Bellavance is an exploration of the grid archetypes as they change over time and space. This exploration begins in Turin, and takes a look at the Baltics, Germany, Argentina, America, and Japan, through their usage of grid development.
Map of Bellavance (https://opengeofiction.net/#map=17/-6.96232/139.19537)
In the 1600s and 1700s in Turin, Italy, a large-scale grid layout was built on the west side of the Po. This layout was established with irregularly sized blocks and Piazzas, and only some of the grid is perfectly orthagonalized. This layout seemed to take pointers from the Roman style of grid-building, and the downtown is still celebrated as historic despite much of it having been torn down and replaced with Rationalist style buildings during Fascist Italy. Grid layouts are by no means, then, contrary to historical architecture or a walkable downtown. In fact, many of these grids allowed for large, interconnected old towns that ended up being remarkably resilient to the automobile. The grid seems to have little effect on the authenticity of the architecture and atmosphere of this neighborhood in comparison with its contemporaries.
A similar style of grid, though one a bit more strict, was built in Mannheim, Germany. The plan, often called the Quadrangle, was established across the Innenstadt of the city, and includes numerous plazas and open spaces. Here it is exemplified how the grid layout can lend itself to a variety of building styles and artistry. Built around the same time as Turin, it is nevertheless different and still bears a number of synchronous German characteristics.
At the same time that the Roman grid was coming back into fashion in Europe, it was also being implemented by the Spanish across the Americas. Sometimes it conformed to terrain, and sometimes it was built strictly at great cost in incredibly hilly landscapes or mountain passes. These cities, while obviously Latin American, are not unlike European ones of their time period.
For example, while Buenos Aires' wide avenues would reveal the city to be clearly not European, The layout and architecture of Microcentro and San Nicolás are rather similar. Much of geofiction revolves around finding and making sure of the inclusion of small differences and unique characteristics in various street layout styles, but this tends to ignore similarities. While in the last post I analyzed similarities between London and various American cities- namely through their use of townhouse rows, I believe that the grid style in the 17th century was another unifying factor between the Americas and Europe in terms of city design. From an urban planning standpoint a grid layout is very inefficient, of course, but it is still useful to look at how it was used. For example, Buenos Aires:
For example, Sapporo:
For example, Columbus:
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Bellavance is an exploration of these similarities, and as such uses elements from all these different countries and regions of the world. It's useful to understand that grid was not exclusively American (country or continent), and that's one of my goals in this post and map.
Thanks for reading,
Jacob
