Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Unwin - European Cities at the turn of the 20th Century

I've got a copy of Raymond Unwin's "Town Planning in Practice", first published in 1909. These are pictures of town squares from that book.



The best squares convey a general sense of enclosure, resulting from a continuous ring of buildings. As you go into the square, you don't immediately see the way out. This gives a sense of restfulness to the town square, as a place to linger. This characteristic is shown in the old photos pf Stuttgard, Dresden, Piazza Erbe and Marienplatz above.



In Karolinen Platz, Cornhill and Max Joseph Platz, the roads dominate: the sense of enclosure and repose is lost.

2 comments:

Kyle and Svet Keeton said...

To me a town square is so important. It was in my eyes the place where everyone met. The place to go shopping. The place to smoke a cigar and catch up on all the news. Some town squares the kids could play, The moms and Dads walk the strollers,

The town square in America seems to be dying out.

In Russia they have a type of town square, always in the middle of 10 to 15 buildings of flats. You have a safe haven for kids and moms! Of course the Red Square is a neat Town square!

I have really enjoyed your articles on the Mud Homes and the Mud City.

Kyle

Mazlin Ghazali said...

Dear Kyle/Svet, watch out for my er...lets call it social sunday!