by
G. T. von Chiewitz was official government policy dating back to Nazi rule. There is evidence of urban planning and designed communities dating back to the
Mesopotamian,
Indus Valley,
Minoan, and
Egyptian civilizations in the
third millennium BCE. Archaeologists studying the ruins of cities in these areas find paved streets that were laid out at right angles in a grid pattern. The idea of a planned out urban area evolved as different civilizations adopted it. Beginning in the 8th century BCE, Greek city states primarily used orthogonal (or grid-like) plans.
Hippodamus of Miletus (498–408 BC), the ancient Greek architect and urban planner, is considered to be "the father of European urban planning", and the namesake of the "Hippodamian plan" (grid plan) of city layout. The
ancient Romans also used orthogonal plans for their cities. City planning in the Roman world was developed for military defense and public convenience. The spread of the
Roman Empire subsequently spread the ideas of urban planning. As the Roman Empire declined, these ideas slowly disappeared. However, many cities in Europe still held onto the planned Roman city center. Cities in Europe from the 9th to 14th centuries, often grew organically and sometimes chaotically. But in the following centuries with the coming of the
Renaissance many new cities were enlarged with newly planned extensions. From the 15th century on, much more is recorded of urban design and the people that were involved. In this period, theoretical treatises on architecture and urban planning start to appear in which theoretical questions around planning the main lines, ensuring plans meet the needs of the given population and so forth are addressed and designs of towns and cities are described and depicted. During the
Enlightenment period, several European rulers ambitiously attempted to redesign capital cities. During the
Second French Empire,
Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, under the direction of
Napoleon III,
redesigned the city of Paris into a more modern capital, with long, straight, wide boulevards. Planning and architecture went through a paradigm shift at the turn of the 20th century. The industrialized cities of the 19th century grew at a tremendous rate. The evils of urban life for the
working poor were becoming increasingly evident as a matter of public concern. The
laissez-faire style of government management of the economy, in fashion for most of the
Victorian era, was starting to give way to a
New Liberalism that championed intervention on the part of the poor and disadvantaged. Around 1900, theorists began developing urban planning models to mitigate the consequences of the
industrial age, by providing citizens, especially factory workers, with healthier environments. The following century would therefore be globally dominated by a
central planning approach to urban planning, not representing an increment in the overall quality of the urban realm. , one of Europe's most luxurious shopping streets At the beginning of the 20th century, urban planning began to be recognized as a separate profession. The
Town and Country Planning Association was founded in 1899 and the first academic course in Great Britain on urban planning was offered by the
University of Liverpool in 1909. In the 1920s, the ideas of
modernism and uniformity began to surface in urban planning, and lasted until the 1970s. The architect
Le Corbusier presented the
Radiant City in 1933 as a city that grows up in the form of towers which offered a solution to the problem of pollution and over-crowding. But many planners started to believe that the ideas of modernism in urban planning led to higher crime rates and social problems. In 1961
Jane Jacobs published
The Death and Life of Great American Cities establishing the concept of
livable streets, infusing urban renewal planners with a
livable urban area perspective. In the second half of the 20th century, urban planners gradually shifted their focus to individualism and diversity in urban centers. == 21st-century practices ==