In part I, we start to "read" the city as a design, as if it were truly a two-dimensional overview of a spatial environment.

1. CITIES
A R T 1 0 0
U n d e r s t a n d i n g V i s u a l C u l t u r e

2. agenda 7.30.15
we can "read" the visual pattern of the city just like we can
"read" the composition of a painting or photograph it has
a formal, visual organization that opens up a set of
semiotic readings
early cities: characteristic features of cities
an early example of "urban planning"
modern discipline of urban planning
what principles should guide our planning today?

3. first key feature: site
Q: what makes one site better than another?

8. Q: what makes one site better than another?
A: proximity to water
• freshwater supply/basic sanitation system
• transportation and trade

9. ritual bathing in the Ganges River, India
source of water for:
drinking
cooking
bathing
washing clothes

10. Li River, China: traditional bamboo fishing boats
commercial uses of water:
fishing
transport of passengers and goods
local, regional, and international trade

11. what else do you need?
food supply (imported from surrounding agricultural areas)
place of protection (often built where "natural" fortifications
exist or walled in)

12. satellite photo
of Beijing
showing
surrounding
mountains

13. natural mountain barrier enhanced with additional fortifications

14. fortress/palace on hilltop with churches, houses, and shops cascading downhill
outer fortification

15. summary
Physical geography—the shape
of the earth, the location of rivers,
coasts and navigable harbors—
will dictate the placement of
cities.

16. city characteristics
• size/density of population
• structure of society
• artisans, craftsman, builders (making useful things)
• people who buy, sell, trade, and finance (merchants and
bankers)
• record-keeping and communication
• public buildings and spaces (for civic and religious
spaces)

17. social structures tend to grow "deep" or "tall" over time

20. teacher
student student student student student student
relatively "flat" hierarchy

21. These are oil paintings from the 1830s
made by US artist George Catlin during
one of his Western trips.

22. what typical physical features of cities do you notice in this city?

23. what signs of hierarchy can you observe in this painting?

24. mounds at Cahokia, IL
physical evidence of prior civilization

25. physical evidence of previous
society
St. Louis was called “Mound City” in the 19th century, but
almost all mounds were gone by turn of 20th century.
There is only one mound left, and a road called “Mound
St.”
Cahokia also was partially destroyed, but with 4,000 acres
still remaining, it is largest archaeological site in the US.

26. who were the people who built this massive earthen structure?
what was their civilization like?

27. Cahokia facts
located in fertile bottomland around Mississippi River
largest structure is 16 acres at the base—larger footprint
than the Pyramid of Khufu—and 10 stories high
constructed from 22 million cubic feet of earth (deposited
by the basketful by a huge workforce)
plaza oriented to cardinal directions

28. large outlying agricultural areas and suburbs
1050-1150 population and building boom in “downtown”
Cahokia, approx. 20,000 inhabitants (larger than London
at the time)
stockade fence 2 miles in circumference surrounding the
complex; from tree ring dating we know when this was
built and it corresponds to a time of food scarcity.

29. “The idea that American Indians could have built something
resembling a city was so foreign to European settlers, that when they
encountered the mounds of Cahokia—the largest of which is a ten-
story earthen colossus composed of more than 22 million cubic feet of
soil—they commonly thought they must have been the work of a
foreign civilization: Phoenicians or Vikings or perhaps a lost tribe of
Israel.”
—Glenn Hodges, “America’s Forgotten
City” (National Geographic, January 2011)

30. Monk’s Mound, Cahokia, IL

31. Burial Excavation showing position of bodies, Cahokia, IL

32. what is beneath the ground?
hundreds of thousands
of objects, suggesting
the presence of a large
agricultural society
many are functional like
farming implements
but there are also
musical instruments,
games, and sculptures,
suggesting a high level
of social
organization/stratificatio
n

33. Nursing Mother
ceramic figure/bottle
c. 1100

34. “Birger Figurine”
c. 1100
carved from bauxite

35. aerial view, Monk’s Mound, Cahokia, IL

36. reconstruction of what Cahokia might have looked like

37. artist’s rendering of the Grand Plaza at Cahokia with surrounding housing

38. artist’s rendering of family housing in Cahokia