Hippodamus of Miletus as the Father of City Planning, Research Paper Example

Introduction

The contribution of Hippodamus of Miletus may be primarily abstracted in terms of his innovations in the field of urban planning. Christopher G. Boone describes Hippodamus as “the father of Greek urban planning”[1], thus attesting to his prescience as a source of origin for urban planning itself. The innovativeness of Hippodamus’ contribution can be broken down into two distinct, yet nevertheless interrelated strands of thought, one of which informs the other. On the one hand, Hippodamus is understood as the originator of gridiron or orthogonal planning.[2] This can be considered to be a primarily formal innovation on Hippodamus’ part, insofar as a certain order or harmony is posited in the construction of cities with the advent of a gridiron plan that stresses geometric form. Thus, instead of previous approaches that evoke a contingency to urban planning in the sense of the planning of one architectural object at a time, the gridiron planning of Hippodmaus can be viewed as an attempt to think urban centres in their entirety, as a collective whole. Crucial to this approach to urban planning is a pragmatic and collective function to his thought, which essentially posits the city space as a fundamental unity. This formal innovation thus infers what may be termed a deeper philosophical or conceptual starting point for Hippodamus that engenders this very formal innovation: Hippodamus begins from the concept that cities or urban centers are totalities, a collection of assemblages that must be thought in terms of their over-arching unity. In other words, Hippodamus provides a radical re-appraisal of living space, and views life and thus dwelling as largely relational, to the extent that the city space is posited as a series of relations in a certain holistic sense, in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In the following essay, I shall attempt to develop both of these notions that are crucial to Hippodamus’  urban planning. The first section of the paper shall address some of the formal innovations that Hippodamus maintained, such as the gridiron planning approach and how such planning differentiated from pervious models of urban planning. In the second part of the paper, I shall examine how this formal inclination emerges from an underlying philosophical world-view that shapes Hippodamus’ work. Hippodamus essentially approaches this formal aspect through a philosophical conceptual basis that emphasizes the harmony or order of a city, in the sense that the city must be a reflection of logic, rationality and unity. In other words, Hippodamus’ conceptual background is consistent with Ancient Greek philosophy and its emphasis on logos, on order and rationality. In the third part of the paper, I shall put this formal and conceptual interpretation of Hippodamus’ to work, by analyzing three examples of Hippodamus’ urban planning: the Miletus plan, the port of Athens plan and the Piraeus plan. Thus, each of these illustrations will be approached from the perspective of how they maintain a formal rigour that thinks urban centers as a unified totality, and furthermore how such illustrations simultaneously reflect Hippodamus’ own philosophical commitments to the extent that they reflect the careful rational development of cities to the extent that one could consider them to be a manifestation of the logical rational centrality that is the logos to Ancient Greek philosophy.

Hippodamus’ Formal Approach

Hippodamus is commonly considered to be the first Greek urban planner. His main contributions roughly occur after 479 B.C. Some of his crucial plans are the city of Piraeus and the port of Athens. It remains a point of historiographical conjecture if Hippodamus was involved in the plans for Miletus, his native town.[3]

A shift in Greek planning is commonly traced back to 479 B.C., a time in which historical events forced a re-postulation of approaches to urban spaces. This shift corresponded to a more systematic approach in city planning, as Dilke and Dilke note: “after the Persian expedition against Greece in 480-479 B.C. had been defeated, a number of cities instituted regular systems of urban layout.”[4]  Accordingly, the practical or pragmatic conditions for such urban planning were the results of a largely strategic imperative that followed in the wake of the Greek-Persian war. The lessons learned from the war were that urban planning had to role to play in war, in terms of increasing strategic and tactical advantages. A city could thus be planned both according to concepts of city defense and the facilitation of tactical operations. What is significant about this newfound perspective is that it approaches the city from a radically new perspective: living spaces are not merely a collection of contingent dwellings, but may be thought as a unified whole. The event of war in a certain Marxist sense could be viewed as the material conditions for the consideration of the city and other urban centers as a cohesive whole. This is evident in some of Hippodamus’ own contributions. For example, the town of Miletus was “enclosed with walls” in order to diminish “the continual threat from Persia.”[5] Another example of this approach was in Piraeus, where “streets were all planned at right angles…and boundary stones…indicated which areas were set aside for the military port, the commercial port, the market-place, sacred enclosures, and private housing.”[6] There is thus an explicit attempt to introduce a formal order to the urban planning space. The partitioning of the city into centres according to residential or military areas, for example, expressed a pragmatic or rational decision to concentrate homogeneous ways of life in particular city spaces. Such an innovation is essentially that of the re-thinking of the city space on the level of the city itself. For example, military ports are considered in relation to their position to residential areas; residential areas in relation to mercantile areas. This over-arching approach of planning, while separating particular areas according to their homogeneity, thus simultaneously posits the overall relationship between different aspects of city life. In essence, all these different areas are thought under the formal principle that the city exists as a whole, as a unity, instead of contingent or isolated areas.

Such a formal imperative is all the more clear in Hippodamus’ clear formal innovation: that of the gridiron plan.  Whereas it remains contested within the academic literature as to whether such as an innovation can clearly be conferred to Hippodamus, for example, such planning “had been present in early towns of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley”,[7] it is nevertheless accepted that Hippodamus can be viewed as having “vigorously applied the gridiron pattern to obtain a rational arrangement of buildings and circulation.”[8] Hence, whereas other instances of such type of planning may have been historically present, Hippodamus’ contribution can be viewed as a radicalization of such a formality, to the extent that it served as a conscious and guiding principle in his designs.

The crucial innovation of the gridiron approach is its emphasis on “geometrical form.” As Reader describes the gridiron, it is a “geometrically ordered grid of streets which divided any designated area into square or rectangular blocks.”[9] Such a formal approach is largely viewed as “expedient”[10], insofar as clear geometrical lines would be conducive to city planning: “it could be easily applied, anywhere.”[11]

Accordingly, the planning of urban centres was not merely a haphazard amalgamation of streets, but was rather thought in terms of an overall geometric unity. The “rational arrangement of buildings and circulation”[12] point to a thought of how to best serve such an arrangement through careful planning. Through the gridiron process there is thus a simultaneous facilitation of urban planning and the creation of urban planning as such, insofar as the city is thought as city and not in terms of individual architectural objects. The formal innovations of Hippodamus can thus be abstracted as a consideration of the thought of the city as a whole through a principle of geometric unity that underlies the facilitation of urban planning.

Hippodamus’ Conceptual Approach

Such a formal approach can be traced back to pragmatic problems and conceptual stances that were constitutive of Hippodamus’ thought process. There was a clear practical concern at stake in Hippodamus’ arrangements, as geometric order corresponded to a practical efficiency that must be maintained in city life. The emphasis on straight streets instead of winding streets is a clear indication that speed is of the essence in terms of an efficiency of transportation. Such motifs in planning suggest that a deep pragmatism underscores Hippodamus’ thought. On the other hand, the tendency towards such pragmatism can also be viewed in terms of a greater philosophical belief in notions of order that correspond to a Greek philosophical worldview inspired by the crucial Greek notion of logos.

Michael Davis views Hippodamus’ guiding concern as the “imprecision of things.”[13] This general imprecision, irrespective of urban planning, speaks to a deeper conceptual problematic that underlay Hippodamus’ urban planning and points to his own philosophical commitments. Hippodamus is portrayed as beginning “with a mathematical grid into which he fits everything else.”[14] This logical commitment therefore is an emphasis on the possibility for the actualization of precision into a planned urban center. It is in this sense possible to introduce order into the chaos of life, or in another sense, that even mundane phenomena – such as where people live, and how they go to the market – must be approached through the lens of precision, rigor and unity. In this sense, Hippodamus informs the urban planning project with a world-view that is not primarily urban, but rather cosmological. Through an appeal to a precision that is viewed as essential to the nature of reality itself, the ideal city plan must be thought in terms of a manifestation of an ideal logos that is mathematically precise. In essence, the urban planning of Hippodamus’ rests on a conceptual background that stresses that the urban plan must attempt to be a reflection of cosmic order and perfection. Ankersmit notes “it was no coincidence that the first political theorist, Hippodamus of Milete, was a town planner….the town [is] to be a suitable metaphor for politics.”[15] For Hippodamus, therefore, his conceptual starting point in urban planning is thus that an urban centre is never merely an urban centre. It incorporates aspects of the political, a combined living space, and a unity that is reflected in the cosmos. It is arguably the analysis of urban planning through a deeper philosophical foundation that allows Hippodamus to make an innovation within planning.

Undoubtedly there is a pragmatic quality to Hippodamus’ work, which emphasizes the strategic and tactical importance of the city as a response to, for example, threats form the Persians. At the same time, there is a deeper philosophical commitment that pervades his work, a commitment to a greater order and unity that is to be manifested in all facets of human life. Hippodamus’ aversion to imprecision and his belief in ideal mathematical unity render the planning of urban spaces as a realization of such perfection.

Analsys of Illustrations

Having established the formal and conceptual commitments that informed Hippodamus’ urban planning, the analysis of three of his illustrations through this lens can help better elucidate his precise innovations.

Plan of Piraeus [16]  

The illustration of Piraeus is immediately striking in its commitment to a rectangular gridiron form. The primary feature is thus that of a unity between its formal shapes, as the same rectangular form repeats itself throughout the city plan. In other words, there is no room for deviation or contingencies within the overall city plan. Rather, the latter must be constituted by a unity throughout, as it is precisely the exception that is removed. Even the open spaces of the city, such as the Agora and other open spaces (marked at B and C) are evenly distributed throughout the city. The formal commitment to precise geometric form is thus indicative of a conceptual unity: this conceptual commitment rests on the notion of the city as a unified whole. The pragmatic aspect of the plan is also apparent, insofar as the rectangular arrangement of streets facilitates access from one city area to the other. Another crucial feature is the position of the temple at the outskirts of the city. This could be viewed as a conscious decision to place the temple, the site of superstition and belief, on the city’s periphery, thereby emphasizing that rationality is at the heart of the city plan. In other words, the city must not be a reflection of contingent superstition, but must remain committed to order.

Plan of the Port of Athens [17]

The Northern and Southern walls are immediately striking in Hippodamus’ plan of the port of Athens. The necessity of the walls, which form a “protected corridor six kilometers long”[18] serves an immediate pragmatic function, as the port is conceived as a crucial strategic target in any conflict situation, and thus the protection of the port is extremely pertinent. At the same time, there is a unity to the formality of the plan, insofar as the walls are construed in parallel fashion in order to create a corridor. In other words, the pragmatic function is most effectively mobilized through a unity of design that is able to lead from the Athenian walls to the ports. Pragmatic function is thus not realized through chaos or contingency but rather to a formal order. This once again emphasizes the underlying philosophical and conceptual commitment of Hippodamus’ work, as it places a key emphasis on the notion that formality must conform to a greater metaphysical world-view that is informed by a unity of logos and a relationality to existence and dwelling.

Plan of Miletus [19]

The plan of Miletus is once again crucial in its grid structure and the emphasis on rectangular forms constructed at right angles. This allows for a clear delineation of spaces between possible residential and mercantile areas. The city thus reflects a clear concept of order in its planning. Anomalies to the rectangular planning, such as the amphitheatre, are placed on the city periphery in order to not distract from the order. There is a clear spacing between the north and the south parts of Miletus, with the construction of a nascent form of city center, from which the order of the city unfolds. On a conceptual level, therefore, the Miletus plan is a clear index of Hippodamus’ commitment to the principle of unity that governs the planning of an urban space.

Conclusion

Hippodamus’ importance as an urban planner can be traced back to the diverse means by which he thought of the city space, such as formal concerns, pragmatic considerations and a conceptually informed background. The striking feature of Hippodamus’ gridiron form reflects a pragmatic commitment that is influenced by a deeper philosophical commitment to a conceptual unity that must lie at the heart of human living spaces. Insofar as humans remain a part of the cosmos, and the essence of this cosmos is essentially that of a profound order, contingency must be replaced with a careful methodological and geometrical approach to urban planning. The city is not only the place where someone lives, but in Hippodamus’ work there is a clear meditation on what it means to truly live. In essence, we can think of Hippodamus’ contributions as a radically ethical contribution, to the extent that the etymology of ethics is ethos, which means dwelling place. Insofar as Hippodamus is the first urban planner, this means he is the first thinker of what it means for a human being to dwell in a community that is an urban space. His plans are reflections on the necessity of relations between human beings, and the attempt to bring these diverse relations into a unified whole that reflects a commitment to human co-existence.

Works Cited

Ankersmit, F.R. Aesthetic Politics: Political Philosophy Beyond Fact and Value. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996.

Boone, Christopher G. City and Environment. New Delhi, IN: Pearson Education, 2006.

Chant, Colin and Goodman, David C. Pre-Industrial Cities and Technology. London: Routledge, 1999.

Davies, Nikolas and Jokiniemi, Erkki. Dictionary of Architecture and Building Construction. Oxford, UK: Architectural Press, 2008.

Davis, Michael. The Politics of Philosophy: A Commentary on Aristotle’s Politics. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 1996.

Dilke, O.A.W. and Dilke, Margaret S. “A City of Ancient Greece and Rome in its Legacy.” New Directions in Urban Geography. Ed. C.S. Yadav. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company, 1986. pp. 309-327.

Draper, Richard. “Hippodamus.” From Polis to Empire: The Ancient World, c. 800 B.C.-A.D. 500: A Biographical Dictionary. Ed. Andrew G. Traver. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002.

Eisner, S., Gallion, A. and Eisner, S. The Urban Pattern. London: John Wiley and Sons, 1993.

Haverfield, Francis. Ancient-Town Planning. New York: Bibliolife, 2004.

Reader, John. Cities. New York: Open City Books, 2006.

[1] Christopher G. Boone. City and Environment (New Delhi, IN: Pearson Education, 2006), 9.

[2] Ibid., 10.

[3] O.A.W. Dilke and Margaret S. Dilke. “A City of Ancient Greece and Rome in its Legacy,” In New Directions in Urban Geography, ed. C.S. Yadav (New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company, 1986), 311.

[4] Ibid., 311.

[5] Ibid., 311.

[6] Ibid., 311.

[7] S. Eisner, A. Gallion, and S. Eisner. The Urban Pattern. (London: John Wiley and Sons, 1993), 61.

[8] Ibid., p. 61

[9] John Reader. Cities. (New York: Open City Books, 2006), 249.

[10] Ibid., 249.

[11] Ibid., 249.

[12] Ibid., 249.

[13] Michael Davis, The Politics of Philosophy: A Commentary on Aristotle’s Politics, (Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 1996), 38.

[14] Ibid., 38.

[15] F.R. Ankersmit, Aesthetic Politics: Political Philosophy Beyond Fact and Value, (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press), 1996, 154.

[16] Francis Haverfield, Ancient-Town Planning, (New York: Bibliolife, 2004), 30

[17] Colin Chant and David C. Goodman, Pre-Industrial Cities and Technology, (London: Routledge), 1999, 39.

[18] Ibid., 39.

[19] Nikolas Davies and Erkki Jokiniemi, Dictionary of Architecture and Building Construction, (Oxford, UK: Architectural Press, 2008), 616.