Charter of Athens The Charter of Athens advocates separation of urban functions, promotes automobile dependency and construction of monolithic, nondescript architecture. The Charter has the tendency to encourage separation of functions, segregation, monolithic planning such as express highways, all the while neglecting equity, public realm, historic preservation. The Athens Charter conveys Modernist rationale and thus encourages assimilation and behavioural conformity – that social behaviour could be manipulated and transformed through physical and spatial alterations of urban design. Essentially, the Athens Charter states that the construction of decent shelters following certain principles will provide solutions to political, social and economic …show more content…
The recommendations stated in the Charter make it clear that the modernists wished to implement social transformation through physical forms and spatial relationships to induce an intended pattern of behaviour from its users. Subsequently, the Charter of Athens adopted a modernist and rationalist approach in effort to create “the functional city”. The Charter stresses function over form where aesthetic features were disregarded over efficiency and equality. Principles stated in the Charter are utopian in approach and rely on urban design and planning solutions to resolve social, economic and political problems. The Charter reflects modernists thinking in which spatial equity is considered to be an important factor in creating an utopian community where work, recreation and basic amenities and services are within physical reach of its users. Subsequently, the Charter of Athens encourages separation of functions by its land-uses – from residential to recreation, from work to transportation. In the Modernist approach, suburban expansion is abhorred – naturally, the …show more content…
New Urbanism also recommends centralized ‘main street’ with narrower streets where pedestrian mobility is prioritized and public transit is encouraged. The Charter of New Urbanism hopes to encourages social diversity – meaning within these neighbourhoods, a variety of housing types can be found thus bringing people of diverse ages, races and incomes into daily interaction (#13). New Urbanists aim to control social environment by acknowledging that physical solutions alone will not resolve social and economic issues – but also realizes that socio-economic stability and environmental sustainability cannot be maintained without a supported and integrated physical framework and could be improved through graphic urban design codes (#17). As stated in the Charter, New Urbanism strives to achieve a sustainable, economically and socially diverse and walkable region through design. It is a direct response to the principles of Charter of Athens where market and policy sustained resulted in an unsustainable and economically and racially segregated communities. The Charter of New Urbanism seeks to discourage social segregation and diversify socioeconomic composition thus encouraging social diversity, affordable housing
There is no coincidence that the rise of Athenian Democracy goes chronologically hand in hand with the rise of the Athenian Navy. Following the defeat of the Persians by the Greeks, Athens’ naval successes allow it to surpass the previous naval power of Corinth; create the Delian league to fund and support this navy; and eventually ruffle enough feathers with their fellow Hellenic neighbours that they inspire the Peloponnesian war. Overall their naval reputation and intimidation comes from the skill of the men who maneuver and command the ships, and the tool they use to wield their power, the Athenian trireme. By looking at the design of the trireme, and the work and numbers put both into the ship and the men that drive it, hopefully both the wealth and skill of the Athenian navy can be appropriately highlighted. In the end, it is this immense power and resources that allow the Athenians to overstep their limits and caused such demoralizing defeats such as the expedition at Syracuse and the eventual loss of the Peloponnesian war, after which they prove unable to grow to the same undefeated sea power they were.
One of Plato's goals in The Republic, as he defines the Just City, is to illustrate what kind of leader and government could bring about the downfall of his ideal society. To prevent pride and greed in leaders would ensure that they would not compromise the well being of the city to obtain monetary gains or to obtain more power. If this state of affairs becomes firmly rooted in the society, the fall to Tyranny begins. This is the most dangerous state that the City become on i...
Despite having no written works, Socrates remains one of the greatest and influential philosophers of all time. In Plato Republic, Socrates’ account for the origin of the city-state is a main concept. On a broad scale, Socrates views justice as the main relationship between the individual and the state. Moreover, Socrates also examines the nature of injustice in the city-state, which serves to explain his concern about the early moral education of the potential guardians. In Book II of Plato Republic, Socrates concern for the good of the souls of the potential guardians correlates to his argument for censorship in Books II and III. Undoubtedly, Socrates focus on the nature of injustice in the city-state, explains his understanding of the origin of the luxurious state. Overall, Socrates’ examination of the city-state in Plato Republic serves as the basis of his additional theoretical perspectives.
Of the many problems affecting urban communities, both locally and abroad, there is one issue in particular, that has been victimizing the impoverished within urban communities for nearly a century; that would be the problem of gentrification. Gentrification is a word used to describe the process by which urban communities are coerced into adopting improvements respective to housing, businesses, and general presentation. Usually hidden behind less abrasive, or less stigmatized terms such as; “urban renewal” or “community revitalization” what the process of gentrification attempts to do, is remove all undesirable elements from a particular community or neighborhood, in favor of commercial and residential enhancements designed to improve both the function and aesthetic appeal of that particular community. The purpose of this paper is to make the reader aware about the significance of process of gentrification and its underlying impact over the community and the community participation.
In Plato’s republic, a philosophical account on the kallipolis (the beautiful city) is built on the perspective of Socrates and his discussion between his companions. In the republic, the city in which ones live in depends on the soul and the character of the city one lives in. In this paper the character of human nature and politics will be discussed in how a city is ought to be by the influence of human nature and politics. Firstly, the influence of human nature on politics will be looked at, for example according to Plato on behalf of Socrates; he claims that a just soul creates a just society, where it is human nature to be just, that influences in creating a just political system. Secondly, politics influences human nature, where in the republic when the discussion of guardians starts out between Socrates and the companions, there is political thought discussed between them, where Socrates wants to create the perfect guardians through specific training in all types of skills instituted to creating a perfect protector. Lastly, human nature is human soul if the soul is just the city is going to be just. It is the human nature which has created communities without any political thought put in place; it political thought that forms rules and laws. Thus, human nature is part of the individual understanding of its society that creates an understanding of how one ought to be, which in turns creates rules and laws that is essentially viewed as politics.
Throughout every major empire, there are two opposing ideas of how to run a government. In ancient Greece the two ancient city-states, Sparta and Athens, both had very different ideas on how to run a civilization. Athens model was democracy and rhetoric speaking. Sparta had an oligarchy and everyone worked for the state. Today, most modern governments have modeled off of the Athenian democracy but what would the modern day look like if we modeled after the Spartans? The Athenians were at the center of philosophy, were great traders, had an extremely strong navy with many citizens. Eventually though greed led Athens to bullying other city-states into given them money and plague came when too many people populated the city. Spartans were trained
...ive elements. In theory, especially when set in ancient Greece, Kalliⲑpolis might have been the closest thing to a utopia the world would have ever seen. The city would have wise leaders who were supported by well-trained soldier, both male and female, whose only goal would be to protect the city. Yet, in practice Kalliⲑpolis is flawed. The leaders would keep the rest of the citizens oppressed and stupid through the censorship of information and strict class structure in order to maintain control. Kalliⲑpolis will never exist because it has too many components that would not work. Maybe if Plato had stopped with the un-luxurious city he would have created a utopia, yet he persisted in attempting to create a just luxurious city and instead created a dystopia.
In 1516 Thomas More published Utopia, thereby kindling for the Renaissance as well as four our own times a literary ritual designating an idyllic future society and by outcome evaluating the society already in existence. Throughout history, humans have obsessed with projected Utopias of the world that revealed their perception of it. These multidimensional projections can be viewed as naiveties that leaked to the peripheral world nothing more than subjective thoughts. Half a century after More, Leon Battista Alberti promoted a parallel Utopian tradition of designing the Utopian city, one dedicated to Francesco Sforza. This utopian urban planning initiated a multitude of efforts to install a desirable geometrical pattern for future living without narrating how to achieve it. Another few centuries into the future and we view how this obsession with planning for a Utopia still lives through Le Corbusier’s Villa Radieuse master plan. A master plan proposed as the resolution to the enigma of human existence in an industrialized world. Nonetheless with the acknowledgment of the concept of Utopia and the designing for this we come to ponder even more on whether a Utopia can truly exist aside from within ones mind and whether it turns to dystopia when physically established. Can one collective Utopian vision exist or does a Utopic city stem from the coexistence of a variety of utopian thoughts and ideas.
Ancient Athens is praised for its democratic institutions, yet its legal systems and courts have been relatively understudied by legal scholars. Although many books exist in which topics of Athenian law are discussed in detail, for the past century, most of them have been written in German. There are only a few books in English which provide adequate discussion on the topics of Greek law and specifically Athenian courts. Many historians argue that this neglect is intentional, and is mainly due to the lack of evidence. Even for the state about which we know the most, Athens, there are only a limited number of primary sources available.
Athens is perhaps most famous for being the birthplace of the democratic form of government. Critical to concept of Athenian democracy was the introduction of a written law code that could only be enforced by a court, not a group of aristocrats. Draco or Dracon (7th century B.C.) provided Athens with its first written code of law which replaced the use of ‘oral laws’ that previously favored only the Athenian aristocrats. The basic outlines of the development of democracy can then be traced from Draco to Solon to Cleisthenes.
Jacobs includes work from nineteenth-century Utopians with their rejection of urbanized society and their inheritance of eighteenth century romanticism. On page 489, Jacobs clarifies that to see complex systems of functional order as order, and not ask chaos, takes understanding. She analyzes the what a citys structure consists of mixture of uses and that the “skeleton” of a city structure are on the fundamentally the wrong track. It must be understood that streets provide the principal visual scenes in
The lack of knowledge in this form of political structure led to the individual pursuit of personal interest in Athens rather than the fair application of justice (Santas, 2010, p. 159). In this case, Plato focused on the concepts of equality and freedom as the misuse of both concepts can be a source of decline in creating the ideal city (Santas, 2010, p. 159). According to the Republic, not only can equality and freedom be used for the individual gain when person has the right to be in a position of power, but also to use the freedom speech and the freedom to do as one pleases in his life (Santas, 2010, p. 175). The absence of what Plato refers to as the virtue of social wisdom which “entitles some of the citizens to rule over the others” becomes hard to find when personal passions override the public good and the fact that rational rule becomes impossible when individuals want to please their appetitive soul (Santas, 2010, p. 165). Also, according to what Socrates said in book IV of the Republic: “every individual ought to have someone occupation in the city, which should be that to which his natural capacity was best adapted,” no one should be allowed to have a job that they are not suited for by nature and education.
Utopia is an imagined place where human desire and feel satisfy. According to Mumford (1922), the idea of utopia is reconstructing over time. The change of ideology over time might cause by the economy, politics, living environment and social status. Urban planning is a ‘laboratory’ of cogitating city futures from the old utopian thought (Ganjavie, 1922). The existing cities are often built on the ideas that people desired in the past and improving by the arising ideas and needs. The more needs that are required to satisfy, the more the city should evolve as an urban area. One of the important components of urban development is the enhancement transportation technology. It is believed that transportation gives different level of impact on cities and lifestyle throughout the history. First, the essay will demonstrate how did the transportation reformed city in the history. Second, it will discuss the capacity of transportation to further reshape the urban form. Third, the essay will argue how does the transportation technology impact individuals.
... architectures would led to a more organic organization beneficial to the people that choose to make their lives in this city. Although this model of a sustainable city is not a perfectly closed loop, it lays the foundation for one that is. Over time, with constantly evolving and improving technology and new methods of design from the scale of products to buildings, the gaps in the loop could be closed, and a “true” sustainable city could be fully realized.
Urbanism embraces a range of urban design and town development philosophies which recognise that the physical coherence of communities. Architects approach seeks to design mixed use community and interconnected streets. Perhaps, most of the city streets are mere trenches, narrowly pressed between two rows of high houses; the sun never descends into them. A pale crowd moves through them ceaselessly and the eye is struck at each corner by filth.What are the guidelines by which a city can breathe? By which city streets are recognised for community coherence? By which city is effectively function within the emerging theatre of utopia? How can streets be safe, comfortable, and interesting to the pedestrian?How requirements of urban form change with time?