04 The Culture of Cities

(by lewis mumford)
Swapnil, Nakul, Tushi & Shivanjali
Prof. Omkar Parishwad
Evolution of Aesthetics, Culture and Technology

Index
1. Protection and The Medieval Town
2. Court, Parade, and Capital
3. The Insensate Industrial Town
4. Rise and Fall of Megalopolis
5. The Regional Framework of Civilization
6. The Politics of Regional Development
7. Social Basis of The New Urban Order

1. Protection and The
Medieval Town

1. Protection and The Medieval
Town
a) stripping off the medieval myth
b) the need for protection
c) the "increase of population and wealth“
d) domination of the church
e) the service of the guild
f) medieval domesticity
g) hygiene and sanitation
h) principles of medieval town planning

Stripping off the medieval
myth
It was believed that the medieval age
was described as an age of poverty,
brutality, insensitiveness and filth.
Life back then was filled with
ignorance and superstitions.
Although these factors existed, they
were not as prominent to describe
and characterise the civilisation.
Describing the reality, Medieval Age
was very rich in managing industries,
building cities, art of laying towns and
the perfection of the same. There
was social bondage in all sectors of
the civilisation.

The Need for protection
Life grew and expanded rapidly
after the development of
various social institutions.
However, along with progress,
increased the insecurity among
people. Slavery began on a wide
scale. Attacks from outside led
to increased fear amongst the
people.
One solution to this building
wooden palisades or a stone
wall around the village and
monasteries to protect them
from attack.

The "Increase of Population
and wealth“
The centre of urban progress during the medieval age was
not the isolated markets but the monastery.
Initially, a regular market would work under the influence
of feudal lords. However, later, these market regulations
came under the monastery and finally, special market
laws came into being with a proper jurisdiction over the
traders.
As supply and demand increased due to rising trade,
settlements became secure and commerce helped
stimulate growth, luxuries had to be paid in form of
money.
All these factors, including wide extension of the
agricultural bases and enormous increase in power led to
population growth.
The region between the Rhine and the Moselle increased
its population tenfold between the tenth and the
thirteenth century.

Domination of the church
In Western Europe after the fall
of Rome, the church was an
important and universal
institution. By itself, the local
church would often be a
"museum of Christian faith," as
well as a house of worship.
Medieval culture, constantly "in
retreat," had its claustrum,
where the inner life could
flourish. One withdrew at
night: one withdrew on
Sundays and on fast days.

Medievalchurch
Throughout The Middle Ages, the Christian churches of Europe advanced both art and
architecture by building larger, grander churches called cathedrals

The Service of the Guild
It is said that man is a social animal. He always
requires a company to survive.
To exist even during the middle ages, he had to
belong to some association, manor,
monastery,
or a guild.
The guild was the universal representative of
the society. They ate and drank together,
formulated regulations to conduct their crafts,
made schools and built chapels.
There were two types of guilds:
a) The merchant guild – it was a general
body which looked at the organizing and
controlling of the town as a whole.
b) The craft guild – they were an association
of masters who worked together and
established the standards of
workmanship.

The merchant guild
The members of the guild would hold
meetings and discuss the organizing
and controlling of the town as a whole.

Medieval Domesticity
The medieval family unit did not consist of only the
people having a blood relation, but also the industrial
workers whose relationship was that of the secondary
members of the family. The members ate together,
worked together, slept in the same dormitory.
Family then was not just a private unit.
Houses were built in rows. They constructed
courtyards too.
The materials required for the construction came from
local soil and they differed from region to region.
Initially the houses consisted of small windows covered
with cloth. And later, they were changed to glass
windows as the people began manufacturing it.
As time passed, the radical change of developing a
sense of privacy was introduced.
This desire for privacy marked the beginning of classes.

Hygiene and Sanitation
As cities and its population density increased, new sanitation
difficulties arose.
During the twelfth and thirteenth century, breeding places for
disease were more congested than the city itself.
Leftovers were eaten by dogs, chickens and pigs which were
considered to be the local scavengers.
Non-edible waste was difficult to dispose.
Therefore, as early as the sixteenth century, sanitation.
Other important issues were the drinking water supply and
bathing.
Public baths appeared since as early as the thirteenth century.
Supply of drinking water to the town was a collective function.
However, as city size increased, there was increased demand
of water and thus collection had to be done on a larger scale.

Principles of Medieval Town
Planning
The layout of the medieval town
followed the same general patterns as
the village. There were street villages
and street towns: there were
crossroads villages and crossroads
towns; there were circular villages and
circular towns.
The plans of houses varied from
region to region.
There were more interior rooms, a
kitchen and small room on the ground
floor, a heating room above the
kitchen and the toilets were placed
one above the other on different
floors.

Court, parade and
capital
1: The Afterglow of the Middle Ages
2: Territory and City
3: Instruments of Coercion
4: War as City-Builder
5: The Ideology of Power
6: Movement and the Avenue
7: The Shopping Parade
8: The New Divinity
9: Bedroom and Salon
10: The Muddle of Speculative
Overcrowding

The Afterglow of the
Middle Ages
• Between 15th & 18th century new
cultural traits took place. The new
pattern of existence sprang out of
new economy that of mercantilist
capitalism, new political framework
of despotism .
• But all changes were taking place
only in EUROPE.

Territory and City
• From the beginning of middle ages
two powers had been jockeying for
leadership in western Europe.
• One was Royal & other Municipal
• To achieve despotic power over
neighbours , the cities allowed the
loss of their own internal freedom
• In early middle ages the court was
mobile camp, the Royal ministers,
the whole apparatus of govt was
mobile, authority was maintained by
personal supervision
• But during 14th personal supervision
became difficult and so came
parliamentary system
• This system gave rise to Capitalism

Instruments of Coercion
• The reason for rise of despotism
was Gunpowder
• The old city was divided into blocks
and squares and then surrounded
by wall
• Due to growth in population the
city had to expand to a great extent
& then it started to expand
vertically
• This increased the land values in
capital cities
• This resulted the population in slum

War as City-Builder
In the middle ages the soldier had been
forced to share his power with the
craftsman,
the merchant, the priest
But now due to MARTIAL LAW whoever
could finance the city was capable of
becoming master of city.
The army recruited for permanent soldiers
who in turn demanded special forms of
housing
With their residence comes parade
grounds and requires a lot of space.
So this led to replanning of city.

The Ideology of Power
• To increase the boundaries of the state , was to
increase the taxable population, increasing
population of the capital city resulted in the increase
of the rent.
• Capitalism in turn became militaristic , it relied on
arms when it could no longer no bargain.
• Behind the immediate interests of new capitalism,
with its abstract love of money an power , a change
in entire conceptual framework took place.
• At first ,new conception of space and second ,use of
time for research and patent.

Movement and the Avenue
• The avenue is the most important symbol of the
Baroque city.
• It was during 16th century that carts and wagons
came into more general use within cities. This
introduction of wheeled vehicles was registered.
• Nevertheless , the spirit in society was on the side
of rapid transportation.
• Thus the urgent demand of wheeled traffic in 17th
century raised the need off avenues in the city.
• Alberti , the chief of baroque city distinguished
between main and subordinate streets.

• The first he called Viace military or military streets, he
required that to be straight.
• Palladio after Alberti proposed the avenues to be wide
and regular to show their richness and so that there is
enough space for carts.
• He distinguished them from non military roads by
pointing out that they pass through the middle of the
city and lead from one city to another and that they
serve for the common use of the passengers.
• The building stand on each side so that spectators can
have a nice view if the parade on the street.
• In medieval town upper and lower class had to adjust on
this street but now the dissociation of upper and lower
class was very easy.
• Rich road along access of avenues while poor are off-
centre. Eventually a separate strip is provided for
pedestrians.

The Shopping Parade
• Military parade had its feminine counterpart.
• The old open market restricted itself only in the
poorer quarters
• Market squares had no longer place in new urban
layout
• The open air shops tended to disappear. The new
type of shops took shape with glass windows.
• People started to hang display to impression their
taste.
• Fashion was also important for parade

The New Divinity
• The number of churches grew in medieval period.
• The worship was started by aristocrats & slowly
whole population started.
• Religious festivals became important, birthdays
and weddings were celebrated in church.
• And slowly it gained power.
• The Nave was selected by King.
• Aristocrats were given preference and they in turn
started exploiting.

Bedroom and Salon
• The influence of court was effective
in the city.
• The change in constitution of
household manifested itself in
various ways.
• 1st by gradual divorce at home.
• Furniture was also very important in
baroque period.
• Privacy was considered luxury
• With all this luxurious look city was
unable to maintain hygiene. Dirt
diseases flourished in this period
• With crowding water shortage
became a major problem in 18th
century

The Muddle of Speculative
Overcrowding
• Expansion of upper class was at the
expense of lower class.
• This over congestion would have
stopped, if rural economic conditions
have been improved, if new cities have
been found, if upper class have been
deprived of their monopoly.
• Due to this overcrowding the land prices
raised & this created poverty.
• Overbuilding of lands & over occupation
of houses caused sanitary problems.
• Slum properties earned much higher
returns than investments.

The Displacement Of Population
• The major influence on cities were that of bankers, the industrialists
and the mechanical inventors. They were responsible for what was
good and almost all that was bad.
• Most cities had characteristics similar to the town described by
Charles Dickens in his book known as Coketown.
• There was high rate of insecurity amongst the labour class,
establishment of open market for labour class and goods and foreign
dependency for raw materials.

• In 1900s the population in countries like England,
Germany and USA increased five fold.
• Urbanisation increased in direct proportion to industrialisation.
• The movement of people and colonisation of territories had two
forms ;land pioneering and industry pioneering.
• This land migration brought new energy crops like maize, potato and
tobacco.
• But congestion denied even progressive metropolises light and air
which even backward villages possessed.

• In this era of mechanisation people lost an
essential connection with the social complex.
• The spread of mining was accompanied by
general loss of form throughout society.
• In mining towns the characteristic of ‘abbau’ –
mining or unbuilding was at its purest form.
• Along with the invention of universal postal
system, fast locomotion and telegraph system,
forests were being slaughtered, soils were
mined and animal species were being
decimated.
Mechanisation and Abbau

• It was considered that utilitarians had taken over who sought to
reduce governmental functions and have a free hand in making
investments , building industries and buying land and workers.
• Business classes continued to exploit the workers and labour class
wand were often scared of uprising.

• Water was important for any industry to flourish and hence
woollen industry flourished in Yorkshire.
• By the end of the 18th century London , Paris and Berlin provided
ideal conditions . Hence people piled up in these places and
showed human tolerance for this obnoxious environment.

• The two main elements of any urban
settlement were factories and slums both of
which together formed a town.
• The transformation of rivers into open sewers
was a characteristic of paleotechnic economy
which poisoned aquatic life and destructed
food.
• Living quarters were often placed between
factories and sheds amongst the filth and dirt .
Housing for poor was on land filled with ashes
or on a permanent pile of coal and slag.

• Houses had no direct sunlight. Rubbish was
thrown in the streets and it remained there no
matter how vile and filthy.
• There was a dire lack of toilets. 1 toilet was
used by 212 people.
• Cellars were used as dwelling places. Even in
the present decade there are 20,000 basement
dwellings in London marked by doctors as
medically unfit human occupation.
• Evolution of cities was measured by slum, semi
slum and super slum.

• After the age of in invention facilities like iron piping
and improved water closet reached the upper classes .
• Now the middle class got used to dirt and filth and
even in his new housing carried a little of his filth ,
confusion and chaos.
• This was a major problem to decentralisation.

• Lack of food had caused various diseases in
people. Things improved with better and
enough supply of food.
• Wider use of soaps made possible personal
hygiene in people.
• Children were taught to eat fruits.

• But still the gap between rich and the poor was very
high which led to many revolts and uprisings from the
labour class.
• In bleak industrial towns , national politics became
drama , battle and sport.
• The workers utmost success still meant only a life
possible in this paleotechnic prison.

• Cities were slowly planned . They were in the shape
of rectangular blocks which proved out to be
inefficient.
• Traffic arteries were not wide enough and others
were excessively wide.
• The engineers streets often swept through swamps
and dump-heaps. Ventilation was not kept in mind.
• There was no separation between commercial,
residential, industrial and civic sections in plan.
• There was no open space left for schools, universities
and offices.

SUB TOPICS
 The New Coalition
 The Tentacular Bureaucracy
 Shapeless Giantism
 Amsterdam – Organic Planning
 The Blighted Area
 Defacement of Nature
 The Paper Dream City
 Routine and Relaxation
 The Poison of Vicarious Vitality
 Phenomena of the End

The New Coalition
• The point of maximum accumulation, the focus of past achievements and
present activities, is the metropolis.
• One may distinguish roughly between producing cities and consuming
cities(New York, Paris, Berlin). Beginning in the third quarter of the
nineteenth century, the center of gravity shifted from the producing towns
to the capital cities.
• A coalition of land, industry, finance, and officialdom was formed in almost
every country in order to effect the maximum amount of financial
exploitation.
• The agents of power, the aristocracy, the political bureaucracy, and the
army began to direct "national interests" toward the service of the
industrialist.
• The basis for metropolitan agglomeration lay in the tremendous increase
of population that took place during the nineteenth century. By 1900 ,after
London and Paris, eleven metropolises with more than a million
inhabitants had come into existence, including Berlin, Chicago, New York,
Calcutta etc.

The Tentacular Bureaucracy
• What changes and developments
furthered the process of urbanisation?
• Development of transportation which
brought an endless flow of raw materials
and foods into the metropolis.
• New Inventions - Remote control,
Typewriter, means of instantaneous
communication etc.

• Everyone experienced, throughout the
financial and political world, the difficulty of
getting things done by direct action.
• The formation of offices and the residential
suburbs caused transportation back and
forth transportation to work, within a
limited time-span, raised one of the difficult
technical problems that confronted the city
planner and the engineer.

• A new trinity dominated the metropolitan scene:
| Finance | Insurance | Advertising |
• Many financial changes happened in this period.
Bankers got a powerful position in the society.
• Insurance companies entered the stage and started
to control a large amount of pecuniary resources.
• Advertisement becomes the “ spiritual power “ of
this regime.
• Land rents also increased in this era.

Shapeless Giantism
• Circle over big cities in an airplane. As the eye stretches toward the
hazy periphery one can pick out no definite shape, except that
formed by nature.
• The growth of a great city is amoeboid.
• The city has absorbed villages and little towns and reduced them to
place names.
• Here and there in the mass one may partly trace the outline of a
city: hut the mass itself is not a city, in a functional sense, any more
than the immediate countryside that surrounds it is a rural area.
• To conclude, big cities expanded organically with hazy boundaries ,
still the concentration at the centre kept increasing.

Amsterdam –
Organic Planning

The Blighted Area
• The land which was once a green land, was now crowded with
low economic strata who used this land to live.
• Then the blight starts, everything gets more and more
congested and unhygienic.
• Green grounds get converted in either slum or get covered
with torn paper, discarded boxes, broken iron etc.
• All working class neighborhoods are by sheer poverty in a
state of blight because, in the more outlying areas, the cost of
the utilities that connect them with the center has have
increased

Defacement of Nature
• Meanwhile, the urban agglomeration produces a
similar depletion in the natural environment.
• The cement jungle kept on increasing and it
increased up to the rural hinterlands causing a
drastic effect in the culture.
• The metropolitan life affected the rural life cycle
in many ways.
• Though the physical radius of the metropolis
may be only twenty or thirty miles, its effective
radius is much greater.

The Paper Dream City
• Paper became an inevitable resource of the
metropolitan lifestyle.
• All the major activities of the metropolis are
directly connected with paper; and printing and
packaging are among its principal industries.
• In every domain of society like literature, drama,
official work etc. paper became the most
important commodity.
• Mutual direct contact between people reduced.

Routine and Relaxation
• The early definition of relaxation and pleasure
completely changed in the new metropolis.
• The restaurants, the cafes, the saloons and pubs came
into picture.
• The concrete jungle also nurtured many rackets and
criminal activities in its heart.
• This era saw different heights of drug addiction and
prostitution.
• Hence, a professional form of surveillance by an
organized police grew in the city of strangers.

The Poison of Vicarious Vitality
• People began to see their happiness in
other people or in other things rather than
concentrating on themselves.
• This was the time when the modes of
entertainment such as boxing matches,
wrestling bouts bicycle races and dance
marathons etc. came into picture.

Phenomena of the End
• The metropolis is economically weakened by the fact of
growth and its own magnified expenses which gives rise to
the threat of bankruptcy.
• There is always a military vulnerability. Conditions after
the first World War presented almost unbearable difficulties
to the harassed and starving metropolises, while out in the
countryside, in many regions, the peasant remained relatively
secure and well-fed.
• In recreation, there is a serious lack of sufficient space for
play, and for lack of play areas

• As every aspect of a city grew, its fare also
increased. After a certain point, one may
say that urban growth penalized itself.
• Immigration of people can also be a cause
of death of the city. After a certain degree
of concentration, the community fails to
cope up with its members.
• But in actual life, these threats they come
together and reinforce each they can easily
be the cause of the end of the entire
civilization.

04 The Culture of Cities

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04 The Culture of Cities