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MODULE I

1. Origin & Evolution of Human Settlements

a. Definition of a human settlement (any 1):
i. The term human settlement largely refers to a distinct population cluster (also
designated as inhabited place or populated centre) in which the inhabitants live in
neighbouring sets of living quarters that have a locally recognized status. It
includes fishing hamlets, mining camps, ranches, farms, market towns, villages,
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towns, cities and many other population clusters that meet the aforesaid criteria .
ii. The term ‘human settlement’ refers to the totality of a human community - city,
town or village - with material, organizational, social, cultural and spiritual
elements that sustain it.
It specifically comprises: (a) physical components of shelter and infrastructure;
and (b) services to which the physical elements provide support, that is to say,
community services such as education, health, culture, welfare, recreation and
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nutrition .

b. Four major reasons for the formation of the human settlement:

i. Economy and Trade: By-products of such activities were often stored in
anticipation of dry spells. Thus, settlements evolved into granaries and
warehouses for resources. Specialization of produce – and later, services - led to
trade and barter between settlements.
ii. Defence: Settlements emerged for better protection as defence of stores, women
and children became a secondary obligation for men. (Development of a
community sentiment, and a feeling of being us.)
iii. Religion: Feelings of community and the need for order spurred the beginning of
religion. Organized religion facilitated the rise of large, cooperative groups of
unrelated individuals. Earliest religious rituals indicate respect for the dead –
burials and graves were elaborate and communal.
iv. Strategy: The establishment of a social order - via religion - gave way to
rudimentary political systems within the settlement. Political representation was
usually determined through social order, religious favour or might-is-right
principles. A leaders position stemmed from the need to justify land ownership,
negotiate in barter and protect surrounding claims to resources.

c. Early human settlements:

i. Civilized settlements begin with the climatic changes caused due to the Ice Ages
(around 7000 BC). Climatic change resulted in:
1. Conversion of the Steppes and tundras of Europe into temperate forest
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2. Transformation of the prairies south at the Mediterranean,

3. Transformation of the deserts in hither Asia into deserts interrupted by
oases.
ii. In Northern Europe, wild grasses under cultivation became wheat and barley;
sheep and cattle fit for domestication roamed wild. In such an environment,
human societies could successfully adopt an aggressive attitude to surrounding
nature. There began an active exploitation of the organic world.
iii. Stock breeding and the cultivation of plants were the first revolutionary steps in
man’s emancipation from dependence on the external environment.
iv. Additional points could include – discovery of fire, invention of the wheel;
economic diversification and division of labour that led to the development of new
occupations; new settlements created to ensure safety of the agricultural
produce.

2. Human Settlements as an expression of civilization

a. Chief requirements of the ancient urban revolution:
i. Production of surplus storable food and primary resources
ii. Existence of a form of writing for transferring records
iii. Social organization to ensure continuity of supply to specialists
iv. Technological expertise (hence the large number of inventions during the Bronze
Age)

b. Possible explanations for the development of a settlement could be as follows:

i. the population of one hamlet increases;
ii. A specific religious function emerges;
iii. Establishment of a market place with a wider catchment area
iv. If all three functions are established in one settlement, a city would be
constituted.

c. Ancient City: A community of substantial size and population density that sheltered a
variety of non-agricultural specialists, including literate elite. Elements categorizing a city:
i. The place is permanently inhabited;
ii. The population-density is higher than in the surrounding areas;
iii. The (agricultural) economy is dependent on the hinterland (meaning, there is no
agriculture within the city core);
iv. Goods (e.g. pots, tools) and service offered in the city exceed the internal city
demand;
v. The society is more stratified than in the surrounding settlements;
vi. A city fulfills religious and ritual functions;
vii. Sophisticated types of architecture like theatres or administrative buildings and
also specific technological facilities a sewage and water system.
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d. Settlement patterns are an expression of

e. find examples of each):
i. Type of social unit and its function in a geographical context
ii. Technological or strategic constraints
iii. Occupational structure and Mode of Production
iv. Governance systems

f. Urban Form
i. Two types of settlements:
1. Organic: Develop slower; Usually in technologically challenged societies;
Resources mobilized separately in their parts.
2. Organized (or planned): Monumental, focused and regular; Depict
imposed will (centralized planning); Mobilized large quantities of
resources with the view of common development; traditionally associated
with power or religious authority.

ii. As settlements grow in complexity, from the hamlet to the urban agglomeration,
the number of urban form determinants increase, and their interlinkages become
more complex:
1. Urban Mobility: Need for urban street systems to provide for the
movement of pedestrians, pack-animals and wheeled transport creates
two effect types: a) Means taken to increase capacity of an existing
system without affecting urban form; b) Planning extensions or alterations
to the system.
2. Aesthetic: The organization of a part of the city according to principles of
good taste and appreciation of beauty. In the Renaissance and its
aftermath, aesthetic considerations became paramount in cities of
autocratic, social or political significance. Symmetry, balance and unified
harmony are primary Renaissance policies.
3. Legislation: Social conditions beginning in the nineteenth century
industrial cities led to the introduction of mandatory legal measures
intended to control the form of cities.
4. Social, Religious and Ethnic Grouping: Such segregation in urban form
has been visible since Renaissance times, with an effect of the urban
form and the visual appearance of residential districts.
5. Leisure: Greek and Roman cities characteristically contained buildings
and open spaces used for participatory sporting.

For all following town planning description, please refer to the PDF document, provided with the
notes.
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3. Town planning in ancient Mesopotamia (5000 B.C – A.D 641)

a. Fertile Crescent (refer image to understand geography):
i. Favourable conditions for the agricultural revolution first occurred south and east
of the Mediterranean around what is known as the ‘Fertile Crescent' (aka the
Cradle of Civilization).
ii. This fertile zone is shaped in the form of a sickle, starting the head of the Persian
Gulf and extending northwards towards the mountain sources of the Tigris before
turning westward across the Euphrates. From here the zone curves out through
Syria and the valleys and plains of Palestine. It is briefly interrupted by the Sinai
desert but the broad delta and narrow valley of the Nile form the continuum
further south into Egypt.
b. Tell (etymology: Th-l, Arabic)
i. (Definition) Artificial mound formed out of the erosion and subsequent
accumulation of the remains of a settlement/habitation. Occurs due to repeated
construction over pre-existing construction and resembles a low truncated cone,
rising as much as 30 m in height.
ii. (Process) In river-valley locations (such as Mesopotamia), buildings were made
of adobe (sun-dried brick) while fired brick was used for the ramparts. Adobe
brick houses had an average life span of 75 years, before complete weathering.
Rubble from weathering was levelled to create a base for new construction,
thereby raising the ground level. Two typed of reconstruction occurred:
1. Cellular, which allowed for unit-by-unit individual construction
2. Complete rebuilding, in the event of damage from fire or invasion.

c. Temenos (etymology: Greek, to cut)

i. Delineated piece of land assigned as official domain to kings/chiefs. It is removed
(marked off) from general use and often consecrated under a particular deity. It
could also include sacred groves marked off from everyday living spaces, or
sanctuary areas reserved from the surrounding urban development.

d. Cities of Mesopotamia
i. Dominant urban settlement: City-State
ii. Case Study: Ur, Sumeria (Refer image)
1. Euphrates flowed on the west, and a wide navigable canal, drawing on
the Euphrates, flowed to the north and east.
2. Two harbours to the north and west provided protected anchorage, and
functioned as the centre of commercial activity.
3. The walled city was an irregular oval shape, 1.2 km long, by 0.8 km wide.
The wall itself was 8 m high and acted as a retaining wall for the platform
upon which houses were built.
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4. The temenos occupied the north-western quarter of the city, and marks
the only significant open space in the city (albeit reserved). It was created
during Nebuchadnezzer’s reign when the organic city was regularized
along rectilinear lines.
5. The outer town, or suburb, contained agglomerations of houses, farms,
cattle-folds, fields and gardens; provided the city with raw materials and
food.
6. Houses are grouped in layouts, much like overgrown primitive villages,
with no system of town planning (organic growth). To the south-east of
the temenos, there occurred the oldest housing settlement which had
been built over so many times that by 1900 BC it resembled a hill rising
over a plain.

4. Town planning in ancient Greece (1650-323 BC)

a. Three major stages of Greece:
i. Myceanean Greece: advanced civilization with their own script - centralized
planning - dominant form: military city - warrior-elite society
ii. Archaic Greece: decentralized planning - dominant form: agrarian village - oikoi
society
iii. Classical Greece: representative democracy - dominant form: trading city;
b. Kingdom of Myceanea (Myceanean Greece):
i. Settlements surrounded by massive defensive walls (Cyclopean fortification)
ii. Contained subterranean passages and underground cisterns
iii. Extension of defensive walls almost doubled the area of certain kingdoms. Eg:
Midea
iv. Architectural typology restricted to palaces and immense public works such as
the drainage system of the Kopais basin in Boeotia, building of a large dam
outside Tiryns, drainage of the swamp in the Nemea valley, construction of
harbours, capable of accommodating large Bronze Age era vessels. The most
famous project of the Mycenaean era was the network of roads in the
Peloponnese to facilitate the speedy deployment of troops
v. Palaces were complex megaron structures. They were focal points of
development, beginning as a large hall and later included throne rooms
vi. Society:
1. Advanced civilization; warrior systems were organized into rigid political
and social hierarchies
2. Work and trade were specialized and rigid - workforce and resources
organized for the construction of large scale projects in agriculture and
industry.
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3. Centralized governance led to an unequal society. (Kings – warriors –

slaves)
4. Various elaborate burial systems devised, including the shift grave
5. Economy also featured large-scale manufacturing
c. Archaic Greece:
i. Myceanean Greece falls due to internal or external strife (reason unclear)
ii. Several impoverished smaller states succeed Myceanean Greece
iii. No major political centre
iv. Settlement pattern: Small nucleated settlements
v. Social unit: oikos, the family
vi. Few communities with a local leader, as evidenced by graves
vii. Rise of the polis through synoecism

d. Apsidal House: A room or building with an apse - a semi-circular wall or recess –

opposite its main entrance Apsidal long-houses (i.e. megara with a shallow porch,
fronted by a pair of columns, leading by means of a central doorway into the building’s
main room) are chief forms of residential architecture of Myceanean and Archaic Greece.

e. Synoecism is the amalgamation of several small settlements into a single urban

centre. Settlements in a given area were abandoned in order to build a new
settlement. Ultimately leading to the rise of the city-state, synoecism was responsible
for the first conceptualizations of direct democracy.

f. Cities of Archaic Greece

i. Cities built from scratch
ii. Road networks laid out initially
iii. Equal plots of land parcelled out in long strips along the roads
iv. Public and private spaces began to differentiate; the focus of the city begins to
shift from the palace (acropolis) to the agora, as public space gained importance.
v. The case of Miletus (Archaic Greece)
1. One of the first checkerboard cities planned by Hippodamus
2. Athens and Miletus formed twin-cities, interlinking economy and trade
3. Walls erected around the city for protection as the city becomes a naval
base
4. Coastal city with grid aligned along the longer coastline
5. Centralized public amenities, including three agoras and an
amphitheatre, all connected by stoas

g. Polis
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i. Dual aspect: Physical unit – urban form | Social unit – community (agglomeration
of oikois)
ii. Contains the following elements: defensive Walls, houses, agora, gymnasium,
temples, acropolis
iii. Hippodamus organized the ‘ideal state’ as a tripartite system
1. Polis for 10,000 citizens divided in three sections – one section artisans,
one farmers, one soldiers. Three sections were uniform, parallel and
equal to each other; it is not explicitly hierarchical in social or space
organization
2. Land divided into three: religious, public and private lands
3. Laws organised into three: assault, damage and homicide
4. Three judicial subjects: public matters, alien matters, orphan matters
iv. All citizens enfranchised, but not all owned land. Private section of land owned by
farmers; Public section used to produce food for soldiers; Artisans lived off their
work

h. Colonization
i. Large scale synoecism
ii. When the mother city reached an optimum population, a section of the population
was relocated to areas with greater resources.
iii. Politically independent colonies, but expected to contribute to the wider Greek
world by:
1. Supplying soldiers, ships and money
2. Sending athletes to Olympia and Nemea
3. Setting up military victory monuments at Delphi
4. Guaranteeing safe passage to foreign travellers
5. Exporting and importing intellectual and cultural ideas

i. Athens (Classical Greece)

i. First city-state to implement direct democracy
ii. Emerged powerful after the Graeco-Persian (Peloponnese) Wars and became
leader of the Delian League
iii. Public Works & Infrastructure:
1. Direct democracy ensured the rise of public water supply and drainage
systems
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2. A system of large stone channels (early 5 century BC) carried off
wastewater from the buildings of the Agora and storm water from the
entire area of the agora.
iv. The Long Walls: Walls 6 km in length that connected Athens to Piraeus and
Phalerum. Unlike other poleis which focused on hoplite armies (cavalry), Athens
focused on the navy as their retaliatory force. Constructing the walls made
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Athens an island within the mainland, and ensured constant uninterrupted access
to its ports and resources even during conflict

j. Olynthos (Classical Greece)

i. Located on the Chalcidic Peninsula, Northern Greece, surrounded by rolling
fields and plenty of water
ii. Built on two flat–topped hills; original settlement was stepped on the steeper
Southern Hill – by 500 BC, the Northern Hill settlement developed as a regular
grid settlement in the Classical Period, beginning with a public arena.
iii. Irregular settlement built during Archaic Greece. City was rich in resources and
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rose as a major power during the 4 Century BC
iv. Fortification:
1. Site planning was orthogonal with some irregularities dominated by the
contoured site
2. Fortification walls 0.8 m thick present predominantly on the western side
3. City possibly extended further East , prompting a fortification wall in 432
BC
4. South eastern limits of the city are undetermined, making speculative city
dimensions: 1000 x 900 m
v. Two streets run roughly N-S and E-W; Shop and house clusters opened out into
this main street
vi. Houses built in blocks of ten (two rows of five houses separated by an alley);
Excepting certain extensions, plots were equally divided with all the houses
overlooking a common street

5. Town planning in ancient Rome

a. Two major stages of Rome:
i. Roman Empire: imperial period with aristocratic rule – civil war and internal strife
– eroded by military strife, economic depression and barbaric invasions –
importance given to palaces
ii. Roman Republic: representative democracy – military defence and civil
convenience – importance given to public spaces, administration and public
works.

b. Coloniae (Roman Empire)

i. Republican Romans sent out bodies of emigrants whenever the home population
exceeded resources (deductio).
ii. Colonies remained subject to Rome, but constituted new centres of Roman rule
iii. They were designed as small quasi-fortresses in outlying lands.
iv. True intent of process of deduction was:
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1. The founding of a colonia or outpost

2. Military and strategic convenience
3. Dealing with soldiers honourably discharged from war efforts

c. Carthage (Roman Empire)

i. Ancient trading outpost in the Mediterranean
ii. Contained two artificial harbours – for warships , and mercantile trade with a
tower overlooked both harbours
iii. Was made defensible by 37 km long fortification walls; some walls were up to 4 -
4.8 m in width and never breached
iv. Stretched two miles parallel to shore and approximately a mile inland
v. 40 streets ran parallel to the coast, housing oblong insulae – 130 x 500 ft
vi. Planning similarities to Pompeii and Naples; famous for several public buildings,
including the third-largest baths of the Roman Empire – the Baths of Antoninus
1. Baths located at the foothills of a mountain range, and arranged
symmetrically around a central axis line
2. Baths were constructed after the completion of the Zaghouan Aqueduct
in order to account for water scarcity

d. Planning during the Roman Republic:

i. Plans centred military defence and civil convenience
ii. Evolved from simplistic plans to monumental scale
iii. Housing integrated with cultural, commercial and defence facilities
iv. Original practitioners of mixed-use planning

e. Castrum Town:
i. Newly founded towns (greenfield development)
ii. Rectangular perimeter, delimited by city walls
iii. Inner space divided by orthogonal roads of equal width and length into
inhabitable cells (insulae)
iv. Two main orthogonal roads: Cardus and Decumanus
v. Intersected at right angles and had entry gates (portcullis) at their ends
vi. Forum placed close to the intersection of these two roads
vii. ‘Unofficial’ settlement outside the walls: canabae

f. Timgad
i. Created ex nihilo as a military colony, and populated largely by retired troops
ii. A rigid checkerboard plan consisted of 22 parallel paved roads, intersecting at
right angles were used for both foot and horse traffic
iii. Settlement dimensions: 355 x 325 m
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iv. The Forum, market, temple, public buildings were artificially raised, while
aqueducts carried water into Timgad

g. Rome
i. Capital city of the Roman Republic and depicted a rudimentary sector model of
planning
ii. The poor were housed east of the city’s forum, an area called subura
iii. Business districts and markets surrounded the forum, with all main roads
overlooked by a tower
iv. Clear residential patterns based on affluence:
1. Contained three types of houses: imperial residences, country villas,
walk-up apartments
2. Domus Elite residences – multi-roomed dwellings that constituted
approximately 30% of building form
3. Insulae: Simplistic multi-level buildings (7-storey) for common folk which
lacked insulation from the weather. Plumbing was basic and water was
obtained through public wells
v. Public policy:
1. Emperor Justinian: Air and Water are public property to all
2. Law protecting water stored during dry periods so it could be released for
street and sewer cleaning.
3. Law forbidding people from entering Rome with wheeled vehicles outside
the hours of sunrise and two hours before sunset (to minimise air
pollution and noise)
vi. Public Works:
1. Construction of sewers to dispose of sewage, and aqueducts to bring in
fresh water to Rome.
2. In 100 A.D. the Romans also experimented with solar pumps.
3. Hospitals with physicians attending to the poor masses of people
exposed to lead and mercury.

h. Roman Planning resulted in:

i. Coordination among urban buildings and urban space
ii. Standardization of urban form
iii. Development of typologies
iv. Focus on public amenities

6. Town planning during the Renaissance

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i. Early renaissance planning enjoyed patronage of the papacy.

ii. Organic form viewed negatively; instead, a regulated pattern was created through
humanist principles.
iii. Streets converged on public buildings that were, in turn, equipped with forecourts.
iv. The forecourts were embellished with monuments/stairs/fountains.
v. The Renaissance built squares with the belief that dispersing small plazas of
different functions with inherent decorations will lead to diversity in town space.
vi. The town space subdivided into ‘plats’ - each plat was said to induce a unique
locality.
vii. Origins of urban design: The spaces created by building form were taken into
consideration during planning
b. Palmanova (Planned Renaissance city)
i. Star Fort; surrounded by a moat, with three entry gates into the main settlement
ii. Construction of the first circle (7 km circumference) took 30 years, while the
second Phase was built between 1650-1680
iii. It was built ex-nihilo (greenfield development) to resist the Ottomans, with a
design based on humanist principles
iv. It was meant for self-sustaining merchants, craftsmen and farmers, but was
ultimately a failure.
c. Utopian City (Renaissance concept)
i. The utopian city was designed on the basis of humanist principles, specifying an
orderly grid of streets with a central plaza, defensive wall, and uniform building
style. It was always geometric in shape.
ii. Designed as concentric circles with peaks and radiating streets, it was
surrounded by a defensive battlement wall. New city walls were designed with
large earthworks to deflect artillery, and star-shaped points to provide defenders
with sweeping lines of fire.

7. Town planning in the Industrial Era

i. Representative democracies created in Europe, following the French
Revolution. Monarch is abolished and representative democracy takes it
place.
ii. Proletariat (working class) emerges along with a working middle-class. Social
classes are now determined by money, and category of work.
iii. Certain towns being to specialize in the small-scale manufacture of certain
goods leading to the rise of a cottage industry.
iv. Mass production of goods begin; by the end of the Revolution, mechanized
production is established.
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v. Laissez faire policy (meaning do-as-you-wish): Government withdraws from

industrial sector leaving manufacturing in the hands of the capitalists.
Industrial entrepreneurs become powerful; they begin sub-contracting work to
the cottage industries, and slowly take over manufacture. As labour
requirements increase and workers are required to run newly invented
machinery, workers begin to be exploited for profit – this leads to the concept
of trade unions.
b. Rise of the factory town
i. Unprecedented urbanization caused several issues during the industrial
revolution, with cities seeing urban migration on a large-scale. The factory town
was a major urban typology of the industrial era, brought about by an increased
focus on manufacturing and industrial activity
ii. There were marked increases in environmental problems – air and water pollution
(The Great Stink) – and a sharp decline in the quality of public health (The Black
Death).
iii. Lack of proper drainage and septic systems worsened the reach of diseases
such as typhoid, cholera and diphtheria.
iv. Four major use-types emerged accordingly:
1. The Factory: Factories and chimney stacks dominated city skylines. They
claimed the best locations - valleys, harbours, rivers and waterfronts –
and ranged from textile mills, paper and printing mills, coal mining and
burning and steel manufacture industries (light to heavy manufacture).
2. Railways and roads: Rails were built aided by developments in the steel
industry. They helped transport coal, but lead to large-scale blight and
soil pollution. Tarred roads began dominating urban form, to minimize
transportation losses.
3. The Canal: Canals were developed in order to transport heavy
machinery, coal, etc. over longer distances. They were supplemented by
loading bridges.
4. The Slum: Slums developed in tracts of land that were left-over after
industrial activities were satisfied. Two housing typologies developed:
a. Back-to-back housing was common in industrial towns such as
Lancashire and Birmingham. They were poorly ventilated, lacked
sanitation or fire escapes. (Refer plan) Common privies were
installed across housing lots containing up to 28 houses. Back-
to-back housing was abolished in 1920.
b. Multi-storey tenement housing was predominant in cities of
Chicago and New York, with up to 75% population living in these
conditions. The units were claustrophobic (7.5 x 30.5 sq. m), with
up to seven people living in about 30 sq. m. Rooms lacked
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ventilation, fire escapes, toilets (until 1904), and running water

and electricity (until 1918). In 1936, construction of tenement
housing was deemed illegal, and several blocks were
demolished.
8. Post-Industrial Era
a. Sectors of Economy:
i. Primary
ii. Secondary
iii. Tertiary
b. Footloose Industry:
i. Industry whose location is not determined by access to materials or markets. It is
liberated from locational constraints and can operate without proximity to raw
materials.
ii. E.g. any form of ‘direct line’ business, operated almost entirely through telephone
and fax lines; software companies.
c. Post-Industrial City:
i. Dominated by the post-industrial society which focuses on the service sectors,
that emphasize on communications and information transfers, and on software
rather than hardware.
ii. Increasing distance from the physical limitations imposed by the natural
environment
iii. As focus turns to tertiary and service sector activities, distance from raw materials
increases and cities are freed of meaningful physical constraints
iv. Service industries dominate and footloose industries abound, often at the city
edges
v. Characterized by large areas of office blocks and buildings for local government
administration (zoned public/semi-pubic)
vi. Often exhibit marked inequality of income distribution because of the contrast
between skilled - professionals, managers, administrators, and those in high
technology service industries - and unskilled labour (white collar vs. blue collar),
together with the unemployed.
vii. A city with a high proportion of its workers in services based on the management
of information, as in finance, insurance, and law. Through their access to high-
technology media, information cities are major sites for decision-making.
viii. E.g. Bangalore as an IT hub, London and New York as banking and finance
markets, Silicon Valley cities.