Town shaping question? (WIP map and debate?)

[Wingshaw]

Jalyha, it is good that you are asking this question before you map your town too far. It generally makes things easier, in my experience.

You are right that most towns start with a single settlement and grow outwards (eg London). A town that grows from a starting point doesn't tend to grow outwards evenly. The nucleus settlement will generally grow first along major roads or rivers, and therefore give an elongated appearance.

Some towns can become roughly circular if they are located on dome-shaped hills, or if they are coastal. In the case of coastal towns, land routes into the city are generally less important, and so the city will grow with everyone wanting to be as close as possible to the waterfront. The result can be very roughly circular. Check out some maps of European towns to get an idea (eg Genoa, Naples, Dubrovnik, Thessaloniki).

Lastly, you can get round cities if they were planned from the beginning. The best example I know of is Palmanova.

The key pieces of advice I can offer are A. research (i.e. browsing Google Earth, checking out maps on the internet etc.), and B. think about the people who live in your city. They would have the same needs and desires as you, regardless of the technology level (eg. not having to travel too far from their workplaces, not having to pay too much in rent, being close to prestigious or high status people). And C. ask more questions here if you're still stuck.

Good luck with it.

[Chlodowech]

If you don't want to get a city that looks planned, try to get a rectangular, triangular or even irregular central square.

And to answer your second question: A town usually grows outwards first, along the main roads. Those main roads could be quite irregular, e.g. if they pass a valley or a river at a certain spot. Later, the town will grow inward, too; any free space available in the city centre will be used for house building, which results in building on former squares (example), in the centre of wide roads (which will result in two narrow lanes; example: this english town) or even against bigger buildings like churches. But the outer quarter will still provide much free space for gardens.

There's a good example for this in Germany: The medieval town of Duderstadt

And another thing about the city walls. Theirs size and shape should depend on who founded or owned the city. If it was a rich duke or even the king, think about large walls including also the outer quarters of the town, or even a double wall ( a low curtain wall in front of the actual city wall). If it's a less important city, maybe only the central part is surrounded by city walls, or even be a palisade and ditch, maybe combined with stone gatehouses. And if there's a castle, it should be part of the walls and not inside or outside of them (because when there's a castle, the owner usually owns the city, too, and then he'll include his castle in the city's defense line).

And if there are bigger buildings close the central square (especially churches), never place them with their main facade to that square; it looks very planned)

[Jalyha]

Obviously I haven't got all the buildings in yet, and I was going to rough up the placement more with each ... um... degree of prosperity, but I think I was still planning too "neatly" :p

I was also thinking, though, that what I have so far would be the "inner wall"... protecting the wealthy, sort of? Would this work, do you think?

The city is run (in fact the "nation" is run by a council of leaders from different areas; scholars, priests, merchants; etc (and even Constance, the last dragon is a council member... but she lives outside the town)

So, anyway, If I made this as, say, the "inner wall", and outside the wall, things sprouted more along the roads/waterfront, do you think that would be more realistic?



What I'm thinking of, thanks to all of your advice, is something like this: (Excuse the cruddy lines, I just put it in to show you the areas).






I have *everything* on different layers (even smaller roads from the bigger ones) so I don't really mind changing things. Much of my story will take place inside the city, so I'd prefer to get it right.

Thanks again for advice!!