The urban landscape: planning for housing and other use

As a specific type of settlement, town and city have always known specific uses. Like the rural homestead -which is basically a grouping of agricultural functions under a single roof or in a cluster of buildings- buildings in towns and cities have specific functions and therefore a differentiated appearance. Again like rural buildings, these buildings are mostly used for economic activities and for housing, but other uses can be very prominent in cities. The economic use can differ quite widely within a town or city, and is also often very different from typical rural use. In historic times these differences were most pronounced, nowadays with urbanites relocating to the countryside and farmers diversifying their business the pattern is more mixed.

The emergence of towns and cities stems from a specialisation of settlements towards a certain (mix of) type of use and the related provision of specific facilities. Some towns and cities were set up, or given special rights to better facilitate this. Thus market towns came into being as well as trading posts, cities on a -road or river- toll, fortified strongholds and pilgrim destinations. Some specific functionality is linked to the location (e.g. a castle, a mountain pass, a river ford, a natural harbour, a natural spring, a stone quarry or a mine), but most is linked to specific human intervention as most features within the urban environment are man-made to serve specific functions. Such man made features can vary from quay walls, dams and sluices, to (water and wind) mills, market places and parade grounds to buildings with a specific function within that urban context (e.g. town hall, covered market, cloth hall, prison, city gate, defensive walls and towers, shops, workshops, factory, residence of a ruler, guild house, hospital, hotel, church, abbey or convent and beguinage). All these mane made structures serving a specific -economic or social- function are known as facilities.

Windmill De Put (the Well) in Leiden is a replica of the 1619 wall mill that stood on the outer wall of this once fortified water city. It is still a working grain mill. It stands on the corner of the Galgewater (Gallows Water) and the Morssingel (Moor Circle Moat). The circle moat surrounded the large fortifications, the Oude Vest (Old Fort Moat), shown on the right, demarcates the first and smaller fortifications.

Besides the important economic use of cities as a centre for very diverse trade, production of finer goods, warehousing, shipping and other transport, banking and other services, the city was also a place of residence. As a place with often more freedom and more opportunities to make a living cities attracted many residents. Equally the city has always been a more dangerous and less healthy place to live (this was very true of ancient cities, but one only has to think of greater air-pollution or modern slums to know this is still the case). To improve conditions specific use was planned within cities. In planned ancient colonies the -economic, civil, religious and residential- functions were distributed based on a spatial model. All medieval cities had ordinances prohibiting the use of flammable materials near bakeries or ordered water polluting activities -e.g. wool dying- to be located outside of the city limits. Other activities chose to be beyond the city walls, for instance beer breweries, as the water supply was of better quality and -also important- the taxes levied on the beer produced were much lower. Residential quarters were also often planned, as well as public spaces, commercial facilities such as markets, quays and harbours, and civic structures.

The Morspoort (Moorgate) in Leiden (1669) in mannerist brick renaissance style, one of the two remaining city gates of the eight that once secured the access into the city. The Mors was drained moorland used for pasture located outside the city near this gate.

Many of these ordinances -or bylaws- had a limited scope and could be easily avoided. Also there was little regulation of building quality or quality of housing. Where cities where spatially confined this would lead to the subdivision of existing buildings, mixed use of structures without proper adaptation, and development of any available open space behind or around existing buildings and structures. In ‘s-Hertogenbosch, a convent was built across a canal by construction a long stone bridge. In many cities alleys and blind alleys were carved out of the existing urban fabric to give access to dwellings and small shops and workshops. Unhygienic living conditions and low quality buildings lead to the spread of pests and diseases. As a reaction religious institutions built small housing on the edge of their landholdings, for instance the one-room houses built for young widows against the wall of a cemetery or convent and wealthy individuals created almshouses, beguinages and poorhouses. Not that people were always better off in one of these institutions, mind you.

Here the Oude Singel in Leiden. The canal scene is similar to other water cities in Holland like Amsterdam, Dordrecht or Gouda. The canals in a water city serve a purpose not only for trade and transport, but they are also very important for managing urbanisation in a delta; Leiden grew around a castle keep on a low mount near the Rhine.

Improving standards became even more acute during the industrial revolution when living conditions deteriorated so fast that economic production was hampered. It was then that people started to campaign for social reform, out of religious and philanthropic conviction or simply commercial self-interest. At the same time efforts were made to better streamline development (mainly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Low Countries) to counteract urban sprawl and pollution. During the 19^th century these efforts were largely uncoordinated and local in character, but by the end of that century a planning system that allocates space according to function emerges in Germany. Improving housing and providing affordable quality dwellings had been an individual philanthropic or paternalistic pursuit in most countries until it was formalised in German (Baugenossen - 1867) and Dutch (Woningwet - 1901) law. Housing in various categories were as a result planned as part of urban expansion plans (mandatory after about 1900 in both countries for settlement above a certain threshold of residents).

The so-called Armada Estate is a post-modern redevelopment of a former industrial area in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. The apartment buildings resembling bulging sails stand along a large expanse of water underneath which a parking garage was constructed. The whole Wolfsdonken Development includes a mix of residential, offices, schools and a new Palace of Justice (Court of Appeal) and was linked to a redevelopment of the train station. This is a good example of contemporary urban planning.

The most famous planning model -the garden city- is not the first mode of spatial planning reliant on functional division and improving infrastructure. It proved to be the easily communicable spatial model that was appropriated and adapted to fit local need and custom (only think of the spatial and functional difference between the Garden City in England, the Gartenstadt in Germany, the Tuindorp in the Netherlands and the Tuinwijk in Flanders). The Garden City Movement resulted in suburban housing for workers and the middle class and lead to planning with suburban satellites on radial roads, arterial roads and train lines and lead to the New Towns Movement. The ideas, fixed in the 1920, are still the bases for planning in Great Britain, Germany, France and the Low Countries, although technological advances have meant an expansion of ideas and measures taken. Most cities are now functionally mostly laid out for housing with some areas set aside for industrial activities, economic production, retail, civic use, collective use, transport. Each function allocated its space and neatly sorted by category.