Abstract
We analyse the growth and shape of the pre-industrial city as a result of the transportation technology available before the mechanisation of transport. Such city is constrained in size by walking speed. Because of the need of minimising transportation time or cost it has, necessarily, one centre and is fairly dense. The location of pre-industrial cities was also often determined by access to water-based transportation. We point out to New York and Venice as two examples of cities already preeminent before the mechanisation of transport. New York adapted to the new technology, but that is not the case for Venice.
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Notes
- 1.
And of course, also by the building technologies available.
- 2.
The so-called Marchetti’s constant: the total time spend in commuting is stable along history and around the world and equal to one hour per day, Marchetti (1994).
- 3.
Although the king may like to live in Versailles.
- 4.
Marinetti’s Futurist Speech to the Venetians can be found in Rainey et al. (2009).
- 5.
Although Mestre and Marghera, across the Venice lagoon, are thriving industrial centres belonging to the Venetian metropolitan area, Venice lacks a business centre and depends almost exclusively on tourism for subsistence.
References
Marchetti, C. (1994). Anthropological invariants in travel behavior. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 47(1).
Rainey, L., Poggi, C., Wittman, L. (Eds.) (2009). Futurism: An anthology. Yale University Press.
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Guillen, P., Komac, U. (2020). Growth and Shape of the Pre-industrial City. In: City Form, Economics and Culture. SpringerBriefs in Architectural Design and Technology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5741-5_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5741-5_6
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