1666 Great Fire of London

This week’s subject of reading and presentation was the Great London Fire that broke out in 1666. Since I and my friend made the presentation together, I will try to explain this subject as dominantly as I can.

After the plague epidemic that affected the whole world in the 17th century, the great London fire that affected London on a large scale and helped to clear itself from the plague caused a great change in both the fabric and the social structure of the city. In this review article, it will be mentioned how the urban fabric is affected physically and socially.

First, let’s examine the characteristics of the urban fabric before the fire. In general, the southern part of the city was close to the river bank, surrounded by walls, with a lot of public areas, the use of wood was common in the houses, and its streets established different relations with all four sides of the city. The first plan of the city before the fire was made by designer John Leake.

John Leake’s plan before the fire

As a result of the fire that started in a bakery and lasted for four days, a certain part of the city was destroyed and the government of the period aimed to find a solution to this. They found this solution by organizing a competition. As a result of this competition, five city plans with different structural and perspective stand out. However, none of these plans were implemented, because the form of the city was not suitable for the proposed new designs, and London wanted to preserve its own structure. I will talk about the designers of these five plans respectively and what kind of vision they adopted in their plans.

Robert Hooke: Orthogonal gridal plan system, preserve the structure of Medieval London.

Valentine Knight: Grid information canals and main roads.

John Evelyn: Reconstruction Italian style radial plan.

Christopher Wren: Similar to John Evelyn’s, potential of public buildings.

Richard Newcourts: Hierarchical order.

Secondly, if we evaluate the social development of the city after the fire, it is possible to say that the people and the government became quite conscious. For example, the first insurance service was established after the fire, the public who had not been informed about major fires until then was informed and the first fire brigade was established. In addition, architectural innovation has been made. While the use of wooden structures was common before the fire, there was a variety of materials.

In summary, even though the Great Fire of London provided an innovation both physically and socially in the form of the city, the fact that London did not abandon its traditions did not allow any change in the urban fabric today. The presentation of the subject has been added below for those who want to get more information about this subject.

1666 Great Fire of London_pdfİndir

Black Death | Lucca and Bologna (1330)

Black Death was a disease that first started in Asia, then most likely spread to Europe by trade and affected the world population to a great extent. The fact that this disease affects about half of the world’s population has caused a great change in the affected areas, especially in the urban form.

The fact that the Black Death  focuses on the cities of Lucca and Bologna in Italy, in the readings and presentations given this week, helps us to understand that these cities are the cities most affected by this disease. This disease, which is very common in these cities, has affected the urban form of Europe as well as social issues such as art, economy and religion.

Lucca and Bologna developed from most European cities in terms of the application of medical science, so these cities have contributed to the urban form in terms of health as well as their approach to urban form. In terms of health, certain infrastructures have been established both in hospitals and public, and thanks to these infrastructures, it was desired to ensure that the city operates in a controlled manner in the form of unity and integrity. In addition, these infrastructures have affected the form of the city architecturally after a while, and the formation of infrastructure such as transportation and accommodation has been accelerated. These infrastructures were restructured according to human needs after the illness and facilitated the integration in the city both architecturally and socially. A thought system was seen in the city away from crowded settlements, aesthetics in buildings became the background of function. In addition to this, for the importance of clean air, the boundaries of the cities were expanded, the number of green areas was tried to be increased and a decrease in construction was made. The number of health institutions has been increased by the state and the public has been more conscious about this disease. However, since this disease mostly spread to the world by trade ships, the cities affected by the epidemic could not show a fast economic regulation policy.

The fact that this disease was seen intensely in Italy, the most important city of Europe and the Renaissance, affected the art and death was depicted more real with both painting and sculpture.

Premodern Chinese City Floods

Readings and lecture presentation of the third week were the findings of the floods affecting PreModern China in the fabric of the city. As usual, these findings will be evaluated both architecturally and socially in the article.

First of all, when we look at China in general, it is possible to say that floods are famous due to its geographical structure. Some legends indicate that these floods played an important role in the construction of China, especially the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers are cited as the greatest examples of floods. It is natural that these rivers mentioned sometimes cause a natural disaster. Accordingly, they have taken measures according to the floods in their own urban fabric in China.

From the architectural point of view of city planning for China, solutions have been tried to increase the potential strength of buildings against possible floods. As an example, the formation of thresholds in buildings, reinforcement of building foundations, the use of high columns and platforms for this, and durability in material selection can be shown. In addition, high places were preferred in the topography for the construction of public buildings and palaces in the Premodern China City, because it was aimed to ensure that these places were less affected by flooding as much as possible. In addition, the walls surrounding the city have installed some systems around the city gates in order to protect them from flooding. For example, the drainage pipes were placed near the city walls and the city was not allowed to fill with water. This example can be diversified. In addition, it was aimed to control the water by creating a canal system in order to prevent the usual flooding of the rivers mentioned above.

In summary, it is possible to show the effects of flood disasters in China on the architectural design and urban planning of the city with various examples. In addition to the planning of the city, the Chinese demonstrated that water can also be used for conservation purposes with the measures they made around the walls of the city.

Evaluating an Article on the Historical Form of the City | Written by A.E.J Morris

The first reading of the “On Urban Forms Throughout History” course given to us by our instructor was a text called “The History of Urban Fabric” written by A.E.J Morris. When I read this article, it was something that caught my attention that the author clearly reflected the relationship between the problems I face today and the past. I came to the conclusion with this text that when we understand and know our past, it will be easier to identify the source of today’s problems.

Secondly, when we read the article, we understand that the most important point that the urban form is affected by is our residential area, because these residential areas have a lot of interaction with environmental factors, especially natural disasters, and therefore affect the existing topography, allowing people to offer different suggestions to their needs. From here, it is possible to say that climate and human needs are in a very close relationship.

Another important issue mentioned in the article was that factors such as religion, economy and politics were also important in shaping the urban form. After all, the form of a city is not only physically affected, but also the different ethnic elements it contains can diversify the city form. This diversification may be predominantly man-made elements (for example, different materials for house construction), as well as the development of the economy in the place, as a different structuring according to the needs of people in the form of the city. Of course, these are my own interpretations as a reader, and in addition to this, the author also categorized the building materials within themselves and revealed the influence of local architecture in the form of the city.

Finally, the author argued that urban regeneration may also depend on self-growth and development. I believe that as long as this development is planned, urban improvement will be more permanent and other factors affecting the urban form that I have given above, rather than architecture, will be settled in a certain order and shaped according to the needs of people.