Ideal City

Perhaps no idea speaks to the epic ambition and scope of Leonardo da Vincis
inventions better than his ideal city. This invention focuses not just on a single
area but combines da Vincis talents as an artist, architect, engineer and
inventor to create an entire city.
Da Vincis ideal city idea came about after the plague had ravaged Milan,
killing off nearly a third of the citys population. Leonardo wanted to design a
city that would be more united, with greater communications, services and
sanitation to prevent the future spread of such diseases.
His ideal city integrated a series of connected canals, which would be used for commercial purposes and
as a sewage system. The city would feature lower and upper areas the lower being canals for
tradesmen and travelers and the upper being roads for "gentleman". The roads were designed to be
very broad, most likely in response to Milans narrow streets where people were jammed together,
probably contributing to the spread of the plague.
Being an artist and architect, da Vincis city also would be a vision to behold, with elegant buildings
featuring large arches and pillars. Da Vinci said of his style of urban planning: "Only let that which is
good looking be seen on the surface of the city."
Da Vinci detailed many other great and small aspects of his city. These include special stables for horses,
which the animal-loving da Vinci saw as integral to the workings of the city, and fresh air vents in
buildings. However, since da Vincis design was so grand in scale and required an entire city to be
rebuilt, his ideal city never actually came to fruition.

While Leonardo was living in Milan, much of Italy and the rest of Europe was struck by the plague and
many people died. Leonardo felt the high number of deaths was partially due to the state of cities - they
were very dirty and germs spread rapidly through the dense population. Garbage was thrown out onto
the streets, there was poor sanitation and the streets were narrow and dark.
Leonardo designed an "ideal city" where the streets were wide, underground waterways carried
garbage away and there was even a paddlewheel system that would clean the streets. His city was
based on 2 levels, the top level was for the foot traffic and the bottom for carts and animals. In this city
Leonardo hoped that improved living conditions would help to avoid contagious diseases from spreading
so quickly and wiping out large percentages of the population. While the ideal city was never built, he
did help to improve the Sforza castle by designing a smaller version of his plumbing and drainage system
which proved to be both clean and efficient.

Students will look at Leonardo's sketches and reasons behind the design of the ideal city. They will then
examine issues, needs and wants of cities today before designing their own contemporary version of the
ideal city. As a class we will construct a small scale model of a city which will be governed by an elected
body. Students will learn about scale, area, perimeter, volume, data analysis, chance uncertainty in
mathematics at the same time exploring issue linked to local government as described in the Social
Studies curriculum.

Architecture
The typically Renaissance subject of the ideal city fascinated Leonardo who began to concern himself
with it in Milan in the late 1480s. Unlike contemporary treatise writers, his study of the organisation of
space was less geometrical then functional, and directed at solving the various problems of daily life,
such as traffic, supply, and hygiene and sanitary requirements. The last of these played a part of primary
importance in Leonardo's plans and it is no coincidence that his study of the ideal city dates from the
aftermath of a serious plague epidemic, which struck Milan in 1485. The structure of late Medieval cities
greatly encouraged the spread of infection with their narrow twisting streets, high population density
(especially in the poor quarters), open sewers, little personal hygiene and a great number of rats and
parasites. To find a solution to this highly explosive situation as regards sanitation, Leonardo proposed a
much more open city plan, characterised by wide, straight streets, with a comprehensive system of
waterways.
According to him, cities should be built near rivers that are sufficiently fast-flowing not to create areas of
stagnant water that can pollute the air. By means of sluices and basins, the river water would be led into
the city by a network of canals, which would make it possible, above all, to provide urban cleaning and
the removal of sewage, for which he designed a proper, underground sewage system. Besides this
essential aspect of hygiene and sanitation, the canals would also perform other important functions
such as ensuring communications and facilitating supplies. Goods traffic would be carried out, at least in
part, on water, and organised in such a way as to allow the unloading of goods directly within individual
buildings, with some of those having semi-basement warehouses with direct access from the external
canal through a little dock. The canal network would also be integrated into a carefully organised street
system which would include streets for vehicular traffic and the common people and, at a higher level,
streets exclusively for the movement of the upper classes.
The city would therefore be articulated on two levels with strict separation between production
operations and upper class concerns, reflecting the structure of aristocratic palazzos. The family of the
owner of the building lived on the first floor, which would be entered from the upper street, while the
lower floor was for service areas (kitchens, storeroom and wood store) opening on to a wide courtyard
that would communicate with the lower street. Like all such plans of that time, and despite its strength
as regards functionality, Leonardo's project was not capable of being realised and was abandoned. The
originality of the project, however, and its potential for being synthesised in the fusion of architecture,

mechanics and hydraulics, as well as the idea that the beauty of a city must be synonymous with
functionality means that, with Leonardo, the idea of modern city-planning was consolidated.

Leonardo da Vinci's Ideas on Town Planning

As in the fields of art, science, engineering and sculpture, Leonardo da Vinci brought forth some radical
ideas in the field of town planning.
Leonardo's interest in town planning developed after several plagues in the 1480s had wiped out nearly
one third of the population of Milan. Leonardo believed that congestion in cities was a prime cause in
the spread of epidemics and proposed new town planning ideas for the redevelopment of the city.
Leonardo da Vinci's Ideal City
In his book 'Codex Atlanticus', he described a new concept for a city which spanned across a river. The
river was diverted into 6 -7 branches upstream of the city, all parallel to the mainstream and rejoining it
downstream.
He proposed 3 levels for the Ideal city - the lowest level comprised of a network of canals which was the
primary circulation network. The canals would carry freight to and from the sea and also flush out the
waste produced by the city. Since the natural movement of the river would be insufficient to facilitate
these intended functions, he proposed the damming of the river upstream of the city to create water
torrents. The intermediate level would have roads for travellers and common people and cater to
functional circulation. The upper level was intended for the gentry with palaces, colonnaded walkways
and gardens.
Leonardo even detailed out buildings as hydraulic machines which would distribute water through a
mechanical lifting system. Some buildings were designed to be equipped with a storage basement,
directly accessible from a canal through a small dock. Leonardo also formulated legislation to ensure
that owners of lots on the banks of canals would maintain the same. He detailed many large and small
aspects of the city - such as special stables for horses and air vents in buildings.
Leonardo da Vinci's proposal for the city of Romorantin
Leonardo's interest in town planning was revived later in 1517 when he was asked by Francois I, then
King of France to prepare plans for Romorantin, intended to be the capital of France. Leonardo's design
for the city form was largely a response to contemporary problems of sanitation and disease.
Again Leonardo planned a network of canals, powered by watermills and designed to facilitate
movement, maintain hygiene and augment trade to the area. The importance to unobstructed flow was
manifest in the city plan - with wide streets and a canal network to provide easy movement of water,
waste and people. This was a radical departure from the organic fabric of the medieval city.
Understanding Leonardo da Vinci's approach to town planning

Though all of Leonardo's town planning proposals are unbuilt, his sketches and ideas available in
manuscripts such as Codex Atlanticus help us understand his approach to town planning. His
Renaissance contemporaries like Filarete, Leon Battista Alberti and Francesco Di Giorgio had in the 15th
century put forth several plans for the Ideal City. These plans were characterized by a strong geometrical
order. However Leonardo's approach to town planning appears to be guided more out of a need to
resolve problems and not so much a geometric organization of space.
The infrastructure of Italian cities built by the Romans, particularly the Roman aqueducts and sewers
may well have been an inspiration for Leonardo.
Circulation was a predominant theme in Leonardo's proposals, whether related to people, freight or
waste. This was articulated by straight roads in a grid iron pattern and the extensive use of waterways as
a means of circulation.
Leonardo's proposal for segregating the various aspects of a city, in order to maintain sanitation created
a very tangible functional zoning, an attribute adopted centuries later by modernist urban planners.
However his layering of the city, while maintaining hygiene and sanitation, allowed for a much larger
density and scale within a relatively small land expanse.
Leonardo dealt with problems of expansion, proposing satellite towns, green belts and prefabricated
housing - concepts which are a part of contemporary town planning vocabulary. He looked at the city
plan in totality, as a functional entity and detailed various aspects which went into the functioning of the
city, thus putting forth a new way of thinking about city form.
Leonardo da Vinci, contribution to town planning
Leonardo da Vinci's proposals were a direct response to a well defined objective and vision for the
proposed towns. Like his other inventions, Leonardo's town planning ideas speak of his radical thought
process and his grand scale of gestures which were far ahead of his time. It is therefore no wonder that
interest in his work continues even today.

REFERENCES

http://www.da-vinci-inventions.com/ideal-city.aspx
http://galileo.org/tips/davinci/idealcity.html
http://www.macchinedileonardo.com/index.php?studies-architecture
https://suite.io/anamika-mishra/4jrh2dk