Settlement layout
Life will find a way, and it seems that way is organized. Animals of the forest find the best tracks to follow down to a watering hole, or the easiest route to cross a mountain ridge. Trees find just the right distance to grow from each other; saplings soon learn the consequences of breaking these patterns of regularity.
On the farm yard, cows will find the quickest route to and from the barn – and this may not be along the pathway the farmer thought! So, too, in large towns and cities, settlement patterns emerge. Sometimes these patterns are instinctive or emergent, but more often than not, they are planned.
Village layout
Villages are small, rural, non-commercial settlements. The layout of roads and buildings follow the topography and are unplanned.
Town layout
Towns are commercial settlements, where some form of industry or process produces goods and a market place is a significant feature. Higher population density requires a road system that facilitates the flow of traffic. The larger population size also results in functional segregation, usually by occupation, resulting in the establishment of wards (sometimes called zones, districts, quarters, or neighbourhoods). Typically, people will live where they work, or in close proximity to their place of business.
City layout
Cities, because of their size and thus the greater diversity of needs of its inhabitants, have the most structured layout. Not only is commerce very prominent in a city, but entities to regulate business (and other activities) become increasingly prominent. People may still live and work in the same space, but in certain situations purely residential areas may arise. The remainder of this section will explore the variety of wards found in cities.
Wards
In certain senses, a ward within a city is a village unto itself. It is a social unit, where people know each other, meet and gossip in the street, and go about their everyday business.
A ward has a primary function or purpose, and it’s layout will strongly reflect this. It may be focussed on the military, government administration or a particular manufacturing or production effort.
In addition to this primary influence, all wards will have common features: street markets, water fountains or wells, baths, places of residence, and entertainment.
Some wards may have hospitals, religious buildings, specialist markets, guild halls, and places of learning.
One of the distinctive features of Kalderani city design is the strict segregation of wards. Districts are clearly delineated, by walls, avenues, topographic features, etc. And within a district, there is a preference for laying out even, square blocks of buildings with broad streets.
This strict adherence to clearly demarcated regions even extends to immediately outside the occupied area of the town or city, where communal agricultural land is camped off, as well as open, as-yet unused, plots and blocks.
Categories of wards and urban elements
- Art & Culture
- Business
- Civic Buildings
- Education
- Entertainment
- Food Production
- Government
- Health
- Housing
- Industry
- Infrastructure
- Law
- Military
- Religion
- Services
- Trade