The Roman- City

Planning

THE ROMANS

• The Romans drew on the Greek culture planted on the shores of the Mediterranean.

• They grafted Hellenic forms onto the irregular patterns of their villages and used these forms for the new towns they founded in the near and far reaches of their broad empire.

• The romans were calculating organizers. They excelled in technical achievement and were skilled engineers and aggressive city builders.

• With inventive genius the romans solved technical problems created by the congregation of great numbers of people in cities.

• They developed water supply and distribution, drainage systems, and methods of heating on which the health of the masses depended.

• The great aqueducts for transport of water over tremendous distances and the underground sewers, were feats of engineering skill and prowess.

• The great highways paved with stone represented the tireless efforts of intense builders.

The town-planning of Pompeii is mainly trapezoidal, not rectangular.Pompeii is an irregular oval area of about 160 acres, with the streets forming irregular rectangles. It is planted on a small natural hill and girt with a stone wall nearly two miles in circumference. On the west there was originally, an access to the sea, and on this side thewalls have disappeared or have not been yet uncovered.

Near this end of the town is the Forum, with the principal temples and public buildings round it. Forum in Pompeii was rectangular in shape and dominated by a temple of Jupiter at one end of the access of the forum.

CITY- POMPEII

City Layout:

At the east end of the town, nearly 1200 yds. from the western extremity, is the amphitheatre, and the town-walls appear to have been drawn so as to include it. Two main streets, now called the Strada di Nola and the Strada dell' Abbondanza, cross the town from SW. to NE. The main streets from NW. to SE. are less distinct, but the Strada Stabiana certainly ran from wall to wall.

TOP VIEW OF POMPEII

THE ROMAN FORUMS

THE PUBLIC BATHS

In the first place the streets (even apart from those just east of the Forum) do not really form one symmetrical plan. Region VI fits very ill with Regions I and III. Both indicate systematic planning. But Region VI is laid out in oblong blocks 110 ft. wide and either 310 ft. or 480 ft. long, while Regions I and III are made up of approximately square blocks about 200 ft. each way. Moreover, the orientation of the blocks is different. Those in Region VI follow the lines of the Strada di Mercurio; those of Regions I and II, and perhaps also of Region V, are dominated by the Strada Stabiana.

While there is some appearance of symmetry in the streets generally, it does not go very far; there is hardly a right angle, or any close approach to a right angle, at any street corner.

City Planning :

PRIENE• The city demonstrate the hippodamian plan

as it developed toward the end of hellenic period.

• The agora occupies the approximate geographical center of the town.

• About it are the temple shrines,public buildings and shops.

• The dwelling blocks are planned to provide the approximate orientation of houses according to hippodamus planning.

• Recreation and entertainment facilities are provided in the gymnasism,stadium,and theater.

• The contours of the site indicate that some of the streets connecting the gates and the agora were generally placed so that beast of burden and carts could traverse them readily

CITY PLANNING :-

PUBLIC SPACE

• The agora was usually located in the approximate center of the town plan, with the major east-west and north-south streets leading to it.it was designed to accommodate all the citizens who would have business in the market placeor attend public functions in the adjacent public buildings.

• The open space enclosed by agora occoupied about 5 percent of the city area.

The plan of the agora was geometrical in shape. Streets generally terminated at the agora rather than crossing it, the open

space being reserved primarily for pedestrian trffic and circulation . Common open space in greek cities was largely confined to enclosure for

public buildings. Windows were not permitted to open directly opon street, and water drains

were not allowed to empty into the street. Square or rectangular open spaces were surrounded by colonaded porticoes

sheltering the buildings about the square . The plan was arranged to avoid interference between the movement of

people across the open space and those who assembled for trade and business in the market.

PRIVATE SPACES-THE DWELLINGS

• In their houses the greek sought quiet privacy.

• Small merchants frequently had shops adjacent to their houses

• Sports and recreation were concentrated in the gymnasium, drama, and festival in the theatre.

• A small altar was usual in the home,but religious exercises and worship were occurred in the temple precints.

• In late hellenic towns sanitation was improved by the paving of streets and the installation of underground drains beneath dwellings.

• The town maintained reservoirs ,but there was no water distribution system. • The climate created an emphasis upon the orientation of the dwelling.• The maximum amount of sunshine inside the dwelling was desirable in winter months

and heat could be conserved if the rooms were shielded from the cold north winds.