Downtown area

The downtown area is the Cœur of the Ville. It is the place of the Manifestation S Culture it and Sport ives, of the exchange S and the Politique (within the meaning of the Greek Polis ). One finds there the Temple or the church, the place, the Mairie, and the stores of all kinds.

With the wire of time, the downtown areas changed Rôle and of Valeur.

Evolution in time

Antiquity

As defenses were generally of very first importance, the ancient city was often located on heights. The downtown area was a group of dwellings protected by an enclosure ensuring mainly protection, but also an ideal concentration for the religion to be judged some by the number and the size of the temples which the archeologists discovered. The town of Babel with its large religious tower is an good example. Living in the fear of being attacked and reduced with the Slavery, the population closed the doors of the city the night in the event of danger. Outside and beyond the walls extended the fields, the grounds of grazing ground which were not defended during the attacks.

The townsmen often lived of agriculture and of the breeding, they thus worked outside the city but often lived inside the city rather than on their exploitation. The cities were used as freight depots, of centers of marketing activity and markets of distribution, following the example cities Tyr and Sidon. During the domination of the Roman Empire, certain downtown areas are born by the presence from strong soldiers, like Wiesbaden in Germany, Vienna in Austria. After the construction of the military camps generally that comes from Cathédrale S or other religious buildings then buildings intended for mainstream education.

The Middle Ages

The military vocation of the city declines with the profit of the castle-extremely but itself is always locked up behind walls with ditches; the territories are divided into many kingdoms. The first strong stone castles appear at the end of the 10th century. A great number of medieval cities are surrounded by ramparts (Paris, Rouen, Carcassonne) following the major insecurity which reigns. The city becomes again the place of the capacity and the capitals develop; she knows the emergence of a new social layer: the Middle-class. The middle-class men, isolated of the capacity, wish to imply themselves in the political life and obtain in 1214 the right to create a council before seizing the power in 1262. The trade knows the creation of the Hanse, professional association of merchants; it becomes a political union.

The social conditions are different. The Serf is a man dependant on a lord; on the higher levels of the social hierarchy, the relations between the free men are characterized by the bonds of Vassalité: the vassal one owes assistance and council with the man to which it lent oath of fidelity. Such bonds imply a certain number of duties, with the number of which military service. These bonds of dependences have as a principal consequence a strong social hierarchisation, the intellectual center of feudality is primarily in the abbeys and the monasteries where develops architectural art.

Modern time

The French revolution destroys the seigneuriaux and feudal rights. Industrialization and the working concentration create a durable and massive poverty workmen, who cannot evolve/move. The farmers and industry are in situation of overproduction. Unemployment increases, accelerating the Rural migration towards the big cities where the unemployed hope to find work.

Contemporary time

The economic changes led prosperous urban social layers to want to take part in the capacity. But beside them, a working proletariat which is him also - new fact - urban, develops. Technological advances nourish the conflicts and accelerate with them, which withdraws the protective side of the city. Indeed, the military forces are such as a physical protection becomes ridiculous; the policy is seen as a solution for protection. The political debates are not done any more in the streets. In France, the rural migration is roughly speaking finished in 1975. Since this date, migratory balance countryside/city was stabilized, even since the beginning of years 1990 was reversed in the neighborhoods of the great urbanized areas. One speaks now about Rurbanisation: the townsmen settle in the countryside all keep of it an urban lifestyle, a work downtown. This phenomenon produces a “mitage” of the landscape by a strewn frame, or as well as possible divided into allotments. That created a modification of the landscapes and conflicts between the agricultural activities and the rurbains .

Future of the downtown area

One witnesses a spreading out of the cities. The downtown area empties its inhabitants and of its trade, circulation is problematic. The suburbs see the advent of shopping malls, where the Métissage S occurs; these new places of Transit make it possible the population to be found in end of the week, and the rival bands to clash.

The Capitalism and its procession of social and territorial changes sectorisent the city: the district of businesses, the station, the car, etc the traditional city appears unsuited. It is an object socialized which dialogs with a company, it is the gasoline of democratic progress. It is not reducible any more with vital functions. Transport makes it possible the population to quickly move easily and. Another important motivation is the choice of a more pleasant framework of life because nearer to the countryside, calmer, and which makes it possible to escape urban accumulation, source of stress and aggressiveness.

The city seen by authors

“Because there are in the cities two functions, one primary of Habitation, the other secondary of Circulation and one sees today everywhere the Habitation scorned, sacrificed to the Circulation, so that our Ville S, deprived of trees, fountains, markets, of banks, to be more and more “circulables”, becomes less and less livable. ”, Of the keys and the locks , Michel Tournier
“On another side, to be directed in London, if one does not know this city isn't worth to better have a plan of Berlin than not of plan of the whole? ”, There for that , Alain Fleischer
“the form of a Ville changes more quickly, alas, than the Cœur of the mortals. ”, Charles Baudelaire

See too

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