“It is generally realized from personal experience that these irregularities do not have an unpleasant effect at all, but on the contrary, they enhance naturalness, they stimulate our interest, and, above all, they augment the picturesque quality of the tableau.”
– Camillo Sitte (1889)
One of the best known …
“That the center of plazas be kept free.”
– Camillo Sitte (1889)
Step into the world of urban planning with a purpose! Camillo Sitte’s words make a clear appeal in “City Planning According to Artistic Principles.” Old towns maintained a harmonious balance, where statues, fountains, and churches gracefully adorned the square’s edges. But times have …
“Triangular plazas are always unattractive, of course, because in them any deception of the eye is impossible, and the building lines of the houses which face on them intersect awkwardly.”
– Camillo Sitte (1889)
Much has been written about square shapes, and the most common form resembles a rectangle rather…
“From the artistic point of view a merely unbuilt piece of ground is not yet a city plaza. Aesthetically speaking, a great deal would still have to beaded in embellishment, in meaning, and in character.”
– Camillo Sitte (1889)
Not every unbuild piece of ground in a pedestrian area is (automatically) a…
“We are well aware of the effect of an old plaza, but how to produce it under modern conditions is not understood because we are no longer cognizant of the relation between cause and effect in these matters.”
– Camillo Sitte (1889)
Through the last 135 years many great urban designers analysed the qualities of…