Downtown
The downtown is the heart of the city. It is also called downtown core in the case of large cities. This is the place for demonstrations cultural and sporting , the trade and political (as defined in the polished Greek ). It includes places of worship, place, city hall , and shops of all kinds.
Over time, city centers have changed their role and value.
Summary |
Changes over time
Antiquity
As the defenses were usually of paramount importance, the ancient city was often located on hilltops. The center was a group of homes protected by an enclosure providing protection primarily, but also an ideal concentration for religion to judge by the number and size of the temples that discovered by archaeologists. The city of Babel with its great religious tower is a good example. Living in fear of being attacked and reduced to slavery , the people closed the doors of the city at night in case of danger. Outside and beyond the walls extended fields, grazing lands that were not promoted during the attacks.
City dwellers often lived on agriculture and livestock, they then worked outside the city but often lived within the city rather than on their farms. Cities served deposits of goods, business centers and distribution markets, cities like Tyre and Sidon. During the domination of the Roman Empire , some downtowns are generated by the presence of strong military, like Wiesbaden in Germany , Vienna in Austria. After the construction of military camps is generally that of cathedrals or other religious buildings and buildings for general education.
Middle Ages
The military role of the city declined in favor of the castle itself but always retreats behind the walls with moats , and the territories are divided into many kingdoms. The first stone castles appear in the late tenth century. Many cities are surrounded by medieval ramparts ( Paris , Rouen , Carcassonne ) following major insecurity prevailing. The city becomes the seat of power and capital grow, he knows the emergence of a new social class: the bourgeoisie. The citizens, out of power, want to get involved in politics and get into 1214 law creating a board before taking office in 1262. The trade knows the creation of the Hanse , a trade association of merchants, it becomes a political union.
Social conditions are different. The slave is a man dependent on a lord at the higher levels of social hierarchy, relations between free men are characterized by ties of vassalage : the vassal must help and advice from the man he took the oath of allegiance. Such linkages involve a number of duties, among which military service. These links to outbuildings main consequence of a strong social hierarchy, the intellectual center of feudalism is mainly located in the abbeys and monasteries which develops architectural art.
Modern Era
The French Revolution destroyed the feudal and manorial rights. Industrialization and the concentration of workers creates a massive and sustainable poverty of the workers, who can not evolve. Farmers and industry are in a situation of overproduction. Unemployment increases, accelerating the rural exodus to the cities where the unemployed are hoping to find work.
Contemporary Period
Economic changes have led to prosperous urban social strata to participate in power want. But beside them, a proletariat which is also - completely new - urban develops. Technological advances fuel conflicts and speeding up with them, which removes the protective side of the city. Indeed, military forces are such that physical protection becomes insignificant, and the policy is seen as a solution for protection. Political debates are no longer in the streets. In France , the rural exodus was basically completed in 1975. Since then, net migration country / city has stabilized, even since the early 1990s was reversed around large urban areas. There is now talk of rurality : urban dwellers moved to the countryside while keeping an urban lifestyle, a job in town. This phenomenon produces a "sprawl" of the landscape dotted by a frame, or at best broken down into subdivisions. This creates a change of scenery and conflicts between agricultural activities and rurban.
Future
We are witnessing a sprawl. The center is empty of its inhabitants and its shops, the traffic is problematic. The suburbs saw the advent of shopping malls and various areas of activity that leads to the formation of edge cities ( edge cities ).
Economic development, social change from time to time, the increase of urban population and congestion of transportation networks combined urban sprawl grows greater sectorization of the city. The city is gradually losing its centralized nature. Public transportation enable people to move easily and quickly. Another important reason leading to urban sprawl is choosing a lifestyle that seems more pleasing to the individual urban living space offering greater cost and less dense in a frame.
The city as seen by the authors
- "For there are two functions in cities, one primer housing , the other secondary movement and today we see everywhere the housing despised, sacrificed to the movement , so that our cities , deprived of trees, fountains, markets, banks, to be more "walkable," became less and less habitable. "Keys and locks, Michel Tournier
- "On the other hand, for orientation in London , if we do not know this town is it not better to have a plan of Berlin than no plan at all? "Here's why, Alain Fleischer
- "The shape of a city changes faster, alas, the heart of mortals. " Charles Baudelaire
See also
Related articles
- Historic Centre
- Vassalage
- Rural exodus
- Rurbanisation
- Urbanism, Utopia and Reality
- Suburbs
- Exodus to the suburbs
- Urban space
- Sprawl
- Central business district
- Dormitory town
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