ARCHITECTURAL SOCIOLOGY

ARCH 1208
SEMISTER 2
(2021)
 Course Objectives

▪ Intentions and functions of Sociology-The architect and society.

▪ The relationship between Sociology and society- spatial

characteristics of human activity.

▪ Theory and practice of user-client and community participation in

design and planning.

▪ The scope of socially evolved architecture.

▪ Nature of societies- brief overview to modern architecture.

▪ Essential elements of the society and the criteria to achieve an

environment that is socially responsible
and ecologically sound.
 Core content

Biosocial and socio-cultural systems;

▪ Understanding Sociology.

▪ Introduction to Architectural Sociology: Definition, Relationship

between Architecture and Sociology.

▪ The influence architecture on society

Evolution of Cities; Organic, Iron grid plan.

▪ Gordon Childe”s criteria for ancient cities.

▪ Spatial characteristics of urban communities- housing design;

evolution of space.

▪ Origins, growth and influence of cities-The modern movement,

International style, post 1945, Welfare state.
 Core content

▪ Cultural sociology.

▪ Urban sociology and sociology of space: effect of space of society,

man and space.

▪ Contemporary socially evolved architecture.

▪ Definition of urbanization – patterns.

▪ Migration and its impact on urbanization-Adaptability and flexibility;

▪ Housing-sociological understanding of slums;

▪ Housing-the dilemmas of designing without user participation.

 Assessment

Mode of Assessment

Project documentation and investigation, intentionally utilizing a

range of media to visualize and represent the work and process.
Physical models, hand drawings, and sketches will all be expected
for this course.

Course work = 40% [Tests 20%; Assignment 20%]

Final Exam = 60%
 Understanding Sociology

Definition

Sociology is a branch of the social sciences that uses systematic methods of

empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop and refine a body of
knowledge about human social structure and activity, sometimes with the
goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of government policies
designed to benefit the general social welfare.

• Its subject matter ranges from the micro level to the macro level.

• Microsociology involves the study of people in face-to-face interactions.

• Macrosociology involves the study of widespread social processes.

• Sociology is a broad discipline in terms of both methodology and subject matter.

 2. Biosocial and socio-cultural systems

Culture may be thought of under simple terms such as

1. nature
• biology
• Genetics

2. Nurture ( the environment that also shape our identities)

Biology and genetics endow us with a particular form and certain abilities.
Yet our biological nature does not exclusively determine who we are.

For that, we need culture.

Culture is the non-biological or social aspects of human life, basically
anything that is learned by humans is part of culture.
 The influence of architecture on society

Architecture is a representation of society .Its a mirror of it`s values

,successes and portrays its decline of a civilization.

From the buildings especially the layouts we are able to learn the peoples
way of life .

The study of past buildings and present buildings we are able to understand
how architecture has influenced society.

Generally Architecture influences society in the following ways

• Socially
How we interact with each other

• Culturally
As mirror of who we are and how we perceive our selves culturally
 The influence of architecture on society

• Economically
It influences the productivity

• Physiologically
It helps in determining the mood of the occupants
Good architecture should not only provide function but also emotional
connectivity to the space.

• Physically
It determines the health
 Evolution of cities

• Cities are comprised of a mixture of peoples, collection of talent, and

economic surplus providing a productive environment for the development
of human culture: the arts, scientific research, and technical innovation.

• They served as centres of government and communication encouraging the

propagation of new ideas and information to the surrounding territory and
to foreign lands.

8,000 and 10,000 years ago

• systematic cultivation of plants the domestication of animals
• permanent settlements constructed with durable material

By 4BC production of surplus food

• System of writing
• Complex social organisation technological advances e.g
• the plough, potter’s wheel, loom and metallurgy
 siting of urban communities
influences…
1. Centres of food storage, trade & production

2. Popular market places

1. Intersections of transport routes, rivers or sea/ocean ports

1. Religious sites - sacred places, cemeteries or shrines

5. Strategic defence places

 Classical city

GREEK CITY • Varied patterns

• urbanized villages had
organic form

• Colonies were planned

with grid system

• system of wide main

roads (plateau) and
narrow streets (stenopoi)

• The grid divided urban

land into rectangular
plots for development

• Civic buildings
• Monumental Buildings
Classical city
 Classical city

Theatre

Western Agora (Gathering Place) Market Gate

 Classical city

GREEK CITY • Varied patterns

• urbanized villages had
organic form

• Colonies were planned

with grid system

• system of wide main

roads (plateau) and
narrow streets (stenopoi)

• The grid divided urban

land into rectangular
plots for development

• Civic buildings
• Monumental Buildings
 Classical city

ROMAN CITY • Grid iron layout

• Two major streets

• Civic zone-public
buildings

• Agora

• Protective defence
city wall
Classical city
 Early Christian City

• Town planning rule-“the town centre should have at least one clear street,
such as a horseman with a lance across his saddle could ride without being
obstructed by anything in his path. If any part of a building interfered
with the lance, it had to be demolished.”

• shingle or brick walls

-Surrounding moat
-Round or square towers designed both for defence and as a decoration on
walls
-Town access was only through the vaulted gates which were closed at night
-towns formed round a castle or monastery,
-they followed the contour of a hillside or river-bank resulting in steep,
meandering streets, with irregular width
-limited space within the city walls resulted in narrow streets and storeyed
houses.
-single main street leading to gates
-Houses reflected the rank of those living in them; houses of the high
ranking persons could look like small fortresses.
MEDIEVAL CITY
 Early Christian City

• Town planning rule-“the town centre should have at least one clear street,
such as a horseman with a lance across his saddle could ride without being
obstructed by anything in his path. If any part of a building interfered
with the lance, it had to be demolished.”

• shingle or brick walls

-Surrounding moat
-Round or square towers designed both for defence and as a decoration on
walls
-Town access was only through the vaulted gates which were closed at night
-towns formed round a castle or monastery,
-they followed the contour of a hillside or river-bank resulting in steep,
meandering streets, with irregular width
-limited space within the city walls resulted in narrow streets and storeyed
houses.
-single main street leading to gates
-Houses reflected the rank of those living in them; houses of the high
ranking persons could look like small fortresses.
 Late Christian City

• Engrossed with Symmetry

• Creating balanced axial compositions were central motifs

• great importance was the placement of monumental buildings, obelisks,

and statues at the ends of long, straight streets

• Primary straight street (basis of Renaissance urbanism)

• Plans imposed on sites

the Avenue a design feature in Baroque City

• Movement of wheeled traffic

• Radial & Diagonal streets

 Late Christian City
RENAISSANCE CITY

City of Milan
 Early Christian City

• Town planning rule-“the town centre should have at least one clear street,
such as a horseman with a lance across his saddle could ride without being
obstructed by anything in his path. If any part of a building interfered
with the lance, it had to be demolished.”

• shingle or brick walls

-Surrounding moat
-Round or square towers designed both for defence and as a decoration on
walls
-Town access was only through the vaulted gates which were closed at night
-towns formed round a castle or monastery,
-they followed the contour of a hillside or river-bank resulting in steep,
meandering streets, with irregular width
-limited space within the city walls resulted in narrow streets and storeyed
houses.
-single main street leading to gates
-Houses reflected the rank of those living in them; houses of the high
ranking persons could look like small fortresses.
 Early Christian City

• The Baroque is the era when plans began to be imposed on a site,

topography would no longer dictate the form.

• There was a shift in the way urban space was regarded, the Avenue is the
most important symbol and the main fact about the baroque city.

• The movement of wheeled vehicles played a critical part in that it lent

validity to the general geometrizing of space made.

• Radial traffic arteries emanating from a strong central business district.

• Diagonal streets striking through the regular grid- feature of Baroque

planning.
History of Cities… BAROQUE CITY
Renaissance urban spaces can
be grouped under three broad
headings:

1. traffic space, forming part

of the main urban route
system and used by both
pedestrians and horse
drawn vehicles;

2. residential space, intended

for local access traffic
only and with a
predominantly pedestrian
recreational purpose;

3. pedestrian space, from

which wheeled traffic was
normally excluded
 INDUSTRIAL CITY
INDUSTRIAL AGE
• Cities became deadly places, due to the massive population influx that
the existing infrastructure could not handle.

• The living quarters for the working class were unbearable, streets too
narrow with hardly if any air circulation and poor disposal of sewage
from industries and humans.

• Growth of modern industry from late 18th C onwards brought new

opportunities
Renaissance urban spaces can be grouped under three broad headings:
 INDUSTRIAL CITY
INDUSTRIAL AGE
early industrial city
Characterized by:
• Massive urbanization due to migrants from rural communities into
urban areas resulted in
• Overcrowding
• Poor sanitation
• Increased contaminated water and air
• communicable diseases

Technological innovations availed railroad tracks into the city centre, this
greatly expanded the radius of urban settlement.

Both trolleys and railroad systems converged on the centre of the city,
which boasted the premier entertainment and shopping establishments

Electrical power from central power plants supplied urban areas

 INDUSTRIAL CITY
INDUSTRIAL AGE
Large office buildings and substantial numbers of factory and warehouse
structures cropped up.

The working class lived in squalid conditions in crowded districts close to

the city centre, near their place of employment.

Streets were car centred

This situation led to the writing policies that would address the issue and
enforce laws. SOCIAL REFORMS/INTERVEBTIONS

Result of the Age of Enlightenment aka Age of Reason sweeeping

across Europe late 17th C throughout the 18th C.

Several Public Acts were written to amend these deploring conditions but
the 1875 Act was most comprehensive prescribing urban living standards,
construction of dwellings, adequate sanitary facilities and the
construction of new streets.
 INDUSTRIAL CITY
INDUSTRIAL AGE
Intellectuals began to question ideas grounded in tradition and faith using
reason n to search of answers to social reform and to advance knowledge
through the scientific method.

Promoting scientific thought, scepticism, and intellectual interchange,

Enlightenment was a revolution in human thought.

Gothic Revival- associated with revival of medieval-gothic style with intention

of recreating- ‘planned picturesque suburbs’

Started as a reaction against the adverse effects caused by the industrial

revolution and the absolutist political character of the Grand Manner(
Baroque Style)

It celebrates the human scale and seeks to recreate the natural organic
street pattern of old medieval towns and villages
 INDUSTRIAL CITY
INDUSTRIAL AGE
It was an antithesis to the ‘city’ seeking to escape the urban squalor by
working with a small scale in the countryside and recreating ‘planned
picturesque suburbs’ taking advantage of with natural organic street pattern
of old medieval towns and villages.
 ENLIGHTENMENT OF EUROPE

Industrial city in the mid-19th century experienced urban reformation a

reaction against the disorder the Industrial Revolution had created

This was manifested in terms of urban renewal and reconstruction of sections

or whole parts of cities.

Rulers attempted city redesign with improvements in hygiene and health for
urban poor, fire safety (by designing wider streets), stone construction and
access to the river.

Urban reformation
Urban renewal and city reconstruction

Architects/developers were provoked into desiring to improve the living state

of the urban poor

Leaders embarked on redesigning their capital cities into grandeur

showpieces of the nation.
 Modern Movement & City
Modernism believed in progress through rational action. It advocated for a
Passive world view that naturally unfolded without human intervention over
a static (unprogressive) world. It was the revolt against the tradition
toward modern thought, character and
• Idealism
• Innovation
• Rationalism
• Technological functionalism
• Mechanisation
• Rejected historicism
• Abstract & reinvention
 Characteristics of Modernism

•Dominant commercial centre

•Homogenous functional zoning
•Decline in land values away from centre
•Managerial distribution of resources for social purposes
•Cities designed in totality
•Class segregations
•Internal homogeneity between class groups
•Mass production
 The Modernist City

Modernism lasted from 1900-1945. It was the perpetuator of urban planning

treating buildings and developments as isolated, unrelated parts of the
overall urban ecosystems which produced fragmented, isolated, and
homogeneous urban landscapes.

Modernist-style of planning disregarded public opinion , which resulted in

planning being forced upon the majority by a minority consisting of affluent
professionals with little to no knowledge of real 'urban' problems
characteristic of post- Second World War urban environments; slums,
overcrowding, deteriorated infrastructure, pollution and disease to mention
a few. A good example of failed modernism housing project is Pruitt-igoe
 The Modernist City

The garden city movement is a method of urban planning that was initiated
in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom.

An Utopian dream, the Garden City was to be a self-sufficient community

with separated zones for industry, residence, commercial, and public service
and each zone insulated from each other with greenbelts of parklands and
plenty of trees.

The garden city concept combined the town and country with the intention
of providing the working class an alternative to working on farms or
‘crowded, unhealthy cities’.
 The Modernist City

City Beautiful was the American version of social reformation and social
control. It was based of Beaux Arts Style and gave birth to American city
planning.

Its focus was primarily on stirring American architects and artists

towards an architectural style that was uniquely American and different
from Europe through invention and innovation instead of continuity and
tradition.

Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright works espoused this newness and
cultural nationalism by borrowing strongly from Old World architecture.
 The Modernist City

Partisans in Slovakia – an example of a typical planned industrial city founded in

1938
 The City Beautiful Movement
City Beautiful Movement
Garden City Movement
➢,xxxxx
➢Ebenezer Howard-1898
➢Across the Atlantic
➢United kingdom
➢Result of SOCIAL SPECULATION
➢Garden City Concept- & REFORM
Combined town & country ➢Based on BEAUX ARTS STYLE
➢founded the Garden Cities ➢Beautification and Social Control
Association (became the Town tool
and Country Planning Association
) ➢Birthed American city planning

➢Looking Backwards & Progress ➢With the Procession ( H. Blake)

and Poverty (H. Georges)
 Garden City features

•Land use zoning

•Industry zone ( at edge)
•Civic junction (at centre)
•Intermediate zones(residences)
•Modernist concept of design the “ town centre”
•Garnier’s Industrial City had separation of living, working and recreation
zones
•Separation of vehicular and pedestrian routes
The town centre was designed with a new arrangement of town
buildings; a modernist concept. Clarence Perry formalized Tony Garnier
separation of motorised and pedestrian traffic routes in his design of
Radburn layout. He further formalised the idea of the “neighbourhood
unit”.
The Garden City Concept
 Garden city concept

•Comprise 32,000 people on a site of 6,000 acres (2,400 ha),

•a concentric layout
•open spaces, public parks
• six 120 ft (37 m) wide radial boulevards extending from the centre.
•self-sufficient city
•Once full population reached, another garden city would be developed
nearby.
• Cluster of garden cities – developed as satellites with a central city of
50,000 people, linked by road and rail.
•Garden city plan was a unit of 7 cities(individual garden cities)
supporting subcomponents and countryside.
 Le Corbusier’s Radiant City (Ville Radieuse)

Ville Radieuse, an utopian ideal, formed the basis of a number of urban plans in
the 1920s and 1930s leading to the design and construction of first modernist
residential housing- Unité d'Habitation in Marseilles in 1952. This ideal city was
to address four problems such inhabitation, work, recreation, circulation.
Le Corbusier’s Radiant City (Ville Radieuse)

• Brasilia (Brazil) was

designed and planned
along the principles of
Le Corbusier’s Radiant
City by Oscar Niemeyer.

• Ville Radieuse was

proposed as a blue print
of social reform by Le
Corbusier in 1930.

• Find out which other

cities have been
designed employing
these principles.
 Decline of Modernism

penalties
assumptions responsible
• Progress was unsustainable
1.the city is a machine that solves a
problem and can be designed as a • Environments were hastily created
tool. and did not consider the their
context
2.The will of a designer can be
imposed at the scale of a city. • Killed off old areas through
prevalent demolitions
3.the form of a city, its morphology,
can be conceived in advance of its • New areas suffered with left over
space after “planning”. ( a symptom
development ("planned").
of preconceived needs not tested.)
• Feelings of isolation in towers
• Malls abandoned to vandalism and
crime
 The Post-Modernist City

• Postmodernism is a rejection of the concept of totality, of the notion

that planning could be 'comprehensive‘ and their wide application
regardless of context and rational. In this sense, Postmodernism is a
rejection of its predecessor modernism. one single 'right way' of
engaging in urban planning and are more open to different styles and
ideas. Post modernism is an eclectic style.
 The Post-Modernist City

• Rejected the plan of cities in totality

• Rejected Comprehensive planning

• Theories embraced diversity

• Open to different styles and ideas

• one single 'right way' of engaging in urban planning

• It promoted uncertainty, flexibility an change

• pluralism and awareness of social differences was used in the planning

for minority and disadvantaged groups
The Post-Modernist City
The Post-Modernist City
The Post-Modernist City
The Post-Modernist City
 Final thoughts

Tradition and Modernity, two sides of same coin...

building is not a rigid doctrine but an living, organic, ecological process...

It's about CONTINUITY, based on MEMORY, COMMON SENSE &

EXPERIENCE. These are foundations of INVENTION.

“We have to know from where we are coming to know where we are
going”- Charles Correa
 history of city
Urban Revolution
• According to Gordon Childe, pre-industrial cities existed in a hierarchy
of 3 stages.

• These stages followed each other successively and were based on the
methods adopted to procure food

• Savagery

• Barbarianism

• Civilization
 history of city
Urban Revolution
• Savagery - communities that live exclusively on food obtained by
collecting, hunting or fishing.

• Barbarians - supplemented these natural resources with cultivation of

edible plants and breeding animals for food.

• Civilization- a little harder to define, it may denote the use of “writing”

or a certain size of settlement and density of population living together.

• Nowhere is there a record of a community of savages civilizing

themselves, implying that community going through the stage of
Barbarianism to evolve into a civilized one.
 history of city
Urban Revolution
one can not argue that a people are said to “civilized “can all read and write

Neolithic cities when attaining a population unable to be sustained by the

accessible land, would break off and found new communities

According to Vere Gordon Childe, for a settlement to qualify as a city, it

must have enough surplus of raw materials to support trade and a
relatively large population
 history of city
Urban Revolution
one can not argue that a people are said to “civilized “can all read and write

Neolithic cities when attaining a population unable to be sustained by the

accessible land, would break off and found new communities

According to Vere Gordon Childe, for a settlement to qualify as a city, it

must have enough surplus of raw materials to support trade and a
relatively large population
 history of city
Urban Revolution
10 criteria to distinguish early cities from older or contemporary
villages:

1. Size & density of settlement

2. Composition & Function of population
3. Tax & Tithe
4. Monumental Buildings
5. Social strata of population
6. Record Keeping
7. Invention of Writing
8. Other Specialties
9. Trade & importation
10. Specialized Craftsmen
 history of city
Urban Revolution
1. Size of settlement
• should be above normal, extensively and densely populated
• Ancient cities of Mesopotamia and Indus Valley ranged from 7000-
20,000 (archeological records)

2. Composition & Function of community

• Population differed in composition and function from any village
• Not all residents grow their own food, leading to specialists.
• Full time specialists craftsmen, transport workers, merchants, officials
and priests

3. Tax & Tithe

• Payment of taxes to a deity or king.
• Farmer payed over the tiny surplus
• The king concentrated the surplus but owing to low productivity of the
rural community, there was little capital to be gained
 history of city
Urban Revolution
4. Monumental Buildings
• These clearly distinguished the urban area from the rural area
• Symbolize social surplus
• Symbolize the beliefs and lifestyle of the community: Egypt – pyramids;
Greeks and Romans- civic structures ; Mayans –temples and pyramids

5. Social strata of population

• Those not producing their own food are supported by the king through
the surplus accumulated at the granary and temples
• Priests, civil and military officials absorbed a major share of the
surplus
• This formed a “ruling class” exempt from manual tasks
• In exchange the lower classes were guaranteed peace and security and
intellectual tasks
 history of city
Urban Revolution
6. Record Keeping
• Compelled to invent systems of recording and practical sciences
• Invent systems of conventional methods of recording, writing and
recording understood by all

7. Invention of Writing
• Invention of scripts enabled the advancement of arithmetics, geometry,
and astronomy
• Assisted Egyptians and Mayans in the correct determination of the
tropical year and creation of the calendar

8. Other Specialties
• Development of symbolic art concentrated social supported by surplus
Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Indus and Mayan artistic craftsmen (sculptors,
painters or seal-engravers) carved, modelled and drew likeness of persons
or things
• This was done with search sophisticated conceptualization unlike the
instinctiveness of the hunter-gatherer.
 history of city
Urban Revolution
9. Trade & importation
• Trade and import of raw materials not available locally
• used part concentrated social surplus
• Foreign trade over long distances was a feature of ancient civilizations
• Objects were majorly “luxuries” but also industrial materials

10. Specialized Craftsmen

• Specialist craftsmen from outside the kin-group were provide with raw
materials
• City was now a community a craftsman could belong to politically and
economically
• Craftsmen were provide security in exchange but then relegated to the
lower class because they were dependent on the temple
• Specialization of functions or labour
 history of city
growth and influence of cities
• Cities continued to evolve from the pre-historic era into a defined
“civilization” stage.

• Cities have been equated to civilization. First cities were recorded in

Mesopotamia between 4000-3000 BC.

• During the “urban Revolution” when settlements shifted from simple

agricultural based production to complex socio economic and political
systems.

• This was true for the early cities of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Indus
valley
 history of city
growth and influence of cities
• Map of Haarlem, the
Netherlands, of around
1550 showing the city
completely surrounded by
a city wall and defensive
canal, with its square
shape inspired by
Jerusalem
 history of city
growth and influence of cities

Reconstruction of what Jerusalem looked like during the 1st century CE,
based on archaeological findings
 history of city
growth and influence of cities
• Did the city exist in the midst of the principally agricultural civilization
of the 19thC Europe

• This depends on the definition of the term “city”

• If the ‘city” means a community with a population living beyond

cultivating the soil by devoting itself to commercial activity, the answer
will be NO

• Is it a community endowed with legal personality and possessing laws

and institutions peculiar to itself… the answer is NO

• OR is it a community that is a center of administration that acted as a

fortress.
 history of city
Urban Revolution
• The last definition was characteristic of the Carolingian cities. Middle
ages cities were characterized by middle class population and communal
organisation.

• Cities were enclosed by a protective wall accessed through a main

entrance. They contained assembly places, religious sites, political and
judicial places and market places.

• The plan and construction of these walls depended on the natural terrain
and available building materials.

• Most times these enclosures remained empty until on during specific

occasions such as religious and civic ceremonies or war.

• As civilization progressed what was occasional became a lifestyle with

more temples coming up and magistrates and leaders establishing
residences and merchants coming to settle.
 history of city
Urban Revolution
• The occasional center of assembly became a city; with administrative,
political, economic functions for all members of the tribe and territory
whose name it adopted

• Around the 9thC trade declined , this put to an end the municipal
population.

• Instead the influence of existing bishops became unrivalled, towns

became under their control.

• Granaries and storehouses were filled with harvests from the monastical
demesnes, by the tenant-farmers

• Annual festivals enable the congregation of the diocese poured into town
and made it lively.

• During this time the world then accepted the bishop as its spiritual and
temporal head
 Artist's rendition of ancient city or Ur

At its height c 2900 BC, Ur probably had 50,000–80,000 residents living

in 6 km2 of walled area; making it the largest city in the world at the time
Ancient City of Uruk
 history of city
Urban Revolution
• The theocratic form of government completely replaced the municipal
regimen of ancient cities.

• Towns were fortresses as well episcopal residences. The bishops

occupied themselves with maintaining these protective wall built by
Romans.

• During the later part of the 9thC there was insecurity and rampant
disorder from invaders in search of enlarging their territory and
tribute

• Princes established burgs (fortress) which complemented the towns as

centers but lacked the towns’ other attributes

• Carolingian cities were merely fortified places and headquarters of

administration lacking social, economic and legal characteristics of
previous towns.

• These burgs were the fore runners of cities in the Middles Ages.
 history of city
Urban Revolution
During the Middles Ages, cities developed a middle class that was neither
noble nor clergy.

It formed a distinct legal group differentiating it from the majority rural

group.

It was left to the middle class to spread the idea of liberty. The serf
became liberated with establishment of new towns

seigneurs (landlords) constantly attracted farmers with a promise of

leasing their vast lands for cultivations without levying taxes.

The serfs bore the taxes instead

 city of Carcassonne, France

Situated in a strategic
position on the Aude
River between the
Toulousain and the
Mediterranean port of
Narbonne, the city of
Carcassonne served
throughout the Middle
Ages as a military
stronghold and center
of administration

Occupied at least since the first century A.D. by the Romans, Carcassonne
was a major Visigothic stronghold after the5th century, before becoming
one of the largest walled cities in western Europe during the later Middle
Ages.
city of Carcassonne, France