What are the characteristic features of a Western European city? The structure of typical cities in Western Europe

What are the characteristic features of a Western European city? Geography in the 21st century has almost all "discovered", so it increasingly focuses on the problems of modern society. Georbanistics (the science of cities) - one of the most urgent of its areas today. This article will discuss what the West European city differs from Russian, Asian or Australian.

The city is ... The main types of cities in georbanistics

The city is a large settlement, whose inhabitants are mainly engaged not in the agrarian sector of production. Of course, the use of the epithet "large" in this definition is very conditional. So, in Denmark or Estonia there are cities with a population of 600-800 people. But in Japan, a settlement has the right to be called a city only if it has at least 50,000 inhabitants.

What makes cities different from each other? Some urbanists reduce them all to three basic models: Roman, Athenian and Jerusalem. And yet in geourbanistics it is customary to allocate several types of cities (depending on the layout and nature of the building). It:

• Western European type;
• East (asian);
• African;
• North American;
• Latin American;
• Australian.

What are the characteristic features of a Western European city? This will be discussed later.

Structure of the West European city

Madrid and Brussels, Rome and Lisbon - all these cities are of the Western European type and have a similar layout and character of development. Before answering, what are the characteristic features of a Western European city, it is worthwhile first to study the typical features of its structure.

So, the classical city in this region, as a rule, includes the old (historical) part and the new one, where modern buildings prevail. The center of the "old city" is usually designated by a spacious square (market) with a town hall and a church. From it in different directions the narrow streets diverge. It is the old city that attracts a huge number of tourists, because there are almost all historical and architectural monuments.

Around the old city is the so-called srednestye - the district, which was built up much later - in the XIX-XX centuries. Still further, on the outskirts, there is a belt of new buildings (a new part of the city), consisting of "sleeping" areas.

So, what are the characteristic features of a western European city? Let's try to answer this question in the next section.

Characteristic features of the West European city

Typical cities in Western Europe are very small in area, very "close", but at the same time are very diverse in architectural terms. What characteristics of the West European city can be distinguished? Let's try to list them:

• A diverse in style and age architecture: skyscrapers can coexist with ancient mansions, Baroque buildings - with houses in the style of high-tech, etc.;
• A large number of foreign tourists and labor migrants;
• Obligatory presence of the city emblem;
• Saturated traffic, constant problems with traffic jams;
• Presence of one or several airports (even if the city is small);
• Narrow streets and lack of green spaces;
• A very large number of architectural monuments - churches, churches, civil structures and sculptures.

Russia and the West: a comparison of cities

The Russian city, according to the historian Vladimir Makhnacha, is a phenomenon that is only beginning to be seriously studied. How does it differ from the Western European type of cities?

In Western Europe, policies initially occupied the smallest possible area. So it was easier to protect yourself from enemies, having fenced off with a system of ditches and stone fortifications.

But Russian cities are freer and more spacious. Streets in Western European cities are narrow, houses in old areas are stone or half-timbered, closely attached to each other. In our country, houses are always surrounded by extensive land.

In Russian cities, even in large cities, many residents kept cattle. Therefore, the streets were designed so that the animals were easy to move around. And try to imagine a similar picture, say, in London or Vienna. Russian cities have always been much closer to the countryside, which means they are much healthier than their West European "colleagues."

Conclusion

Now you know what are the characteristic features of the West European city. It consists of three parts: the old city, the suburb and the new part. The cities of Western Europe, as a rule, are distinguished by great architectural diversity, rich traffic, narrow streets and insufficient landscaping.