Town Square - Urban Planning

Urban Planning

In urban planning, a city square or urban square is a planned open area in a city, usually or originally rectangular in shape. Some city squares are large enough that they act as a sort of "national square".

The first urban formations started appearing at least 6000 years ago. Within urban areas open public space always existed and it served a very important purpose. Along with the development of human society and the development of cities, the squares acquired more and more functions. At first, the squares were established at the crossroads of important trade routes where exchange of goods as well as ideas took place. For example, Phoenician trades–people invented numerical and linguistic pictographic inscriptions out of the need to record transactions. Another very important function of the public square was that it served as an opportunity to exercise the power of rulers with military processions and parades.

Wars and inventions of dangerous weapons, where the ambition was not only to capture women and goods, but to destroy enemies, led to cities surrounded by thick walls and elaborate systems of defense. These became very densely populated, but even under these conditions there was always room for an open public space. Its functions were expanding too. Major places of worship were placed there, squares were used as permanent or temporary markets, monuments to important predecessors were erected and revolutions or contra-revolutions were staged. The squares became the location of royal courts, government buildings and city halls as manifestations of wealth and power. They were also used for races, like the Palio race in Siena, bull fights, executions, or even just to collect rain water in large underground cisterns.

In recent times, theaters, restaurants and museums are also finding their place on the squares. Cities themselves, are actually becoming museums, a collection of human experiences that preserve numerous cultural values. Particularly since the invention of motorized traffic, the individual vehicle has almost destroyed most of the open public spaces. A car parking at one point had more value than the accumulated historical inheritance – human cooperation, technological processes, architectural and urban planning – that a square embodies.

• Red Square in Moscow was originally used as an outdoor marketplace and later became the stage for Soviet military parades and May Day demonstrations.
• Palace Square in St Petersburg was designed to be the central square of Imperial Russia and ironically became the setting of revolutionary protests that led to the overthrow of monarchy during the February Revolution of 1917.
• Similarly, Beijing's Tiananmen Square was the scene of both communist parades and anti-government protests.
• John-F.-Kennedy-Platz (formerly Rudolph-Wilde-Platz) was the site of the West Berlin town hall and John F. Kennedy's famous Ich bin ein Berliner speech.
• New York City's Times Square as well as Bryant Park and Washington, D.C.'s National Mall often fill this role for the United States.
• Trafalgar Square in London does the same for the United Kingdom.
• Saint Peter's Square in Vatican City, the papal enclave within Rome, Italy.
• Dundas Square in Toronto is a renowned and famous square in Canada.
• Nathan Phillips Square is a popular square in front of Toronto's landmark City Hall.
• Dam Square in Amsterdam for the Netherlands.
• Three squares: Main Market Square, Kraków, Town Square in Piotrków Trybunalski and Castle Square, Warsaw for Poland.
• The City Hall Square, Copenhagen for Denmark
• Trg Republike, Belgrade for Serbia
• Praça do Comércio (or Commerce Square), in Lisbon, Portugal, was formerly known as the Terreiro do Paço (Palace Court). It was destroyed after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake but was rebuilt and renamed to indicate its new function in the economy of Lisbon. The symmetrical buildings around the square hold government bureaus and ministries.