Geometry and cities

As we have mentioned before, geometry is present everywhere and the city is the way in which students can understand reality through a geometric perspective. The city is the place where they live, so it is really close to them and we can use all its elements to teach geometry. The buildings, the roads, the signals, the streets... All of them are formed by geometric figures! And, what about the construction of the cities? Let's see it. 

Cities have grown according to different geometric shapes because geometry and civilization walk together. For this reason, there are three main kinds of cities. 

-The Roman city. The Roman Empire built fortified cities with rectangular shapes oriented by their two symmetry axes which were their two main streets: the cardo (North to South) and the decumanus (East to West). In the intersection of these axes were the foro, a kind of square where the public life was developed. The streets were distributed parallel to the two axes, creating a grid of blocks. 

-The Medieval city. The medieval cities were also fortified, but their drawing was irregular and sinuous. It was a kind of maze and there wasn't planning according to geometric patterns. The continuous wars are the main reason for this type of organization. In the centre, there was the market square with the most representative buildings and from this place, lots of narrow and winding streets arise making neighbourhoods where people from different trades were gathered. One of the best representative examples of a medieval city is Toledo. 

-Modern city. Cities change with time and the walls were no longer necessary. In Spain, the "Plaza Mayor" was created. From the Renaissance, the design of the cities follows geometric patterns. Straight and wide avenues and promenades are designed. The streets grow according to three types of geometric designs: "radiocéntrico", such as the starred city of Paris; orthogonal (Barcelona), and linear.

A good resource to teach geometry through the city to our students is Google Earth (https://www.google.com/intl/es/earth/) where they can see and compare the organization of the different cities. 

Furthermore, children can build their own city with geometric figures made by them in order to put into practice all the contents taught. Here, I leave you some wonderful examples. I hope you like them!