In this week, in our lecture we have analyzed the New York Terrorist attack and its effects to the city, urban form.
First of all, I would like to start my article with the bombing of the twin towers on September 11, 2001, because I think this is the most crucial point among the lecture. We analyze the destruction of Twin Towers. The twin towers were important to the world as they were the tallest buildings in the world until 1973. The bombing of the twin towers had made a huge splash around the world. The number of survivors in the Twin Towers crash is quite low. The fire caused by the plane crash was too intense and hot to withstand the steel structure of the building. Although the structure was built against fire and heat, this level was not calculated. With the removal of the twin towers from the New York silhouette, the city’s urban form is disrupted.
When we examine the urban fabric of New York we see that because there are no topographical borders in the city, the plots all follow the same pattern and fit into a grid system. We see that the Central Park in urban plan it is part of the grid was left out as a park in the heart of the city. It is open to commercial places.
We cannot separate skyscrapers from New York’s skyline. Skyscrapers dominate the city. The first skyscrapers began to be built in the late 19th century. The desire to always build higher has become a texture of New York architecture. Chicago’s Home Insurance Building, Tower Building and American Surety Building can assume the first examples of skyscrapers. After that Empire State will fallow to that. In addition to the horizontal grid that create the urban plan, skyscrapers created a vertical grid to the urban plan. We see that skyscrapers, as one massive tall structure, often have a common language among themselves. After the twin towers attack, skyscrapers gained importance not only in city life, but also in the cultural context in many films, skyscrapers were displayed as a subject or as a raid on a poster poster.
In this week, in our lecture we talked about the Berlin case and Berlin wall and its impacts on the urban life.
When we examine the Berlin plans before the war, we see the remains of the Roman Empire and resemble the Lisbon and Paris plans with their street and square relations. Points like squares in various regions of the city provided entry from several cities, each with its own set of qualities. In addition to that, A three lined boulevard ran through the settlements. the Hobrecht plan is adopted, which is inspired by the Parisian Haussmann plan, which features large boulevards, squares, and larger plots in 1862 plan. In addition to that The Paris plan’s ideas and techniques are used as the basis for the Berlin 1862 plan’s development. The Paris plan and the Berlin plans are similar to each other. The ways of merging and intersection of boulevards and streets are similar in both plans.
One of the most important cities during the Second World War was Berlin. During the Cold War after the Second World War Berlin is divided into two states: West Germany, which is influenced by France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and East Germany, which represents the Soviets and the rest of Germany. The division was provided by a 155 km long wall called the Berlin Wall. Berlin Wall began to be built in 1961. The Berlin wall, which provided the border, was initially only a wall-shaped feature, but later it was protected by rigid borders and guard towers so that people would not jump over it or allow passage. The Berlin wall is a wall created to set boundaries. In the old cities, canals, rivers, dams and sometimes walls were used as a demarcation element. In modern cities, roads made this situation. Although in modern times in Berlin, an ancient method was applied as a border element. The Berlin wall was demolished in 1989, with public protests. Some parts of the wall were left in place for monumental purposes. Today, although the wall is socially noticeable from place to place, it is almost never perceived physically.
As in the Rotterdam case, we see that in the Berlin case, the effect of the bombing in the second world war created a disaster in the city. There were gaps in the fields where the bombs fell. Restructuring has begun for the city to recover itself. While the city was beginning to be restructured, it was restructured under the influence of the Deconstructivism movement, which was widespread in the 1980s. This movement was breaking the integrity of the architectural elements that make up the building, actually trying to eliminate the wall effect in the buildings, creating a feeling of emptiness.
When we examine the architectural understanding in Berlin, The Neues Bauen style originated after world war I, with the development of socialist ideology. It is similar to the Red Vienna state and consists of medium density social housing blocks also, buildings had simple interior plan. We see the effects of Nazi architecture after the second world war. In this period, he built totalitarian and monumental structures in accordance with the spirit of the Nazi ideology. It is possible to see structures similar to the fascist architectural understanding in some of the Ankara buildings of the Republican period.
Germany was separated by berlin wall, the border became an inaccessible region. Nature was able to develop in a nearly undisturbed environment over this period and it created green belt. China Wall and Green Line in Beirut. While the green line divides the city into two socially and politically in Beirut, the wall in Berlin actually provides a social and political partition. No matter how many walls have collapsed, a green belt has formed under the wall. Green belt was formed by natural phenomenon. It was not intended to be used as a divisive element, as in the Berlin wall. As a result, many elements have been used to protect borders or to create new borders from the past to the present. Some of these are canals, rivers, and in a city like Berlin a wall was put up to separate the West and the East, which is an old method. Although this wall was demolished later, the green line created by nature itself emerged.
In our Arch 484 course we talked about the 1940 Rotterdam Carpet bombing, how the city destroyed and how the Rotterdam planned after the bombing.
Rotterdam was built in the 13th century as a medieval city also Rotterdam, one of the delta cities, it has the Europort, Europe’s largest port where maritime transport is permitted. Before the bombing, it was an important port city for the Netherlands and Europe. There were also many embankments in Rotterdam, which were man-made structures to protect against water because it is located inside the dikes and has unrestricted access to the river, it was considered the polder and water city. The Hoogstraat, the main street of the city, was also originally an embankment. The fundamental factor that divided the city into two was the street.
Rotterdam was badly damaged by German bombings during the Second World War in 1940. Since the city was very dense and there was no division in the city center, the entire city center was destroyed in a very short time. The damage in Rotterdam after the bombing was enormous. after the bombing There was serious visible damage such as the city center was totally damaged, the infrastructure system was demolished, the whole network of the city was plentiful. The city did not have any gas, electricity, or heating or cooling facilities.
With the destruction of the city, a search for a new plan was started in the Rotterdam case, as in other cases. The first plan was one by William Gerrit Witteveen that focused on solving the current problems of the city, considering the growing population of Rotterdam. The newly planned city consists of avenues, alleys, new boulevards, and peripheral blocks. Solving traffic problems is one of its aims. He used to modern spaces and functional architecture and he suggest that a block by block development. After the bombing, urban agriculture began to emerge due to the large amount of land.
Another plan was prepared by Van Traa. The urban planning planned by Van Traa is different from the plan prepared by William Gerrit Witteveen. Van Traa divided to spaces for living, working and recreation in accordance with the CIAM principles. Although modernist planning and socialist thought were far from each other, modernist planning was seen after the bombing. Between the 1950s and 1960s, the idea of modernization increased. It continued its development with some buildings such as the Euromast De Doelen, which became the symbol of the city, and the metro network. In addition, Rotterdam’s wide boulevards and changing street layout resemble Izmir’s new urban plan. As a result, in the case of Rotterdam, when the city started to be rebuilt after major damage, plan studies were carried out both to solve its problems and to modernize it. In Rotterdam, we see the traces of modernization in the rebuilding of the city after the bombing.
In our Arch 484 course we analyzed the case of Fire in İzmir in 1922. If we examine the fire in the context of Turkey, one of the reasons why the fires spread very quickly was due to the fact that the buildings were wooden and the houses were close to each other. They chose wood as the material because it was easier and cheaper to transport. Since the fire caused great damage, for example, the Ottoman State needed to intervene in this situation, since the place where the fire broke out was affected in the context of cultural, economic and urban form. They founded the Tulumbacılar Association, replacing the current firefighters. Additionally, they put water on the roofs for easy access to water during fires. Thus, they could intervene more during the occurrence of the fire.
When we examine it in the context of Izmir, in the 19th century İzmir had dense structures with various social, cultural, and ethnic groups such as Frank, Turkish, Greek, Jewish, Armenian. The way of life in each district differed as well. Frank district was considered to be the social core and it was a cleaner and more attractive part of the city. The Turkish district was more complicated with labyrinth-like streets and security concerns but also it had welcoming people. The Jewish district was the most neglected, with filthy streets and sick people. With basic and elegant houses, Armenian district was the most qualified urban type.
When a fire broke out in İzmir, various methods were used to announce it to the public. A pole was erected from Kadifekale to announce the fires and a color and pennant were determined for each district. People would come together even if they were from different neighborhoods. They would help the neighborhood where the fire broke out.
There have been too many fires in izmir, but the fire in 1922 caused huge impact to the city. The fire started in the city’s Armenian neighborhood, and several branches began to break many houses burned and damaged. It is said that the fire started deliberately due to political reasons. Following the fire, people began to look for a new plan. There were also many ideas about the zoning plan of Izmir. The Republican planning in İzmir included dividing the parcels to the roads in a triangle shape, which benefited the city’s economy after the fire. According to Le Corbusier it can be a green city and a linear industrial city with a linear transportation axis also Henri Prost tried to create new city plan for the İzmir. He was mostly formed of triangular districts and parcels. The roads run around the borders of these triangle parcels, connecting them to the squares like such as Konak Square, Cumhuriyet Square and the port. When we look at today’s Izmir plan, we see that it has a plan similar to that of Henri Proust. In addition to that Henri Proust designed big roads and parks for Istanbul and after the capitalization he also suggested large boulevards and roads for Ankara.
In Arch 484 course presenters mentioned about the Red Vienna after Spanish flu. The beginning of the 20th century was like a nightmare for Vienna.They deal with the effect of World War I, the Spanish flue pandemic, famine, and governance issues. As we see the before cases pandemic effects the urban life and in the Viana because of the World War I and Spanish flu urban life changed.
The war affected society in a big way, as men went to war, women had to work. Due to the changing economy, the working class began to live under bad conditions. With the increasing effect of the Spanish flu, living conditions and urban life began to change. It is desired to create multi-purpose and multi-use public and private areas in urban life. In addition to that, During this period, many ideas and artistic movements emerged such as Bauhaus idea, Vienna Secession that was the art movement.
The main purpose of the Socialist Party, the regime of Vienna, is to bring equality and freedom to society. They tried to apply this idea to urbanism and architecture as well. Since the main aim was to create equality in society, they wanted people living in Vienna to have equal access to open spaces. The need for open space has increased due to the Spanish flu, just like today’s covid flu. That’s why the idea of open spaces, green spaces and courtyards with housing blocks was focused on. They tried to make sure that people had equal access to them. The main concept was to fill in the gaps and create its own urban conditions. We can see examples of perimeter blocks with a stack organization and low-density housing units, as well as superblocks. Superblocks are defined as the extension of perimeter blocks on the streets. The most important example of social housing in Vienna is the Karl-Marx-Hof, a single continuous building. It was both an ideological and a political symbol.
As a result, many epidemics and infectious diseases, black plague, Spanish flu, covid-19 have recurred throughout history and have affected people’s life, order and city life. Architectural measures were taken against these epidemic diseases.
This week our friends Gülin and Emine prepared presentation about Paris of 1848. They talked about the history of Paris and how its history shaped city plan of the Paris.
Between 1831 and 1846, a large population increase was observed in Paris. The Industrial Revolution in 1848 also had a great impact on this population increase. Poverty, illness, epidemics, and the environment as symptomatic structures of a social complete social order were the major cases in those years, and Paris was dealing with an epidemic.
The most common thing we hear about in Paris is riots. Riots are often the result of social injustice, job losses, economic crises, and government corruption. Revolts of 1789, 1830, 1832, 1848 and 1871 were heard and influential. The narrow and complex streets of Paris made it difficult to stop the riots. The rebellion of 1848 ends with the French Revolution, which is the rebellion we hear the most. Also known as the February Revolution. At the end of this revolt, the French Second Republic was established and the July monarchy came to an end. Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was elected president of the Second Republic.
When we analyzed the old paris plan we can say that composed of a compact urban patterns. The center of Paris had the same structure as it did in the Middle Ages in the mid-nineteenth century. Narrow streets and congested buildings prevented traffic flow and created unsanitary conditions. The layout is made up of intersecting narrow streets.
Therefore a new Paris was needed. Haousmann provided this innovation. Hausmann was the architect of modern Paris. While designing the city, Hausmann designed a large cross in the center of the city, enlarged some squares, grouped the roads hierarchically, and also grouped the public spaces into primary, secondary and tertiary, which differed in function and scale. The main idea of Haussmann’s design was to create a capitalist, hygienic, monumental city. Also, due to the speed problem, wider streets and roads were needed, in addition, with the concept, railways became dominant. A road hierarchy was created according to the needs of the vehicles.
One of the purposes was to beautify the city, so the exteriors of the buildings were also arranged. In buildings that can be seen all over the city, blocks with continuous facades were designed which called the Hausmann blocks. It has generally six floors. Depending on the street they are located in and the construction period, their heights vary between 5-7 stores. The first floor is occupied by a business, while the second floor has the highest ceiling and a balcony. The second and third floors have the same, slightly lower ceiling height, and the fifth floor has a balcony. The sixth floor, which is mostly the top floor, has the lowest ceiling height and is home to the servants. They share the same architectural system and language.
This week our friends presented about the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake. Before the earthquake, we can say that in the city planning of Lisbon, open spaces in public and private areas were very few and there were crowded places around the church. In addition, due to the water source, the buildings were located close to the coast. In 1755 Lisbon encountered with very big and devastating earthquake. It is said to be the size of 32. 000 Hiroshima bombs. The earthquake also affected countries such as Italy, France, Africa and Spain. Buildings, structures were not resistant to earthquakes in terms of height and ground, so the earthquake caused many deaths. It also creates impact on the philosophy. War broke out between Protestants and Catholics, and they blamed each other for the reasons for the disasters.
After the earthquake, disasters followed one another. First, after the electricity and natural gas explosions, big fires started in the city, and then the tsunami hit the city. Many people died by burning, drowning, or being run over by houses. Many buildings were destroyed or destroyed and became unusable. The city suffered a great financial and moral collapse.
After the impact of the earthquake, Marquês de Pombal took control of the rebuilding process of the city. He used 4 strategies for rebuilding the city. He decided to increase the taxes, banning for leaving city and prohibition of all construction outside of the city walls. In addition, He wanted to limit the buildings to two or three floors and move the capital near Belem so that he could reduce the destructive effect against another possible earthquake.
After that, architects developed 6 alternative plans focus on different concepts. The first plan designed by Gualter da Fonseca. It has similarity with the city before the earthquake. It stabilizes the dimensions of the older buildings. The second plan designed by Captain Elias a new street system including many avanues was designed.The third one designed by Eugénio dos Santos. It was intended to provide a clear entrance to the city centre. It was tried to be done by taking reference from the other two plans.The fourth plan designed by Pedro Gualter Fonseca. It was the unrealistic and senseless with terrain and waterfront. The fifth one designed by dos Santos. It achieved all of the basic conceptual goals.The last one designed by Elias Sebastião Poppe. It creates relation with idea of small blocks and monumentality and curved streets. New plan of the city was grid iron plan. The city was planned to have wide streets with free and wide circulation areas, obtaining the ideal light. The infrastructure of the city began to develop.
After the devastating effect of the earthquake, new architectural searches were started. Gaiola pombalina was invented. It was the pioneer architecture of Lisbon and pioneer of seismology. A principle was adopted such that the walls of the buildings would shake but not fall.
As a result, Lisbon was badly damaged in 1755. Earthquake, fire and tsunami largely destroyed the city. Efforts were made to redesign the city by applying various strategies. As a result of these works, the infrastructure of the city started to recover and people of different social status were living in separate buildings before, this status difference was removed and they started to live in the same building.
This week our friends presented about the Great Fire in London in 1666. Before the fire, London had narrow streets and wooden houses. It surrounded by walls and city was state by itself. With the outbreak of the fire, London was greatly affected, and the fire left its mark on the city.
The fire began in a bakery on Pudding Lane and it burnt much of London. Many places and streets, homes took great damage from the fire. With the burning of a small place, almost the entire city burned down, one of the main reasons for this was that the buildings were wooden. Because the fire some of the landmarks and important place for history and memory of the London were destroyed and badly affected. Some of them are St Paul’s Cathedral (after the fire it was rebuilt later again), Cheapside Street, London Bridge, Old Bailey (after the fire it was rebuild and extended many times over the years), Guidhall (after the fire new entrance, new roof, art gallery was installed) etc.
After the fire, it was decided to redesign the city in order to prevent another fire. Therefore, King announced the competition for planning the new city. Many city planning ideas and proposals emerged for the improvement of the city. Christopher Wren’s Proposal was the first offered plan. It was the street plan which was the similar to Rome streets. It creates orthogonal grid and creating a city with a wide street. The second plan was Valentine Knight’s Toll Canal plan. His plan called for the construction of a toll canal. It based on gridal system. He offered the designing a prototype urban block that is composed of two parallel terraces. The third plan was the Robert Hooke’s checked grid plan. He offered that the square orthogonal grid plan and create relation with new streets and old streets. He proposed to connect the old and new streets. The fourth plan was John Evelyn’s Italian Avenues. It was the Italian style city plan and radial plan with piazzas and broad avenues. It based on orthogonal plan. The fifth plan was Richard Newcourt’s religious rectangles. We see the division of the city into square blocks. I can say that almost all those proposals were based on a grid system of city.
As a result, London began to be redesigned and built after the Great Fire but this time, while designing the city, the city was tried to be designed by considering the welfare level of the people and possible disasters. As an example equivalent to the fire of London, we can give an example of the fire of Istanbul in 1633. Many areas, landmarks were destroyed and effected by fire, just like in London.
This week in Arch484 me and Zeynep Köksoy presented about the black plague and its effects on the 14th century medieval cities which are Lucca and Bologna.
Firstly we explained the black plague which is also known as the black death. The Black Death was a plague pandemic which devastated medieval Europe from 1347 to 1352 CE, killing an estimated 25-30 million people and It is estimated that between 30% and 50%of the population of those places affected died from the Black Death and it became the worst plague in human history which took 200 years for the population of Europe to recover. It was known as the Black Death because it could turn the skin and sores black while other symptoms included fever and joint pains.
In this map we want to show how the disease spread through the countries and the continents and in which years they were affected by the black plague also, shows that how the trade routes were effective in spread of plague. The disease was caused by a bacillus bacteria traveling from person to person through the air and through the bite of infected fleas and rats which could be found almost everywhere in medieval Europe. They could be found at the houses and the ships which played a big role on the spread of the deadly plague through the European port cities.
We mentioned about the How the Black Plague Affected the Medieval Cities in Italy in 14th Century. One of the major cities affected is Lucca. Lucca in the 14th century became one of the most important cities of the Italian Middle Ages. Other one is Bologna. Bologna is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy.
We mention about the Healthscaping and Urban Wellbeing in Lucca and Bologna. Lucca and Bologna started to care about public health after the Black Plague. Therefore, they established various organizations to keep track of the fines that endanger public health of the city. Italy were infrastructured with organizations such as public works or roads masters (viarii), known uniquely in Bologna as the fango or dirt masters. Roads Masters were concerned with maintaining urban, suburban, and regional infrastructure.
After that, we mention about the Lucca’s and Bologna’s urban form and urban fabric for understand the healthscaping of cities. Lucca had city as borders by the city walls that surrounds the urban form and this center is decentralized by using the old Roman city elements. The wall was a great protection for the flood crisis and stay animals around the city or from an enemy attack but it’s did not have any importance for the protection from the black plague and the disease and it had griddle system that came from the Roman city fabric. Bologna also had borders which were defined by the city walls but they were demolished through time. it also protected the city from the enemies and other dangers like Luca. As the contrast to the city center of Lucca, the city center of Bologna is centralized but we see a similar approach in in the walls of both of the cities tease for the disease. Since the walls did not provide a protection for the disease which could affect and the city the officials like fungos it did not want many people to come to the city from the outer regions in order to prevent the spread of the disease among people. Like Lucca, in the Bologna also used the ancient Roman city urban fabric and the layout and the plan. The city squares also differentiates in themselves in terms of their forms In Lucca the city square was formed with a circular shape which was previously used as a Roman Amphitheater and its shape was preserved in the new square.
Black Plague effect the architecture and art. In architecture ’perpendicular’ style was the outstanding style that appeared after the plague. French Gothic with its decorative sculptures and elaborated glass were no longer relevant after the Black Death. The buildings became sharper and ineffectual.
In addition, The Black Plague affected medieval art. The art works started to be more realistic than before and focused on death. We always see the team of dark and sin in post-plague art.
Finally, we realized that Covid-19 has many similar point to Black plague. In both pandemic diseases from different periods of time we can see public health organizations were trying to deal with the pandemic diseases, the collapse of the world economy, the social distance which affected urban life, penalties and punishments for avoids of the spread of the diseases. Therefore, we can say that Black Death and Covid-19 both have changed the people’s life styles and the urban form.
It was very dramatic and depressed topic for me. Although the epidemic that spread to the world from a small point changed the picture, architecture, and even the layout of cities, it seems strange for me to experience something similar today. ☹
In this lecture in Arch484 Ecmel Ukbe presented about the Pre-modern Chinese cities and flooding issue in Chinese cities. Water is an important factor for the growth and development of cities. In ancient times, civilizations were established near streams and lakes, but sometimes it causes disaster when it cannot be controlled. One of the cases affected by water is premodern Chinese cities. China is located between two rivers these are Yellow River and the Yangtze River. Therefore, in the premodern period, the flood was one of the main factors affecting Chinese cities.
Flood disasters in Chinese cities are disasters that have been mentioned from the past to the present. The most famous one is The Great Flood of Gun-Yu. It takes its place as ancient flood myth in Chinese ancient sources. It is mentioned that the disaster continued for many years and that when other factors such as storm and famine are added, there are great changes in the population.
As I mentioned before, since water and the city coexist in China, they sought various solutions for the flood, which is a part of the city’s history. When we analyze the urban planning, we see that its main elements are Artificial canals, city walls, ramparts, and ditches. They tried to reduce the effects of the flood on the city. For example, City walls and moats were constructed in the 11th century BC. The walls were used for both flood control and city defense. It contributed to protection to flood and they included the Sponge city and Linzi city concepts to reduce the risk of flooding. When we analyze the architecture, we see that on higher ground, platforms, stone thresholds, and high column bases, important structures were found.
You can ask why they build on flooding areas? We also ask it 😊 because of agriculture. Since agriculture is an important factor for civilizations, they preferred to settle near the river in order to meet their water needs. People have learned to adjust their food production to change in river water level. We see this example not only in China but also in Egypt. Again, people settled around the Nile River. The Nile River did not affect it much as it was generally stationary. They tried to maintain agriculture by taking into account the change of seasons. Compared to Egypt, China is more prone to flood disasters in this regard. Therefore, they studied some systems that prevent the bad consequences of flooding and do not hinder food production. This has created positive effects on them in terms of using water. At the end of the lesson, we watched a video about the sponge city in China, which is based on the idea of the sponge city to protect itself from flood disasters, and about the infrastructure of the giant tunnel in Tokyo. I think that integrating green in the sponge city is a natural solution to reduce the effects of the flood.
In this lecture, we talked about the city of Constantinople on the year 536 AD. There were many crises during this period, so it went down in history as the worst year. During this period, the Icelandic volcano erupted. With the eruption, they were exposed to volcanic dust and fog clouds that blocked the sun’s rays. This situation led to many disasters. These disasters have led to the death of many people, climate change and major crises. That’s why the ancient city came to an end day by day. For this reason, changes have occurred in the city.
Constantinople was designed as a Roman city with an organized plan. When we examine the cities of antiquity, we see similarities and differences with Constantinople. Acropolis is in the center in Athens, so it has a different central approach from other Roman cities. It has irregular plots. In addition, the Agora is left empty as a common area, so it becomes a political and public organization. It was the city’s irregular open space. There are stoas in the Agora of Athena. These are an important element for urban spaces. They create public spaces. For example, the agora was defined by Stoa as a spacious courtyard in Bergamon. In addition, we see the orthogonal Hellenistic grid plan in Damascus. It includes colonnaded streets that act like stoas.
If you ask what happened to Constantinapole, disasters followed one another, and after the explosion, economic crises took place. Food shortage started due to production problem. The walls were damaged due to many earthquakes. The aqueducts suffered serious damage. Important structures such as baths changed their functions. In short, these disasters changed both the function of the city and the way of life.
After the critic we again analyzed the site more detailed. We add the some urban section for understand the different scale on the city. We create relation between weight canals and buildings height also we analyzed different types of doors, balconies, stairs, and bridges.
We didn’t change to our design idea. The windows continue as two lines parallel to the top and bottom we took reference from existing buildings for windows still the angles that the elements have provides a canal perspective. But we try to create fenestration and doors are getting more cumulative and repeating closer each other.
Melisa's Architectural World 