Fr : version française / En: english version
.mheu, Historical Museum of the Urban Environment
Babel and Babylon
Aztec cities
Heavenly Jerusalem
The Fujian Tulou
Utopia
Romorantin, capital of a kingdom...
The city of brotherly love
Saint Petersburg, Peter's great city
Industry, socialism and utopia
Taking technology to new heights
Home sweet home
A towering challenge...
New towns
Conjuring capitals
Auroville: "divine anarchy"
Private cities
Dubai: miracle or mirage?
All eyes on the horizon
The city is a political brainchild but also the reflection of amazing creativity in technology. The great Leonardo da Vinci could not help but take up the challenge. When King Francis I embarked on plans to make Romorantin—a small commune in the Loir-et-Cher region of France—the capital of his kingdom, he offered Leonardo a chance to get involved. The artist gave his patron a battery of creative technology that would make any modern-day city proud, including two-way traffic, waste-disposal systems and even express connections between European cities through a cleverly designed network of canals.
"And understand that he who would go through the whole place by the high level streets can use them for this purpose, and he who would go by the low level can do the same. By the high streets no vehicles and similar objects should circulate, but they are exclusively for the use of gentlemen. The carts and burdens for the use of convenience of the inhabitants have to go by the low ones."
From the Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
Some ideas were very close to realities seen in today's cities, proving that today's "impossible dream" can provide tomorrow's solutions, with a little help from advances in technology.
Turning Romorantin into a dream capital was a real challenge for the Tuscan master. Thirty years earlier, he had drawn up plans for the perfect city for Ludovico il Moro, but the project was stymied by Italy's wars... The city of Romorantin was to feature many waterways, in line with Leonardo's belief that all urban planning should incorporate flow: the flow of people on various levels, taken through large arcades between the noble and common quarters, the flow of goods and provisions, disposing of waste and channeling odors. His plans for Romorantin's stables further reflect this sense of movement that permeated every aspect of his designs: Leonardo had foreseen the use of machines to lift the hay to the loft, where it would then be distributed by narrow pipes to the troughs, along with automatic cleaning systems.
Extract from Sur les traces de Léonard de Vinci sur les bords de Loire et de Saône by Pascal Brioist, Senior Lecturer at the University of Tours