The City Shaped Essay Example

In the Tired chapter, “The City as Diagram”, he explains that the design intent that determines the eventual form of certain cities. With the contemporary Eco village of Arcosanti and the Medieval period Palmanova in Italy, he contrasts two distinct forms, tracing their diagrammatic evolution. The diagram of the two cities is very specific, addressing their intent; responding to the landscape the former and to the militaristic needs and ideas in the latter.He then questions the reason why cities take their specific shape and comes up with an answer that would fit most cases government, regimentation, and politics and in many cases, religion. From the concentration camp in Hamburg in Germany to Saltaire in England, from Srirangam in South India to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, he wrote traces how each city's diagram developed responding to its militaristic, industr