The urban landscape: planned versus organic growth

There are two ways for -the component parts of- the urban landscape to come into being: planned or via organic growth. Organic growth can be incremental whereby buildings streets and alleys are built as the need arises over time, but it can also take place in stages. It is sometimes suggested that the oldest cities are characterised by organic patterns, whilst the most recent urban areas are always planned. This is not the case! One only needs to think of the highly organised garrison towns of the Romans or the Greek colonies around the Mediterranean. Such planned settlements are not dissimilar to French medieval bastide towns, Italian fortified towns (Palmanova for instance), Dutch baroque fortified towns (Naarden, Bourtange, Coevorden), classicist new towns in Germany (Hanau-Neustadt, Erlangen, Neu-Isenburg, Maxvorstadt and Friedrichstadt to name a few), colonies in the Americas, the parallel streets of model dwellings housing (Shaftsbury, Noel Park and Leigham Court Estates) or mining colonies laid out on a grid (Kronenberg and Dorplein).

Two examples of German planned ideal cities. On the left Freudenstadt in the Black Forrest designs as a regular rectangular fortified city. On the right the Huguenot town of Neu-Isenburg near Frankfurt with its regular layout resembling a hunting star or garden bosquet.

At the core of many urban settlements we can find some sort of human intervention. Many urban settlements actually find their origins in human intervention. Only in rare cases can the origins of a settlement be traced back to a favourable natural situation (natural harbour, location on a ford or the availability of precious metals or coal); most urban settlements centre(d) on a specific human intervention (a castle or stronghold, residence of a ruler, religious site, administrative centre, military barracks, market place, bridge, dam, sluice, watermill, artificial harbour, polder, factory, railway stop, docks and wharfs, new land in water (artificial island), motorway junction or airport).

This means that many urban landscapes have a planned intervention at their core. The distinction between planned and unplanned urban development is sometimes difficult. Urban sprawl is characterised as incremental urban growth based on pre-existing boundaries and infrastructure. The component parts of the resulting urban landscape can however be distinct in design and layout, even when the overall entity lacks structure. In contrast historic cities that look organic at first glance can be for the most part planned, but as the planned spatial structure follows the natural terrain or pre-existing boundaries it is less recognisable as planned. Only think of the regular radiating streets of Lierre or the new market square laid out in Vught. Urban development and especially densification can also lead to planned patterns becoming obscured by alleys, blind alleys and new streets that cut across the underlying pattern. For that reason the underlying regular Roman grid of many cities has become obscured in later centuries (examples are Regensburg, Maastricht and Utrecht).

The fort at Bourtange replaced a village and was built on a star layout with bastions and many moats (left). The city of Maastricht (right) was also fortified. The original Roman settlement (in orange) has become obscured by later streets. The first medieval city wall (in yellow) encloses both the original settlement but also a church freedom (C) and a village of fishermen (F) beyond. The second medieval wall (in red) also enclosed the suburbs with the many abbeys and convents. The new market (m) was constructed across the former border behind the town hall.

Changing ideas on urban design and planning in combination with changing fashions and technical advances have resulted in widely varying urban structures and layouts. In some large cities and urban landscapes these changes can be easily understood as distinct sections with specific characteristics. In some cases urban development has resulted in outward additions around an older core (Amsterdam is a good example). In other cities the development was guided by other factors; only think of the influence royal parks have had on the development of London. In some places an older fortified city is still at the core of a larger urban entity (‘s-Hertogenbosch) but in most cases the fortifications were dismantled and replaced by either a ring structure improving access (the Ringstrasse of Vienna is famous but similar structures with sections of park and civic buildings exist in Amsterdam, Arnhem, Breda, Brussels, Cologne, Essen, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Paris). Another option is to eradicate the former fortifications and replace them with a planned -series of- suburb(s). These suburbs can also feature civic buildings (Maxvorstadt Munich, Neustadt Darmstadt and Lípotváros Budapest) or feature axial interventions to bind them to the older urban core (Dorotheenstadt – Friedrichstadt Berlin, Isarvorstadt Munich, Brussels, Porto). In Paris, most famous for its axial interventions by Haussmann, the aim was not to structure urban expansion but rather to restructure the medieval urban core to create a more grandiose city that could be better policed and would have better communications.

The city of Arnhem was one of the strongholds of the Dukes of Guelders. When the fortifications (in red) of this city on the Rhine were taken down, after the fortress was decommissioned in 1808, the area was transformed into a ring road with parks as a Parisian Boulevard. By creating this green seem the older central city was married with the new urban quarters around it. The station (S) was located beyond the former fortifications.

Beautification of a city has been an important reason for additions and changes with the city from the time cities first appeared. Beautification often created insular interventions, although there are some exceptions (for instance Rome). An excellent example of insular urbanisation and beautification are the Garden Squares of Paris and London or the “Beautiful Streets” of German residential cities. The park walks on the former fortifications or the insertion of new squares and parks also fall into this category. With the growth of the cities and the development of the urban landscape even large planned sections have become insular entities. In some cases former insular developments (e.g. mining colonies) have become imbedded in later urban sprawl. On a larger scale, the planned suburban satellites -Garden Cities and New Towns form insular entities within the total of the urban landscape.

In conclusion one can safely say that most urban places and yes even the urbanised landscape as a whole, is planned, whereby the ideas on use, beauty and society as well as advances in construction, drainage, sewerage, land reclamation, transport and industry have created differences between the various component parts.