As I've been self-isolating, I've been watching a ton of movies, and a lot of them happen to have medieval towns in Europe as their backdrop. I've been wondering a lot about how these cities were built, mostly the physical infrastructure and erecting of buildings.
So something I've noticed is that a lot of towns tend to have a very similar aesthetic across the board, or at least all the buildings seem to be made of the same materials. You know what I mean; the wood exoskeletons of the Tudor style, the stucco of cities like those used in Game of Thrones, the light walls and red/blue roofs of Mediterranean coastal cities.
I know in their infancy, villages were made up of houses that families built themselves, grouped closer and closer together as cities grew. And I know that at some point, they grew into cities as we know them today; relatively uniform city blocks, roads, plazas, rows of connected buildings separated only by internal walls. But how did this happen? Were they all built at the same time? Was there purposeful city planning going on? Did they build buildings one at a time, but always out of similar materials?
Then once those buildings were built, did people just start to buy/rent them? Were they all empty until tenants came in? Were there medieval zoning laws?
If you need more specific questions, let me know! I hope I explained my confusion well enough.
How did city planning in medieval times work? Assuming Western Europe.
Movies will make the cities look much prettier than they were. Fleabottom the slum in Kings Landing, as shown in the series, would in reality have been a decent neighborhood.
There wasn't much planning. Cities were organic growths with houses and additions being built and cobbled on as needed. Top floors of buildings would overhang onto the streets to give more floor space on the top floors (see Jettying). By the time you got to the third floor you could sometimes touch hands with a person in the house across the street the higher floors were so close together.
The city would be full of winding streets and alleys with little access to sunlight due to all the upper levels of buildings jutting out over the streets. Open sewers would run next to where people walked: the stench would be unbearable by today's standards. Fires were a regular hazard and buildings would occasionally collapse.
If buildings were of similar materials and looked the same, it would be because that material was nearby and easily sourced. Same style was due to a limited number of known construction methods available. Space within a city's walls was valuable so often as many buildings and houses as allowed would be crammed in.
And I know that at some point, they grew into cities as we know them today; relatively uniform city blocks, roads, plazas, rows of connected buildings separated only by internal walls. But how did this happen?
By demolishing large swathes of buildings. Or when the city burnt down in a fire, or was destroyed and pillaged during a siege, it would be an opportunity to update the layout.