Theory of Architecture I
By
Dr. Mohammed Shabander
(B.Sc.Arch.,M.Sc.U.D.,Ph.D.C.P.)
Lecture 6
(The industrial town and Architecture)
3rd Year Architecture
2015/2016 Second Semester
1850-1918
• 1850 to 1918 was the beginning of
industrialization which lead to modernism.
Characteristics of Urbanization
During the Industrial Age
1. Megalopolis.
2. Mass Transit.
3. Magnet for economic and social
opportunities.
4. Pronounced class distinctions.
- Inner & outer core
5. New frontier of opportunity for women.
6. Squalid living conditions for many.
7. Political machines.
8. Ethnic neighborhoods.
British Urbanization Tradition
• By the end of the eighteenth century Britain
had established a strong urban tradition.
• These towns and cities are now part of their
heritage and are widely admired.
• What makes them so commendable is not so
much the architecture of individual buildings
– though some are of key significance. Rather
it is the quality of the environment they
created.
Plan of London in 1843
British Urbanization Tradition
• These old cities were predominantly made up
of houses or commercial premises with
housing over.
• The buildings had a harmonious quality.
• This derived partly from their scale – building
height was limited both by technology and by
the number of stairs that could usefully be
climbed; and partly from their design.
Working Class
Housing in London
London in 1851
British Urbanization Tradition
• In the older cities this was determined by
vernacular construction methods and the use of
local materials; in the later ones by the
application of classical principles and the
development of the Georgian style, which
quickly became an urban tradition.
• These buildings were joined together partly as
a result of the clamour for town centre
frontage. The joined-up buildings created
coherent spaces – streets, squares, greens and
marketplaces.
London in 1851
British Urbanization Tradition
• In 1801 over 80 per cent of the population of
England and Wales lived in the countryside,
with only 1.7 million living in towns and cities
larger than 5000 people.
• Urban living, which had been a slowly built
tradition, suddenly accelerated out of control.
• Over little more than a century the population
as a whole increased more than fourfold and
by 1911 the urban population had reached 28.5
million.
London
1836, 1850
British Urbanization Tradition
• This population explosion was fuelled by and, in
turn, served to promote the growth of industry,
some of which attached to established ports
such as London, Liverpool and Glasgow.
• . Most were smokestack industries, which
clustered around the coalfields of the North and
the Midlands.
• Rapid population growth meant rapidly built
housing. Most of it was poorly constructed and
appallingly overcrowded. Worse, it was built
cheek by jowl with the noxious factories.
Birmingham Coke Town
London in 1870
British Urbanization Tradition
• By the 1840s, conditions in the industrial cities
were a serious cause for concern.
• To some this was a concern for social welfare
but for the most part it was a concern about
health.
• A series of reforms were introduced.
• This legislation set standards for the
construction of buildings, for the provision of
light and air, and better sanitation. It laid the
basis for building regulation to the present day.
London in the 1950’s
French Urbanization Tradition
Paris in the
Middle Ages
French Urbanization Tradition
Paris and
Haussmann
French Urbanization Tradition
Plan of Paris
by
Haussmann
in 1853
French Urbanization Tradition
Plan of Paris
by
Haussmann
in 1873
Paris, Boulevard
du Temple and
Parc Monceau
Paris in 1861-74
Paris, The area of
E’toile
Paris Exhibition of 1867
Paris, Eiffel Tower in 1889
Paris, Eiffel Tower Base in 1889
Paris Exhibition in 1889
Paris Landscape
in 1889
Paris, Avenue des
Champs E’lyse’es
from the Arc de
Triomphe
Austrian Urbanization Tradition
Vienna 1856
Austrian Urbanization Tradition
Vienna 1859-72
