NU BALIWAG
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
APLANN02
Planning 2: Fundamentals of Urban Design and Community Architecture
ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
Professional Instructor, School of Architecture
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
NU BALIWAG
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
APLANN02 Module 2
Cultural Basis of Community Design
Cultural Basis of Design of Communities & their Historical
Background
Brief History of Urban Design - Roman, Greek & Egyptian
Aesthetics/Community Architecture
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
NU BALIWAG
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
Module 2: Cultural Basis of Community Design
Learning Outcomes:
To understand how cultural values
shaped community design
throughout history.
To identify the key architectural
and urban planning aesthetics of
Egypt, Greece, and Rome, which
continue to influence cities and
design practices today.
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
NU BALIWAG
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
Why Culture Matters in Design
Communities are not just
built structures—they are
shaped by belief systems,
centers of power, and
shared identity.
Every settlement, whether
ancient or modern, reflects
what its people valued most.
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
NU BALIWAG
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
Why Culture Matters in Design
In short, culture is the
blueprint of urban form.
If we want to understand
how communities were
designed, we must look at
the cultural DNA that
produced them.
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
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1. The Egyptians
Egyptian cities and monuments
were deeply shaped by religion and
divine kingship.
The Nile dictated settlement
patterns, and the Pharaoh’s role as
god-king influenced monumental
planning.
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
NU BALIWAG
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
The Egyptians
Urban form followed axial
planning—long straight
avenues leading to
temples and pyramids.
These structures were not
just buildings; they were
symbols of eternal life and
divine order.
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
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SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
The Egyptians
Examples include Thebes,
Memphis, and Amarna.
Imagine processional routes
lined with sphinxes leading
worshippers from the Nile to
the temple— it was urban
design as ritual.
Memphis, the first capital of Egypt
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
NU BALIWAG
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
The Egyptians
Thebes, Egypt, once the Largest city in the world in 1500 BC Amarna, the City of the “Heretic Pharoah”
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Egyptian features
Axial planning
Monumental temples
& pyramids
Processional routes
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
NU BALIWAG
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Egyptian key takeaways
Egyptian aesthetics were monumental, centralized, and
rooted in religion.
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
NU BALIWAG
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From Egypt’s monumental
cities shaped by religion
and divine kingship, we
move to Greece.
Here, the focus shifts from
worshipping gods through
architecture to
empowering people
through civic spaces. Let’s
see how democracy and
community life influenced
Greek urban design.
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
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2. The Greeks
Unlike Egypt, Greek urbanism
was less about divine
kingship and more about
civic life and democracy.
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
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SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
The Greeks
The Hippodamian grid plan
introduced order and rationality to
city layouts.
At the center was the Agora, a
public marketplace where politics,
trade, and philosophy converged.
Nearby stood the Acropolis, a
sacred hill with temples, showing
how religion and civic life coexisted.
Scale model of the Acropolis of Pergamum
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3D Reconstuction - [Link]/[Link]/pergamon
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The Greeks
Greek cities like
Athens and Miletus
emphasized
harmony, balance,
and the human scale.
Athens, Greece
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
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The Greeks
Their planning was not
just functional—it was a
reflection of their belief
in civic participation and
the pursuit of beauty.
Miletus, Greece
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
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Greek features
Hippodamian grid
Agora – civic space
Acropolis – religious center
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
NU BALIWAG
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
The Greek key takeaways
Greek aesthetics celebrated community life, rational order,
and balance.
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
NU BALIWAG
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
The Greeks gave us civic order
and democratic spaces, but the
Romans took these ideas further.
They expanded Greek principles
into a vast empire, using design
not only for beauty and
community but also for
infrastructure, power, and
control.
Next, let’s explore how Rome
transformed urbanism into an
imperial tool.
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
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3. The Romans
Roman design was about empire,
order, and engineering.
They expanded the Greek grid into
the Cardo and Decumanus system,
creating organized, military-like city
layouts.
[Link]/learn/urban-planning-ancient-rome
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
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The Romans
At the heart was the
Forum, a civic and
political hub.
But Romans were also
masters of infrastructure
—aqueducts, roads,
baths, and amphitheaters
—all built on a
monumental scale to [Link]/learn/urban-planning-ancient-rome
project imperial power.
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
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The Romans
Cities like Rome,
Pompeii, and Timgad
show how urbanism
became a tool of
governance and control.
Rome
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The Romans
Every Roman city looked
familiar because it
followed the same logic
—efficiency, order, and
grandeur.
Pompei
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The Romans
Timgad
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The Romans features
Forum – civic hub
Cardo & Decumanus – orthogonal plan
Aqueducts, baths, amphitheaters
[Link]/learn/urban-planning-ancient-rome
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
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The Romans key takeaways
Roman aesthetics fused functionality with monumentality, serving
both the empire and its citizens.”
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
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So we’ve seen three different civilizations:
Egypt with its religion-centered planning,
Greece with its civic and democratic ideals,
and Rome with its empire-driven order and engineering.
Let’s put them side by side and see how culture shaped each one’s
approach to community design.
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
NU BALIWAG
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
Egypt built for the gods, Greece built for the people, and Rome built for the empire.
Aspect Egypt Greece Rome
Religion, divine Empire, order,
Cultural Basis Democracy, civic life
kingship engineering
Forum, Cardo &
Axial planning, Hippodamian grid,
Urban Features Decumanus,
temples, pyramids Agora, Acropolis
aqueducts
Functional +
Monumental, Balanced, rational,
Aesthetic Character monumental, imperial
symbolic of eternity human-scale
scale
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
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SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
“Architecture is the expression of values;
urbanism is the expression of collective identity.”
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
NU BALIWAG
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We’ve now explored Egypt, Greece, and Rome—the
foundations of classical community design.
But urban planning did not stop there.
To give us a bigger picture, let’s briefly see how other
civilizations and later eras shaped communities, even if
they’re not our main focus today
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
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Mesopotamian Urbanism
Long before Egypt, there
was Mesopotamia—
the land between the
rivers.
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
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Here, we see some of
the earliest cities like
Uruk and Babylon,
where ziggurats and
canals defined
community life.
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
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SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
Indus Valley Civilization
While Mesopotamia is often called
the ‘cradle of civilization,’ it wasn’t
the only early center of urban life.
At the same time, another
remarkable civilization was thriving
further east—along the Indus River.
This is the Indus Valley Civilization,
known for its advanced city
planning, sanitation systems, and Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa; Orthogonal grids, drainage systems
standardized architecture.
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
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Medieval Urbanism
After Rome’s empire
declined, cities in the
Medieval period grew more
organically—centered on
castles, cathedrals, and
fortifications.
This shows us how power
shifted from empires to local
lords and the church.
Organic growth; Castles, cathedrals, fortified towns
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Renaissance Urbanism
Medieval towns grew around
defense, the church, and trade.
By the 15th century, the
Renaissance revived Greek and
Roman ideals of order,
symmetry, and proportion—
turning cities from strongholds
into planned works of art that Symmetry & harmony: Palmanova star city
reflected beauty and humanism.
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Baroque Urbanism
Renaissance urbanism
stressed balance and
harmony, while Baroque
made it grand and
dramatic—using
boulevards, vistas, and
monumental squares.
Versailles is a clear
example, where design
became a stage for royal
power. Grand vistas, theatrical planning: Versailles gardens & palace
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Industrial Revolution Urbanism
Baroque cities showed
grandeur, but the
Industrial Revolution
brought new challenges.
From the late 18th
century, factories and
migration reshaped cities,
shifting focus to housing,
sanitation, and public
parks—marking a move
from spectacle to survival.
Sanitation & public parks: 19th-century London reforms
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
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Early Modernist Urbanism
The Industrial Revolution made
cities grow fast, but also
overcrowded and unhealthy.
By the early 20th century,
planners wanted a fresh start.
Modernist urbanism offered
bold new visions—clean,
ordered, and rational cities with
wide streets, open spaces, and
high-rise housing.
It was a break from the chaos of
industrial towns, aiming to Suburban growth & reconstruction: Brasília as modernist capital
design a healthier urban future.
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
NU BALIWAG
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Post-War Urbanism
After World War II, many cities
lay in ruins and needed
rebuilding.
This era saw massive
reconstruction, new capitals
like Brasília, and the rise of
suburban growth.
Post-War urbanism focused on
rebuilding quickly, modernizing
infrastructure, and expanding
housing to meet the needs of a
fast-growing population. Suburban growth & reconstruction: Brasília as modernist capital
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
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Postmodern Urbanism
By the late 20th century,
many felt Modernist and Post-
War planning was too rigid
and impersonal.
Postmodern urbanism
emerged as a reaction—
bringing back diversity,
symbolism, and playful
design.
Instead of one-size-fits-all,
cities now embraced variety,
cultural identity, and a mix of Diversity & symbolism: Piazza d’Italia
old and new.
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Contemporary Urbanism
Today, urbanism focuses on
sustainability, technology, and
livability.
Contemporary cities aim to
balance growth with green
spaces, renewable energy, and
smart systems.
Unlike past eras that stressed
power or style, the priority now is
resilience—building communities
that can adapt to climate change, Sustainability & smart cities: HafenCity, King’s Cross
rapid urbanization, and the needs
of diverse populations.
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REMEMBER:
From pyramids to smart cities, every era shows how culture shapes
communities.
The challenge for us, as future architects and planners, is this:
“What cultural values should guide Filipino community design
today—and how will you translate them into spaces that serve
both people and future generations?”
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap
NU BALIWAG
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
REMEMBER:
From pyramids to smart cities, every era shows how culture shapes
communities.
The challenge for us, as future architects and planners, is this:
“What cultural values should guide Filipino community design
today—and how will you translate them into spaces that serve
both people and future generations?”
APLANN02 <Module 2: Cultural Basis of Design and their Historical Background > SY <2025> ARCH. IMELDA M. TRANCE uap