The Ideal City

Abstract

Cities grow like some sort of plant. Some of them, including some very beautiful ones like the medina of the Maghreb, seem to have been stuck together randomly like great corals. But is it truly random? Isn’t it actually the result of strong local, historical and technological constraints? On the other hand, Greek and Roman cities were designed with rigid plans. Though the overall shape and the road and waterway networks were tightly constrained, each unit had considerable freedom, allowing the city to accommodate the unexpected and adapt itself to new things. Naples, for instance, formerly known as Neapolis - the “new city” - has kept its antique grid pattern. How can structure be given without causing rigidity? The city is a spatial translation of the rights that govern the collective and the individual. Berlin is a contemporary example of this dialectic.