TOWN PLANNING IN HISTORY

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21812, 18 June 1936, Page 4

TOWN PLANNING IN HISTORY

TRACES IN ANCIENT CITIES PAPERS READ TO INSTITUTE The antiquity of town planning as a phase of civilised development was a point made in an address read by Mr Arthur H. Bridge to the Christchurch branch of the New Zealand Town Planning Insttiute last evening; The cities of ancient Egypt and Home were built to a plan, he said, a view borne out by the drawings of ancient towns made by archaeologists. Perhaps the most thorough of the ancient town planners were the Romans, as their military camps and roads throughout their empire showed; they had even found it expedient to enforce building regulations. It was recorded that in Rome dwellings of six or seven storeys were quite common. These, in fact, became so unhealthy that Nero ordained, after the great tire, that the height of buildings should be limited to twice the width of the street, and that they should not in any case be higher than 70 feet A model of Rome in the time of the Emperor Constantine would show that the city had not grown in a haphazard fashion, but that it had been laid out according to a definite plan. Sweden the Pioneer From the earlier centuries of our own civilisation, said Mr Bridge, many examples could be taken of the first agitations towards town planning. A notable example was the attempt to replan London after the great fire. The zoning system was first introduced in the German towns conquered by Napoleon. Sweden, however, was the first country to legislate for comprehensive planning of the development of towns and cities; and it was there that the modern science took definite shape. This step had been taken as long ago as in 1734. P'rom then to the present day town planning legislation bad been enacted all over the world. Even New Zealand, a young country with wide spaces and absence of slums, had its problems, Mr Bridge ended. The passing of the Town Planning Act showed a recognition of this. Town planning was the science and the art of providing for the most practical and agreeable development of a city or town; and It would prevent in newer districts the recurrence of some of the mistakes made in the past, Nature of a Scheme The preparation and scope of a town planning scheme were discussed by Mr Bridge in a second paper. Mr Bridge said that mistakes in past i growth were common to every town or city, and with the growth of the community the time came inevitably when these mistakes had to be rectified, in most cases at considerable cost to the ratepayers. By taking a long view, the town planning scheme aimed 1 at avoiding as many mistakes as possible by judiciously guiding future development to the benefit of ratepayers. The scheme, once approved, was as binding on the local authority as on the ratepayer. But there was no obligation on the local body in the carrying out of the development works proposed. These, such as new traffic outlets and new parks, might be carried out as and when required. Mr W. W. Scarff presided over a moderate attendance. A number of lantern slides were shown, illustrating phases of planning.