Text 7. Buildings

In the completed town it is the buildings which are seen and produce whatever effect, good or bad, is attained; therefore, the problem of town planning in its final form is whatever y an architectural problem. The working out of the exact form in which the requirements can be satisfied so as to produce a fine town is a function of the creative imagination; and it can essentially properly be performed by one who has had the architectural training necessary to enable him to adjust the proportions of the many parts, so to place the different buildings, and group them upon the ground and only relation to each other that when erected they may compose properly.

The preparation of all the data upon which the design must be based hardly falls within in province of the architect; and it would seem that this formulation of the city's requirements, and of the limits within which the designer must work, is the proper sphere of the surveyor (aided of course by the engineer, the valuer, the economist, the sociologist and the antiquarian). He should survey the conditions, suggest the requirements, and should be consulted as to the methods of satisfying them; but for the design of the town plan, the architecturally trained mind is as essential as for the design of a single building; for the work consists in applying upon a wider field and with greater scope the same principles which govern the designing of individual buildings. The appreciation of the relation of masses and voids, the apprehension of the right points for emphasis, and the power to combine into one creation many differing parts by bringing them into harmonious proportion are equally required in the field of town planning, if there is to be-produced that rhythm in the plan, and that spacious breadth of ordered elevation in the groups of buildings, which so largely constitute the beauty and grandeur of cities. 

Read the following texts, find the main ideas and make a resume, using the cliches after the text:

Text 8. Modern city planning

Modern city planning is characterized by rapid urban growth and the tendency for several towns to be knitted together into large agglomerations with a corresponding increase in population and territory. This results in the best farm lands being used by the expanding urban territory and in the despoliation of the natural landscape and forests, the pollution of water areas and the atmosphere.

The continued growth of cities with their solid masses of masonry structures and high building density results in insufficient insolation and greenery and hence a decline in the urban microclimate.

Urban growth increases average travel time and mobility of people, there is a sharp increase in the intensity of road haulage and the number of transportation facilities. On roads and streets, as is known, the number of vehicles increases several times faster than the road network causing supersaturation by transportation of the street network and traffic congestion which is already to be observed in many large cities of the United States and other countries.

The main problem facing large modern cities is to make the most effective use of urban land without further encroachment on adjacent land.

Towns now in the planning stage or under construction should not only meet man’s present day needs but also his diversified activities in the years to come. A part of the buildings including residential and service buildings will either be replaced by new ones or eliminated altogether by future generations, but the main skeleton of the city will remain much longer. It is difficult to accurately predict development in such areas as atomic energy, new building materials and components, self-powered transportation and other areas of scientific-technological progress affecting the development of city planning but it is precisely this that makes it necessary to predict the further development of cities, their plan structure and architectural and special composition.

In this connection, it is advisable to take a look, if only briefly, at some of the most widespread concepts in modern city planning and prospects for its development, in particular:

• new population distribution systems;

• plan structure of new and rehabilitated old cities;

• new building materials and components;

• new types of transportation;

• other problems connected with cities of the future.

Thus, for example, American planners foresee future cities in the USA as a system of conurbations consisting of groups of cities. In addition to the conurbation that has evolved on the territory between Boston and Washington, four more conurbations are expected to arise in a period of 20 years: on the Atlantic coast (from Norfolk to Boston),on the coast of California (from San Diego to San Francisco),on the coast of Mexico (from Dallas to New Orleans) and at the Great Lakes (Chicago).These four gigantic cities will be connected by four airports reaching all parts of the world.

Jean Vingart (France) believes that Europe of the future, like the USA will consists of conurbations. France, for example, will have four or five ones (the valley of the Seine and the Rhone, Lyonais Province and others.) Belgium, Holland and a number of other countries are expected to have similar conurbations.