ABSTRACT
Understanding the historical forces that brought the organic-seeming urban forms into being helps to explain the diversity of block formation that emerged during this medieval period. The excavated block at Ostia is lined with shops at street level, with a series of passages and entrances leading to apartments overlooking the public street and a garden courtyard. The interior of the block contains shared open space with two further apartment blocks, and as such, creates what we define as a ‘nested perimeter block’. The interior of the block is raised on a podium accessed from the street and as such is shared by the buildings surrounding it. Although the rear configuration is fundamentally altered, the outward facing units share the pre-eminent relationship between the block and the street that is characteristic of many medieval towns. Row blocks with a rear access lane also facilitated the collection of foul waste from outdoor privies.
