The Ideal City: Its Architectural Evolution in Europe

by Helen Rosenau

Overview

The concept of the 'ideal city' is, perhaps, more important today - when planners and architects are so firmly confined by considerations of our immediate environment - than ever before. Yet it is a concept which has profoundly influenced the western world throughout history, both as a regulative model and as an inspiration.

Rosenau traces the progress of the concept from biblical sources through the hellenistic and Roman empires to the Renaissance and the later Age of Enlightenment, when the emphasis shifted from religious to social considerations. She goes on to discuss the resultant nineteenth-century ideal planning, when the idea of social betterment was approached with a specific and conscious effort.

This book was first published in 1983.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415864756
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/09/2013
Pages:	210
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Part 1: Introductory Survey 1. The ancient tradition 2. The Middle Ages 3. The Renaissance development and the Mannerist phase 4. The Age of the Baroque Part 2: Phases of Progress 5. Developments in France 6. The English contribution Part 3: Ambivalent Tendencies in the Nineteenth Century 7. Neo-classicism and Quatremere de Quincy 8. The utopian socialists and Futurism Conclusions