City spaces: the designer's view. Maps and motifs.
Prerequisites:
  • Background knowledge in the history of urban architecture
  • Experience of searching on the Internet
Objectives:
  • Introduction to urban architectural motifs and their multimedia versions
Description:
  • A study of websites presenting historic urban environments in Britain
  • Analysis of major town-planning motifs, e.g. crescents, and of their evolution from the 18th century onwards

Questions
MAPS AND MOTIFS
Here we seek to relate different views of urban space: the cartographic view and the architectural view

•  Maps

We can study maps of Georgian cities from several web sources. See the Question on maps after you have read the following sections giving the references to the maps of architecturally significant Georgian cities.

•  Motifs

Among the major motifs of urban design in Georgian Britain were the rectangular forms -the chequerboard plan, the  square- and the curved forms -the circus, the crescent:we can study the typology of urban motifs.

 
THE PERCEPTION OF URBAN SPACE
When focusing on the buildings, we can see squares and crescents or streets as architectural set-pieces. We can also focus on the empty spaces within the solid forms, the thoroughfares.  

•  Urban spaces and theories of perception

We can see these urban forms in terms of theories on the perception of negative shapes .

•    The representation of space

How do artists and writers perceive this dual approach to urban space?

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