Walking along the ancient streets of a settlement, once again you are convinced that the architecture of a historic city is an art. Grade 9 is the time when every student has the opportunity to study an interesting course "World Art Culture". It is within its framework that an acquaintance with this topic takes place. What is special about the architecture of the historical and modern city? This will be discussed in our article.
City and urban planning
The city is the greatest creation of the human mind, the main engine in the development of any region, country, state. It is in the cities that the most ingenious minds are concentrated, which generate new ideas and inventions.
The city differs from other settlements in a number of certain characteristics. Their study is the science of urban studies. But the theory and practice of planning, as well as urban development, is already a field of interest for urban development.
Urban planning is the activity of developing and creating urban systems, their reconstruction and improving the human living space.
Architecture of a historic city ("Art", Grade 9)
What is a "historical city"? What are its characteristic features and how does it differ from the modern one?
The Law “On the Protection and Use of Immovable Monuments of History and Culture” interprets this concept as follows: a historical city is a village in which there are a large number of cultural heritage sites. It can be ancient archaeological sites, sculptural monuments, architectural ensembles and elements of ancient buildings.
In historical cities, as a rule, numerous cultural objects are located that have a certain value for society: historical, aesthetic, etc. Another distinctive feature of such settlements is that they retain the old (historical) layout of streets and squares.
It is important to note that a historical city is not only architecture and cultural values, but also its population. That is, people with their own set of traditions, customs, outlooks on life. Appeal to this term allows us to consider a specific city as a historical, national and regional phenomenon.
The theme “Architecture of a historic city” is studied in the 9th grade of a secondary school, as part of the course “MHC” (world art culture).
In Russia today, there are 41 settlements with the status of a historical city. Among them are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vladimir, Derbent, Kostroma, Suzdal and others.
Architecture of the historic city: main features
Architecture is the most useful form of art. Man began to build homes for himself since ancient times. To do this, he used those materials that were available in a particular area. For security reasons, the villages were surrounded by shafts or walls, wicker fences.
The architecture of a historical city in the West is significantly different from the layout of eastern or ancient Russian cities. The latter fit as organically as possible into the natural landscape, closely tied to the surrounding countryside. At the same time, an aesthetic aspect was allotted when choosing a place for the future city. Indeed, in ancient chronicles one can often find similar sayings: “... and the place is red, and having loved it, may it burn the city”.
The architecture of the historical city in the East also differs by certain features. In the center of the eastern settlement, a square with a mosque and a madrasah, a school for the training of teachers and ministers, was being developed. An important place in the layout of the city was also given to the caravanserai - a place for street trading.
Layout of European historical cities
The traditions of urban planning during the times of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance were different. A vivid example of the ancient city in Europe can be considered the Acropolis in Athens. In those distant times, any settlement began with the construction of a magnificent temple on an elevated place. Around this holy hill streets were laid, the location of which was rectangular.
A typical medieval city is a village fenced by powerful fortifications with battlements and moats filled with water. In the center of such a fortified city, a cathedral and the main town hall were built.
In the Renaissance, cities were built according to a new scheme. The streets were perpendicular to each other, and at the end of the most important of them, any outstanding architectural structures or entire ensembles of magnificent buildings were necessarily located. By the way, it was by this algorithm that the Russian city of St. Petersburg was built.
Features of the architecture of the modern city
Modern architecture uses completely new principles and forms of organization of free space. So, in the early twentieth century, new styles in architecture appeared - constructivism and functionalism, which sought to maximize the simplification of buildings and structures.
Today, typical and very similar dwelling houses are being built in cities. If earlier in the cities the spiers of Gothic cathedrals were the highest, today they are office towers made of glass and concrete. New building materials make it possible to lighten all constructed structures.
How does modern architecture affect the emotional and mental state of a person? Many scholars argue that it is extremely negative, emphasizing that she has completely lost her status in the spiritual and aesthetic sphere of human life. Indeed, it is very difficult to enjoy the architecture of the 21st century. Faceless gray buildings, traffic jams, long concrete fences, an acute shortage of vegetation - all this, according to psychologists, creates an unfavorable, aggressive environment for human life.
Conclusion
Now you know how the architecture of a historical city differs. “Art in stone and volume” - this is how the construction process of cities and villages is poetically described. This is truly an art that requires substantial creative effort and great knowledge.
The architecture of the historic city (Grade 9) is an unusually interesting topic. The process of planning and building settlements significantly differed in different historical eras.