Designating communities’ current needs is the first step towards creating a desirable environment, a livable city. The livable city is a community-oriented space that results from dense, authentic, and engaging urban environments. The integrated network of human relationship with the public environment creates the soul of a city. Such a spirit will define the city’s character and determine whether its civic platform really is livable.

To better understand the multifaceted relationship between humans and cities, and to dig further into the concept of a livable city, it is helpful to glance over the history of urban design and compare it with today’s conditions. Studying narratives, strength and weakness, success and failure of what has already been implemented will bring to light the fact that such an ideal context will only be obtained when all of society contributes to its development. For that reason, business owners and developers play a significant role in the process of creating a livable city.

Why The Need To Review The Past
Modern viewpoints about city and community planning have their precedents in the city’s historical development and in the theories presented by designers and planners over centuries about how responsible evolution of the land can improve people’s lives. Knowing the history of urban planning helps comprehend how a building project is connected to the community and city in which it is located.

Early Cities, The Answer To Basic Needs Of Settled Humans.
In the earliest settlements, life and living quarters were pivoted around central buildings, including the granary, where food was stored, and the temple, which had multiple functions. The temple was used not only to conduct the village’s administration, but was also a place for ceremonies, social interaction, and trade. Gradually other needs started to emerge including security and entertainment. Urbanites needed to feel secure against any threat coming from outside of their community, and they also needed to have entertaining activities besides their daily routines. Ancient Greek cities responded to these demands: They were encased by security walls and had special facilities, such as theaters and stadiums, for leisure. With a little contemplation on this arrangement, we can see that this primitive form of a city was a response to the most immediate human needs at the time, which interestingly were not limited to defense or overcoming hunger, but considered the necessity for having a public space to gather, socialize, and interact.

Integration Of Art And Cities: A Call For Living In Beauty.
During the Renaissance, city planning took on greater importance. Although military and defense considerations were still remarkable, planners paid more attention to urban design aesthetics. City plans combined symmetrical order with the radial layout of streets that centered on focal points. The radial boulevards’ primary organization was over-laid on a grid of secondary streets or over an existing road system. The idea of giving the city an orderly and rational form, making it a symbol of the artistic and philosophical conception of the whole Renaissance, slowly matured in the works of fifteenth-century urbanism. Centuries later, this idea was still appealing: Nineteenth-century Paris is a case in point where planners advocated straight, arterial boulevards connecting principal historic buildings, monuments, and open squares. The plan was intended to minimize riots and clear out slums but also succeeded in beautifying the city.

The Industrial Revolution & A Fundamental Change In The Design Of Cities.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and following the Industrial Revolution, the focus of city-building turned to increasing goods production, rather than on social or aesthetic interests. As a result of this shift in values, cities soon became overcrowded, filthy, and empty of open space and recreational activities. The factory system required that the workforce be close to the factory in addition to requiring transportation and distribution outlets. As production expanded, so did the populations of factory towns. The unhealthy and depressing living conditions imposed on people by the industrial revolution ignited a reform movement to improve housing conditions, water supply, and sewage systems, to provide sanitation, reduce crowding and above all, to realize the need for open space and recreation.

Site Selection
As the need for adaptive reuse and repositioning increases, single-use developments such as shopping malls, industrial complexes, corporate offices, and university campuses are rearranged into walkable, mixed-use communities. Several cities worldwide, such as New York City, benefit from the successful approach of combining old manufacturing and light industrial uses with live-work residential spaces, entertainment functions, and retail. Respecting such a strategy, redeveloping available sites within an urban context instead of purchasing a greenfield or selecting a site in an isolated business or industrial zone, is the practical approach to ensure that the community is positively affected. Redevelopment of an existing urban fabric helps ensure that residents can live close to jobs, schools, services, and other destinations, resulting in reduced travel time and environmental pollution.

In addition to the idea of mixed-use and local developments, accessibility of a site also plays an important role in shaping a Livable City where walking, bicycling, and public transit are the most efficient choices for traveling. The importance of a non-car-oriented development and site selection is even more crucial when thinking about how it allows for flexibility of public space when needed, as evident during the pandemic.