ABSTRACT
In the growth of the west European city, as illustrated in our studies in Part I of this book, there have been three main phases of development, the Medieval, from about 1000 to 1500 ; the Renaissance and the Baroque, which, when combined, extend from about 1500 to the turn of the 19th century; and the Modern. Each of these phases is evident in all towns th&t have had a continuous growth from their medieval origins. Above all, the rapid growth of the modern era has transformed the city of the past and caused it to extend well beyond the historic nucleus. We shall first consider briefly the general character of urban growth in each of these phases so as to understand the city as it stands to-day. There are two aspects of this morphological approach to the study of the urban habitat, plan and build. Though these, in fact, are inseparably interrelated, we shall deal in this chapter with the plan, and in the next with the build.
