly to protect people from wild animals. So that is no urban planning either. Some urban planning begins to appear in Mesopotamia or Egypt, but that still is not it. First organized settlements were Greek and Roman orthogonal towns, again, mostly planned to suit military purposes. Medieval era was mainly a total decline in the planning of towns. Today, we see medieval spontaneously organized towns as mostly good places to live.
Urban planning of Paris could be a great example. The Renaissance was a completely new era, bridging Middle Ages and modern history. People began to study everything. Man itself began to be important. And because people thought it was possible to describe anything by science, they started describing “ideal towns”. What was the output, you can see on Palma Nuova in Italy – not a good settlement at all. Then came the Baroque, in which towns were nothing more than well-organized military fortresses. Not many sustained till today, but see Neuf Brisach in France.
Even through the Classicism, nothing really changed and even in the mid-19th century, cities were mostly planned to suit military purposes, not people. That is Paris for example. The real new approach began in the 19th century, with new industrial and technical era. Yes, nobody until the 19th century even thought about the people. In this era, most of “Utopias” are designed. We can see very advanced approach towards the planning. Underground railways, underground garbage disposal, and streets clear for people and local traffic. Actually, these cities were too much advanced for this era and besides “Utopias”, real cities were mostly grid-planned, with large new residential areas established.
Brand new approach to urban areas was brought by the Functionalism. Architects and planners now described what are the functions of cities and tried to organize it. Main functions were residential, industrial and leisure (including services.) In functionalist cities, all areas are single-functional and are separated by transport infrastructure. Functionalist approach spread all over the Europe. This was caused by residential crisis after World War II and enormous need for new housing.
A new era of socialism brought huge governmental involvement in urban development. And it remains until today. Unfortunately, this is not only eastern European case, this applies to all Europe. And the governmental involvement is so efficient, that we consider it absolutely self-evident. Good government protecting us from bad developers.
Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann was the Parisian who ripped up his home city; one of the most famous and controversial urban planners in history. Even now, 125 years after his death, France remains divided over whether the man who transformed Paris into the City of Light was truly a master planner – or an imperialist megalomaniac.