College of Environmental Design
Department of Architecture, UC Berkeley
Architecture Slide Library
Architecture 170 - Fall 1996 - Dell Upton - December 3
I. THE MEDIEVAL CITY. The city as pattern, and the city as life. Is there a medieval city?
II. CITY PATTERNS. Is the medieval city organic or haphazard? Discontinuity in the medieval landscape.
Why the medieval city? Long-distance and local trade, concentration of specialized crafts, military considerations, adjunct to court and monastery/cathedral.
What site? Eminence (ex.: Lan, France), water (ex.: Ely, England), or a pre-existing attraction, such as castle (ex.: Wurzburg, Germany), monastery (ex.: Mont St-Michel, France), or remnants of an older site, particularly of a Roman town (exs.: Piacenza and Lucca, Italy, a rebuildings Roman sites. Note in Lucca: Piazza del Anfiteatro, reworking the site of a Roman amphitheater. Plan modern; Aerial view).
City elements. [1] Street and market. Open-air trading in the medieval city; the market place (exs.: Norwich, England; Alkmaar, Netherlands). Sorting in the market (Lubeck, Germany). Platting the city to make maximum use of public contact. Irregular medieval urban density. [2] Walls and gates. Walls as defense, pride, and a way of regulating membership and collecting taxes in the city. A consequence: the faubourg or suburbium; ribbon (London), portal, and bridgehead ( Bristol, England) suburbs.
The process of urban growth: [1] Burh and market: Hereford, England, a 10C Saxon burh with a market place outside. [2] The incorporation of suburbs: Paris, based in part on site of Roman Lutce. Medieval royal city on le de la Cit, with suburbs on either side gradually incorporated into walls (Paris: early map; plan 1150). [3] The bastide: Caernarvon, Wales, begun 1282 as one of Edward I's military towns used in English takeover of Wales and France. (Typical bastide town).
III. CITY LIFE. Contrasts, contradictions, conflicts in the city. The public/private mixture. Public spaces: Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy, L13C, as a public space with a mixed message. Public/private ambiguity: the parish church (York and Norwich, England); the noble house (Bishop's palace, Beauvais, France, 13C); the merchant's house (Romanesque House, Cluny, France, 12C; note mixture of domestic and public functions, use of front/back, cellar and upper floors in this and similar houses). (Baltic port home of International Trader).
Conflict in the urban landscape: townspeople vs. church; aristocracy vs. merchants in the Italian commune: grandi vs. popolo; consul, potest, and signoria. The noble tower house (ex.: San Gimignano, Italy, with its towers of 12C-14C).