ABSTRACT
It has been suggested in the first chapter that every urban settlement, be it large or small, is in more or less degree a chef-lieu, or regional capital. For the very essence of urban character is the function of service for a tributary area. “Cities do not grow up of themselves. Countrysides set them up to do tasks that must be performed in central places.” 1 The working and organization of civilized society demand the existence of service centres, and for this reason centripetal forces are fundamental in the localization and structure of the urban community as a seat of industry, commerce, culture and administration. On the other hand, the growth of the city has always been accompanied by expansion, not so much, in the past, of the built-up area—for the houses had of necessity to be clustered as closely as possible around the nucleus—but in commercial and industrial organization, Now, this phenomenon, due to the operation of centrifugal forces, has become of paramount significance with the growth of rapid and cheap transport, so that the built-up area of the city has been able to expand outwards, as well as devolving some of its functions on surrounding towns, which acquire thereby more and more a satellite character. But these centrifugal forces have their complement in the centripetal forces, which are no less significant than in the past. The increasing complexity of modern society demands, as in the past, the concentration of certain functions at nodal points not only in the countryside, but also in the residential districts of the large urban complex, whose centre becomes, in varying degree, the focus for these sub-centres. Centripetal and centrifugal forces, complementary to each other, are thus fundamental to the development, location, functions and physical structure of the urban community in all ages. We are not concerned in this* book with the discussion of all the factors, but firstly, with an assessment of the location, structure and growth of the city as a seat of regional integration for the area around it ; and secondly, with the structure of the city's built-up area, when regarded as the result of an ever-active process of functional differentiation.
