Gothehamstadt

[EricPoehlsen]

Gothehamstadt (City at the banks of the River Gothe) is the capital city of our LARP Country Eibland I am working on a map of the city.
The city has a population of about 35000 so it will have about 3000 - 5000 buildings it is a harbor city. It will have the kings palace, the great university and the cathedral as some landmarks.

The topography is laid out. Size of the map is 4x3 kilometers the small grid is 25m (around 100 feet). The primary roads have been marked and the first buildings are placed. There is still some work ahead of me ...

The colorscheme is working only beautification will be one of the last steps.

gothehamstadt1.png

[feanaaro]

3000-5000 buildings, especially 5000, might be high for a 35k city. It would mean that most of the houses host just a single family or two. Wouldn't one want to build denser in a city? Even with a low technology level, ancient Rome had multi-story buildings which hosted dozens and possibly hundreds of people (true, not all buildings would be houses, but a large majority probably would).

[EricPoehlsen]

Well you have to take into account that there are buildings for warehousing, etc. It will probably be at the lower end of the range.
7-10 level high-rise buildings, as the insulae of Rome, were not really that common after the fall of the empire. During the middle ages town houses rarely exceeded 4 levels.

[feanaaro]

Good, but a 4 levels house, with the numerous families typical of pre-modern societies, would easily host 50 or more people imho. 5000 buildings, more like 100k people at least.
Look also at this estimates of population density for ancient cities: https://faculty.washington.edu/modelski/WCITI2.html
~500 people per hct seems pretty normal, mean estimate is 350people/hct, that seems a lot denser that you imply for your 4x3 Km map.

[EricPoehlsen]

Well the population density dropped significantly in the middle ages - check for example: This page 72 it mentions some central-european cities like Augsburg or Salzburg with densities of around 50 per ha thus 5000 per km². Would need 7 km² for 35.000 which is about the usable landarea of that topography...

I think my numbers are pretty solid and how many buildings actually fit the map will be determined when it is done.

[feanaaro]

Yes I've seen that study, it had been posted on this same forum in the past. It is also a 1961 study, so I would not take it as the last word on the matter.
Regardless of the density per area (which of course can depend on how edifices are clustered more than by the number of people per building), an average of 7-10 people per building, even counting warehouse etc., still seems very low for anything that is not a modern day american suburbia.

[EricPoehlsen]

I think that a population density of more than 5000/km² would not fit the style I envision for the city. I have to admit that your suggestion concerning the persons per building is also valid. I think I should go more for something around 20 - 30 persons per building which would reduce the number of buildings to 1000-2000. I think currently there are about 150 buildings placed so it should work with that spacing.

I am aware that the study is 50 years old, yet I hope the numbers the student used for it are based on valid sources.

[EricPoehlsen]

Some progress.
gothehamstadt2.png

[EricPoehlsen]

With more builings along the main streets the streets and places within the city start coming out nicely as 'negative space'

Currently there are 650 'buildings', as there is an overlap of something around 30% it would be around 400 actual 'units'

gothehamstadt3.png

Final update for today, probably.
gothehamstadt4.png
now with about 1200 buildings ...

[EricPoehlsen]

Further progress in the northern and southern city parts. Along the southeast flanks of the hill in the northwestern part of the city will become a 'higher end town houses with parks'-area. The cathedral, kings palace and city part around the central market are placed.

current building count 1800 probably actually more like 1500.

gothehamstadt6.png

So, final update for today:
gothehamstadt7.png
now the Islands in the bay are filled with buildings, the bridges are done.