Lecture2 Human Setlemens Development URP IIL ‘Human Settlements and Their Parts Composite human settlements of all sizes consist of four categories of basic parts as shown in the figure. They are: = The homogeneous, + The central, + The circulatory, + The special ‘These parts may change when the scale is different, but they are always present. For example, if we look at a village, we can recognize the following characteristics parts: The homogeneous parts, consisting of the fields; ‘The central parts or built-up village; The circulatory parts, consisting of roads and paths within the fields; S486 And the special parts, i.e., a monastery contained within the homogeneous part. If we look, however, at the central or built-up part of the village, we again recognise a homogeneous part, consisting of the houses, a central one, with the church and shops, a circulatory one, with the streets, and a special part, which might contain a school building. Each part of a settlement can be again subdivided into others until we are left with the smallest unit, the room which ne ly consists of at least two parts, the homogeneous and the circulatory, and sometimes of special parts, certain pieces of furniture, for example, and more seldom of a central part, any settlement consists of: Homogeneous part Central part Circulatory part Special partLecture2 Human Setlemens Development URP IIL On the basis of the previous explanations we are now able to recognise the fact that a settlement consists, not only of a built-up part, but also of the homogeneous and circulatory parts surrounding it. If we take into consideration all parts of a settlement, then we have the overall settlement or whole settlement. If, on the other hand, we take into consideration only the central part of the overall settlement then we are dealing with the built-up settlement consisting of densely built Shells and Networks. A village consists of: Homogeneous part (fields) Central part (built-up) Circulatory part (roads and paths) Special part (monastery) ‘Types of Classification There are many possible methods for classifying settlements. Some basic types of classification are indicated here by categories. © One category is based on sizes which can be measured by way of the sizes of the five elements and their combinations. Such is the classification by numbers of people or by the geographic extent of the area covered, or by combinations of these sizes, like the combination of numbers and areas expressed by densities, © A second category is based on the location of the settlements-whether they are in plains or on mountains, near the sea coast or the rivers, in deserts or forests, etc © A third category depends on relationships between settlements within space, and it can be either a hierarchical, ot a non-hierarchical one. A railway station may supply severalLecture2 Human Setlemens Development URP IIL settlements with products (these settlements are dependent on it), but it may be smaller or larger than the settlements served by it. © A related category is that based on physical forms; it has been used more than any other, and is still being used. © Other categories are based on functions which are very important to an understanding of the meaning and the role of settlements. They can be based on activity (economic, social, for example), their performance, or their special role (as dormitories, old-age residences, better for child-rearing, and so forth). ©. There are classifications based on the degree of society's conscious involvement in the settlement’s creation-natural and planned settlements, Phases of Human Settlement The evolution of human settlements is 2 continuous process taking place at all levels of Ekisties units, from the smallest, the room, to the largest possible, the universal human settlement, During the process of evolution various species of human settlements have developed, ranging from the most primitive to the most complex. Human settlements, like plants and animals, are born, develop, decline and die. Settlements may have an initial structure which only allows for a certain degree of growth, Human settlements have no pre-determined death, though there may sometimes exist initial conditions that pre-determine the death of one of their activities-as in the case of mining settlements which one might assume will face extinction when the mineral is exhausted. This is sometimes true; but there is nothing to prevent the settlement from developing other functions, so that by the time the mine is exhausted, the inhabitants (or a considerable percentage of them) are carrying out other activities, thus continuing the life of the settlement. The evolution of settlements until now can be divided into five major phases: © The phase of primitive non-organised human settlements (This most probably started with the beginning of the evolution of Man.); © The phase of primitive organised human settlements (This is the period of villages-Eopolis-which has lasted about 10,000 years.);,Lecture2 Human Setlemens Development URP IIL © The phase of static urban settlements or cities (Polis-which has lasted about 5000-6000 years,); © The phase of dynamic urban settlements (Dynapolis-which has lasted 200 years, and may last 400 years in al.); © The phase of the universal city (Ecumenopolis-which is now beginning.) Primiti /e human settlements © Non-organised settlements The period of non-organised settlements is a long period of the pre-history of man, covering several hundreds of thousands of years. During this period Man began to modify nature and to settle temporarily or permanently in different locations. Man, according to Tan McHarg, modified nature in several ways. He probably began with fire, then went on to animal husbandry and the domestication of grazing animals; afterwards came deforestation and agriculture, and with it, permanent human settlements, ‘Man had settled first in natural shelters such as hollows in the ground, hollow trees or shadow caves, before he began to build his own primitive and unorganized habitat. After first exploiting natural formations and transforming them into dwellings, by various changes and additions, he began to create shells independent of, and unrelated to, pre-existing natural forms. Many of the first man-made shells were round cells-huts with a round ground-plan and a parabolic dome of straw, branches, clay or hides. Others may have started as rectangular huts built with timber and brush. When more of thes shells were built, they remained independent as structures, separated from each other by a small living space around them. Where compound walls existed around one or more dwellings, they also tended to be circular. Such primitive forms survive today in many nomadie societies, from the jungles of Africa to the Polar Zones. If we look at the physical structure of settlements, we will sce some circular forms in space, sometimes of two sizes; huts and compound walls. However, if we also look at the ‘ground around these structures-at the human settlement as a whole-we will see a great number of lines which are more dense and thick near these circular forms and which grow thinner at longer distances from them. These are the manifestations of the functions which are physically apparent because of the paths of Man which show the primitive Networks enabling the settlement to live,Lecture2 Human Setemenss Development URP II and which together with the Shells created by Man within nature define the whole container of the human settlement. At these primitive non-organised communities on a macro-seale, we discover that they consist of nucleus, which is the built up part of the human settlement, and several parts which lead out into the open, thinning out until they disappear. At the micro-scale of these primitive, non-organised settlements, either at the scale of the one hut or of the earliest agricultural communities, we will notice that both have one common characteristic-a thickly built nucleus, with a great density of human movement, with lines spreading all around it and thinning out until they disappear completely. In this phase of evolution there is no necessity for networks connecting all cells-their connections, if any, are achieved by diffusion between them. © Organised settlements When Man, some ten to twelve thousand years ago, began to enter the era of organised agriculture, his settlements also began to show some characteristics of organisation. This did not happen easily or quickly. It required the acquisition of experience in organizing the relationship between Man and Man, Man and Nature, and finally in expressing these relationships through ‘more cohesive forms of settlements. Man began to live at higher densities and he recognized thatLecture2 Human Setlemens Development URP IIL the forms of human settlements he had been creating up to then-either at the level of the lowest Ekistic unit or of a higher one, the community-were not such as would allow people to live close together in the best and most reasonable manner. It is probable that he discovered that round forms gave him no opportunity for cohesive structure. This probably led him to the idea of elongating the circular cells to form elliptical ones, even though this could not provide for a major enlargement of space; so at some point he probably came to the conclusion that he should adopt rectilinear forms, which allowed for the possibility of placing many rooms next to one another with no loss of space either within or between them. This required a different type of roof construction from round buildings. When evolution reaches the stage at which a rectilinear patterns develop into a regular gtid-iron one, Man has made his greatest discovery in the synthesis of human settlements. A continuous system required rectilinear and not circular boundaries and that the hexagon rather than the circle was the pattern which could lead to the normal co-existence of as many communities as possible in the same space. Thus circular communities were gradually transformed into h agonal ones (fig.) In the evolution of human settlements we see to courses;Lecture2 Human Setlemens Development URP IIL © On the micro-scale, where Man must divide the land, construct one or more Shells (rooms and houses), and circulate within a built up area (neighbourhood), the solution leads to a synthesis at a right angle; © On the macro scale, where Man must own and use space but not build it, and circulate within it, although to a much lesser degree than before (usually no more than ‘one movement to and fro every day), Man continues to follow the course of Nature towards hexagonal patterns So we see that at this phase Man accepts the fact that he must follow two pattems in relation to the human settlement: the right angle synthesis for the creation of his Shells on a micro-scale, and the hexagonal pattern for the organisation of his entire settlement on the middle- and macro-seales (fig). Static urban settlementsLecture2 Human Setlemens Development URP IIL At some point 5,000 or 6,000 years ago, in some villages in key locations where the paths of men met in periods of safety, or, when there was no safety, in locations which could be easily defended, the first urban settlements appeared as small cities in a plain or as fortresses on hills and mountains. Much later cities of the plains tended to coincide more with free institutions, while fortresses became the strongholds for dictatorships and the feudal system; but this pattem was not invariable. Man entered a new phase of his history, that of urban life. He became a trader and manufacturer, and at the same time developed abilities in administration and. organisation, as well as in the promotion of civilization and culture. The rectilinear right-angle synthesis allowed man to build compact cities in three dimensions as soon as he acquired the ability of placing one floor on top of the other, that is, soon after he leamed how to build strong horizontal roofs. As his settlements grew in size, Man came to realize that the principle of the single-nucleus was not always valid in the internal organisation of the total Shells of the community. He saw that when his settlements grew, the single nodal point, which was adequate for the village and for small cities, no longer sufficed. ‘The first thing to happen was the expansion of the nucleus in one or more directions; it was no longer limited to the settlement’s centre of gravity. This was what happened in the small settlement of Priene, in ancient Greece. In larger cities additional nodal points and central places gradually came into being within the Shells of the settlement-a phenomenon which is unique to human settlements. ‘Most cities had a very definite form imposed by the limits set by the defensive walls surrounding them, When the city expanded, it did so in a definite form. Very often the expansion took place in one direction, in an organised way, as in the case of Athens in the first century A.D. at the time of Hadrian, At the regional scale we find that the cities occupied the key locations; they were situated in the gravitational centres of the larger inhabited areas, and we surrounded by a small or large number of villages which more or less followed the hexagonal pattem. In cities or castles the highest density could be found within the walls. Close to them were densely built settlements quite large and important as compared to the other settlements of the entire area, since the city or castle was the heart and centre of defence of the whole system. It provided better protection for those who had settled near it. Further out, the settlements were smaller and poorer, and the entireLecture2 Human Setlemens Development URP IIL pattern thinned out until near the boundaries of the feudal area there might be regions with no settlement at all -a no-man’s land which extended as far as the first settlements of the next feudal lord’s area. Even though the era of static urban settlements was practically over by the seventeenth century, our descriptions and thoughts were still based on static settlements, Dynamic urban settlement The phase of dynamic urban settlements started in the seventeenth century and became apparent only a century later; in all probability, it will last for another 100 or 200 years until we reach the next phase-that of the universal settlement, In the dynamic urban phase settlements in space are characterized by continuous growth. Hence, all their problems are continuously intensified and new ones continuously created, One of the new problems being created in this phase is that settlements, which up to now had occupied very small areas, are now coming to occupy very much larger ones, and, in so doing, are destroying nature in many respects, eliminating fields and forests, leveling hills, either in the process of constructing the Shells or in the pursuit of building materials such as stone or timber. Water is beginning to be polluted not only inside the settlement, but also outside it. Air is beginning to be contaminated, not only in a small part of the city, as might happened previously, for short periods of time, but all over the city and even in wide areas beyond it In all our definitions of dynamic settlements based on form, structure and size, we have been overlooking one characteristic that completely differentiates them from previous types of urban settlements, These new urban settlements are growing continuously. They are dynamic settlements, created as a result of an industrial technological revolution, multiplying in number and form, and now being created at an even higher rate. The evils described in them are the evils of yesterday which are being multiplied today in a very dangerous manner. This is what makes the dynamic ettlements completely different from any other category of settlements. Activities within these dynamically growing settlements are much more complicated not only because of their size, but also because they are changing from year to year, practically from. day to day, thus creating additional difficulties for man who has to adjust himself to their great numbers and categories, and to the fast rate of their changeLecture2 Human Setlemens Development URP IIL The first dynamic urban settlement. the early Dynapolis. This is the phase when small independent human settlements with independent administrative units are beginning to grow beyond their initial boundaries. From the economic point of view this development is related to industrialization, and from the technological point of view to the railroad era, which first made commuting from distant points possible. By now, almost all countries have entered the phase of the first dynamic urban settlements, or the phase of the early Dynapolis. ‘A few decades later, early Dynapolis developed into the Dynapolis itself, which development coincided with further considerable industrial growth, and, in many cases, with the period when the railroad began to play an important part in suburban connections. In this phase the settlement expands in all directions, instead of spreading only along the railway lines creating new islands of dependent settlements around the railway stations, as during the phase of the early Dynapolis. During this era the phenomenon of the early Dynapolis spreads to include other centres which had formerly been minor urban or even rural centres. The Dynapolis radiates its influence affecting all settlements around it, and creating new islands of dynamic settlements which in tum radiate their influence to others. By the time the first city has become a fully-fledged dynapolis, a dynamic evolution has started for many other settlements in the region. The next phase is that of the metropolis, which usually incorporates several other urban and rural settlements of the surrounding area. This happens because the city has tumed into a Dynapolis, which is the reason why no modem metropolis can again become a static city. Present day metropolises are all dynamic cities and have grown continuously after having reached the phase of the metropolis. If in the same area as a metropolis we have another major expanding settlement, as well as a number of small ones, the whole area tends to become one major dynametropolis including many types of dynamic settlements growing in various ways and at different rates in several directions, Such an area on a large scale including more than one metropolis and many other urban settlements has been called the megapolis. A megapolis has the same external characteristics as the metropolis, the only difference being that every phenomenon appears on a much larger scale,Lecture2 Human Setlemens Development URP IIL Universal human settlement: Ecumenopolis, The growth of total urban population has been moving at an inereasing rate. This rate suddenly accelerated in the twentieth century, and its peak may come somewhere near the end of the first half of the twenty-first century. We know that since we have acquired mechanical means of transportation, the ratio of the built-up or settled area to the urban population has been increasing at a much faster rate than the growth of that population. All signs indicate that this will continue for many decades. If this happens- and we have no reason to suppose that it will not-it will mean that the trend leading from connected cities to metropolises and metropolises to megapolises will continue, Thus, it is quite probable that all settlements will become interconnected to form a continuous system covering the inhabitable Earth, We call this continuous settlement Universal City, or Ecumenopolis. We are tending towards the creation of a universal settlement or Ecumenopolis, we must understand this new type of settlement as clearly as we can. The growing dynamic ‘megapolis is but a characteristic area of concentration of urban functions, whose expansion will cover larger areas to be eventually connected with the areas of other megapolises, thus heading, towards the Ecumenic or universal city. Certainly if effective birth control policies were adopted world-wide the universal settlement might never be completed in all its branches. If however, we assume that a major war will be avoided, and that birth control policies will be implemented only at a gradual rate, then we can be fairly certain that the world will witness the formation of the Ecumenopolis. If we try to visualize Ecumenopolis on the same scale as our previous diagrams, we will find it to consist of a continuous urban system interspersed with smaller or larger areas for cultivation. The picture has been reversed. While in the past settlements were isolated spots within the countryside, in the future the open areas will be isolated within an urban system. We are entering a new phase of urban settlements, the phase of the one large urban settlement which will establish an ecological equilibrium with the rest of the world. The shape of tumenopolis will be conditioned by the formation of the ground, by water resources and by climate. Beyond its limits, there will be very small settlements, some urban and some rural, surviving in the remote mountain or desert areas much as remote settlements and even nomadicLecture2 Human Setlemens Development URP IIL settlements survive in the present era of dynamic cities. Because there will no longer be emigration into this ecumenie settlement but only migration between its parts, Indeed, we cannot even afford to remain inactive until all studies on Dynapolis, Dynametropolis and megapolis are completed. This work will take decades, and by then it will be too late to start, for we will be in the problems of the Ecumenopolis. The Ecumenopolis is already beginning to take shape and if we do not intervene actively, it may take shape as a city bearing in its very roots the elements of death. It will inevitably expand over the Earth, it will cover greater areas, and these areas will exercise enormous pressures, on the existing nuclei of ie of the cities. Bec c pressures, existing cities which will still constitute the basic nuclei of the multi-nuclei Ecumenopolis, may die a slow death, So Ecumenopolis may be born as a dying city, since the slow death of its many centres will affect the total body.