BAGSIT, IRISH JANE P.
ARC1436-SEC 6
08-29-23
JOURNAL #1
The first lecture is entitled Historical Periods and Growth of Human Settlements which is
somehow a recap of what was taught to us in Building Construction 1 and History of
Architecture. It basically shows a detailed timeline of different periods in the history of the
world as well as the important events on how ones nation rose and fell as well as the different
inventions of each periods. I had learnt that most ancient settlements were built near bodies of
water since it serves as their main pedigree of resources such as food.
The whole presentation circled around the five (5) most important human settlements
ever built in the periods of ancient, medieval, renaissance, industrial, and post-industrial age.
The ancient period had four (4) civilizations, the first one is called Ancient Mesopotamia
Civilization which is considered as the oldest settlement in the world and is famous for its Ur
City where Ziggurat of Ur can be found. Most of the structures at that time were made of mudbrick. Their settlement consist of a shrine, cook house, school house, shops, and the khan which
maybe a hotel what is three storeys high. The Ancient Indus Vally Civilization comes 2nd which
is famous for its urban planning and mass measurement system. Its settlement is composed of a
north gate, castle, baille, middle town, lower town, ceremonial, and a reservoir. While in the
Ancient Greek Civilization, had irregular street plans in old cities like in Athens and a grid-iron
street plan in new cities. The city usually consist of acropolis, agora, and town. Lastly, the
Ancient Rome Civilization had regular orthogonal structures with compact rectilinear grid of
streets.
The medieval era had spontaneous or organic towns with linear plans. As the settlement
grew it sprung new plans like radial or radio-concentric plans, natural or historic plans, and
planned geometric towns.
Renaissance period had distinctive design features such as regular geometric spaces,
primary streets, public places like squares or piazzas with sculptures and fountains, and a
sequence and perspective. They also introduced fortifications and different planners for their
cities.
The 4th period is the industrial age wherein cities are also called industrial parks, centers,
and a lot of factories for production. They introduced transportation such as ships power by sails,
horse-drawn wagons, carts, carriages, automobiles, steamships, and trains. They also somehow
used the concept of central business district where there is a center of business in a city and the
other parts consist of different human classes.
Lastly is the Post-Industrial Age where central business district is very evident now and
there are now gated communities, edge cities, large shopping centres, poor industrial areas,
industrial suburbs, and high-tech new industrial space.