Bookworming: Camillo Sitte, Der Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen

The noted Austrian architect, painter and lecturer on city planning, Camillo Sitte, spent most of his life in Vienna, where he was born (in 1843) and died (in 1903). He was a great influence on the development of city planning as a separate profession in continental Europe. Together with Reinhard Baumeister he is famous for reinstating the role of urban design and city planning at the end of the nineteenth century. He travelled extensively and visited Italy, Egypt, Bohemia, France, Germany, The Low Countries and Greece. In 1871 at 28 years of age he was employed in his father's architecture firm. In 1875 he took the position of director of the Staatsgewerbschule (a technical college) in Salzburg. In 1883 he transferred to the compeer in Vienna as a teacher. He became the director of this technical college in 1899.

Camillo Sitte is most famous for his 1889 book: Der Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen (City Planning According to Artistic Principles). This well-known book is foremost a textbook born from the lessons he taught and his dislike of what was then common practice in expanding cities. He tries not to give a complete overview, but rather inspire and elaborate on his ideas on better ways of planning cities. His book was a great inspiration to the Garden City Movement, especially in Europe, and much later again to New Urbanism.

I have the 1991 Dutch translation -by prof. dr. Auke van der Woud- of Camillo Sitte's book in my office. I bought this after I had read the original German version from the university library as a student. The translation stays close to the original text (in contrast to the English version) but does away with the flowery language with extremely long sentences.

Sitte's book is not a criticism of architectural shape; although the reader can distil his critical attitude towards the eclectic use of historic architectural styles from his proposals for specific situations in Vienna around the Ringstrasse. Rather, it is an aesthetic criticism of late nineteenth century urban design and planning characterised by axial compositions, axial interventions and grid layouts for streets in new developments. Examples of this type of urban design include: Leopoldsburg, the grid expansion of Düsseldorf, the expansion of Pest (with axial compositions), the expansion of Munich (with axial interventions), and the axial interventions in Berlin and Brussels. Prying city planning and urban design from architects as a separate consideration beyond the mere buildings erected, his book was greatly influential, also on architects. Between 1889 and 1922 the book was edited five times. It was translated into French in 1902. The first English translation came into circulation in 1945. This, however,  doesn't mean the book had no influence in the English-speaking countries, but it was, admittedly, rather limited and indirect.

Sitte sees the city as more than a collection of buildings, but rather as an artistic expression of human culture. By considering the quality of urban space the whole of the urban environment is more than the sum of its parts, so he argues. He contends that planners had only focussed on producing efficient plans on paper with room for traffic and repetitive parcelations and neglecting the three dimensional reality of the city. He proposes an aesthetically conscious manner of city planning instead. For this he seeks inspiration in existing urban environments that are cultured and aesthetically pleasing. The richly illustrated books shows instructive examples from Italy and Germany together with classical examples. Baroque interventions also feature in his book, so it is by no means singularly focussed on the medieval period.    

Sitte mainly focuses on squares in his book as a way of creating an aesthetic urban landscape by artistic principles. He illustrates the virtues of situating prominent buildings on the edges of open spaces and making sure the space has differentiated sides. He emphasises that the middle of any public space is the least favourable place to erect any structure (e.g. statue, monument, fountain, music pavilion). Besides aesthetic arguments he also puts forward the idea of traffic vacuums where no people or carts go, that are most suited for such monuments and fountains. Schematics of this are included in the book.

In the book Camillo Sitte defines a typology of squares, loosely based on their main function. All these examples are noted for their lack of obsessive order and irregularity. He defines a square as an outdoor room, as an enclosed space. He thus opposes the orthogonal systems then favoured in urban planning, the axial treatment of special buildings, the wideness of routes and the regularity of spaces in favour of a succession of open spaces of irregular and different shapes logically connected by streets. He doesn't advocate recreating ancient or medieval examples, but to only design the general structure and position of open spaces within this and leave the rest up to private initiative, as in his historical references. The urban environment should work for today's people in today's society. This is true still in the twenty-first century!

Some sketches redrawn after Sitte's book. The first is typical of a whole series of medieval squares with a partially built-in church to one side (A). This type contrasts heavily with the axial orthogonal approach (B) as for instance advocated by R. Baumeister with the church in a central position on the square. A sketch of urban spaces that are linked creating interesting spaces around a town hall (C) underlines the importance Sitte places on a succession of spaces. He also gives examples of improvements to the then preferred orthogonal layout (D), he stresses the importance of T-junctions and a differential treatment of the corners and approaches to an urban space -square- to also allow for the placement of fountains and monuments along the edges keeping the centre clear as was the norm in ancient cities. Baroque examples are also included. Sitte especially appreciates the three winged structure that creates two subspaces in logical spatial and often functional relation, as shown by the sketch of the Palace of Würzburg (E). Based on this he also includes new ways of incorporating such schemes in present-day urban planning. He includes several sketches of which a drawing of an example with a large church, school or concert hall with a formal axial approach on each side is shown here (F).

The book was meant to be inspirational, and it can still be if one reads concerns for traffic congestion by horse-drawn carriages and wagons as congestion by cars and bicycles and filters out other typically nineteenth century concerns and assumptions, for instance on the type of buildings that make up the urban landscape. His proposed succession of spaces fits well with research into spatial psychology. What's amazing is that he has no proposals of using greenery as elements to create urban spaces; as an architect he focuses only on buildings. This omission is not reconciled by his article on Green in the City that was added to the fifth edition of his book as an extra chapter (and is also included in the Dutch version). Instead he postulates avenues and tree-lined streets as an unnecessary waste of space or, an unwanted element blocking views and the availability of sunlight and clean air in the houses. Luckily this has been rebuked by German research from the early twentieth century.