The historical origin of spatial planning

Abstract

Despite the fact that spatial planning is the souvenir of the second half of XXth century, as an organized activity it is rooted in early history, along with the efforts and visible traces of first civilizations trying to control and use their territory. Our investigation shifts from this first spatial enterprises during Antique, over medieval so called prehistory events in Netherlands and France, up to the first official state policies in the beginning of last century. We dare, as well, to give a planners interpretation of classical approach to geopolitics, trying to explain the means and ends that shaped the space through history. The aim of this paper is, using selected case studies, to show the historical origin of the discipline and to prove the continuity of spatial policies from ancient to modern times.

Iako je prostorno planiranje tekovina druge polovine dvadesetog veka, korene ove delatnosti treba tražiti u organizovanim aktivnostima prvih civilizacija koje su ostavile jasne tragove uređenja i uprave na velikim teritorijama koje su kontrolisale. Mada takva razmatranja uslovno pripadaju kompleksu geopolitičkih istraživanja, usudili smo se da damo i jednu interpretaciju geopolitike sa stanovišta prostornog planiranja, koju nasleđuju prapolitike planiranja u srednjem veku, da bi pregled bio završen u prvoj polovini prošlog veka prvim zvaničnim politikama prostornog razvoja. Cilj ovog rada je da izabranim primerima iz istorije prostornog planiranja pokaže poreklo savremenih shvatanja ove discipline i dokaže kontinuitet prostornih politika koje se sprovode od antičkih vremena do danas.