21 Feb: Early Cities, issues
Morris [sl]. help master the sequence of form, descriptive, critical
but reasons behind form
1. frame
city as a distinct place- urban achivement, civilization.
F. Roy Willis, Western Civilization: An Urban Perspective, 1973, p. v:
"Cities have been a major driving force in the development of urban civilization. The highest achievements of man, Sophocles proclaimed in his play Antigone, are 'language, and wind-swift thought, and city-dwelling habits.' The city, from the time of its earliest appearance some 5,000 years ago, has focused and magnified man's energies by providing a multiplicity of human contacts, and [has] providied the stimulus to the highest creativity in all forms of science and art."
--as opposed to: an ephemeral life?
family, seasonal, bounty of nature
2. the vernacular
urban form, roots?
earliest cities: were they this kind of place? simply economic advantage
city also as cultural artifact, like clothing, customs,
socialiability in our makeup; cultural achievement in humankind's makeup?
consensus = destiny?
3. urban form as archtl form
although ...
all good architectural design involves urbanistic consideration as a fundamental factor.
(3a. timeline)
Egyptian frozen nature, abstraction, simplicity, frontality, freezing, conquering the ephemeral.
Greek order over chaos, nature personified, individuality within ensemble.
Return to City 190 schedule
URL= issues.html; last rev. 25 Feb. 96.
Comments to jeffc@ccat.sas.upenn.edu or gbender@amelia.brynmawr.edu