What cities could have been reshaped with a massive urbanisation plan post-industrial revolution?

I just read about it... that looks great !... I guess the Ottoman flavour here and there would not be present in Hungary though.

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Budapest was around five times the size of Sarajevo at the time, that leaves a whole lot of room for possibilities, perhaps making it the more modern and fast expanding rival to Vienna's classicist imperial style.
Another case study for Habsburg rebuilds would be Ljubljana, which was extensively rebuilt and renovated after the 1895 earthquake.
 
Supposing that Egypt is even more economically successful in Ismail's rule, could the majority of Cairo resemble a European city in appearance (and to extent, by population) by the 1880s?

That would be a really cool TL ! A reshaped capital to symbolise the industrial and economic power of the country while mixing modernity with more traditional arabic aesthetics (or perhaps even a revival of ancient Egyptian styles)... My guess is that the external influence and migration would be predominantly British, but I wonder what other European country and population could be attracted as well.

cairo-egypt-in-the-19th-century-1860s-1880s-vintage-everyday-life-09.jpg
 
Another case study for Habsburg rebuilds would be Ljubljana, which was extensively rebuilt and renovated after the 1895 earthquake.

Insteresting, I'm starting to get a more consistent picture of what Habsburgisation looks like. Earthquakes are definitely an interesting PoD to consider, though plausibility widely varies depending on the region of the globe.

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We would need a pre-1900 equivalent of a full-scale city bombing for that level of damage... perhaps if London finds itself in the middle of a civil war...
 
That still faces the same problem the redevelopment plan after the Great Fire and the concentric circle plan failed: property rights in England meant that the government would have to pay for every piece of land they wanted to move/develop, even fire damaged empty plots. It was just too expensive.

So what you're saying is the UK needs to go commie to then change London? Certainly possible with a different ww1
 
Insteresting, I'm starting to get a more consistent picture of what Habsburgisation looks like. Earthquakes are definitely an interesting PoD to consider, though plausibility widely varies depending on the region of the globe.
Yeah I'd stick with fires.
 
Imagine it! Queen Victoria, standing on a balcony in buckingham palace, plucking away at a lyre, while london burns.

A neronian Victoria.... I can't even fathom how the XIXth century would end for Britain in that TL...

So what you're saying is the UK needs to go commie to then change London? Certainly possible with a different ww1

That would push us post 1900, unless Marx & Engels suddenly become very very very persuasive.

Constantinople.

Feels unlikely under Ottoman Rulers..... perhaps Greek conquerors with a centennial score to settle...
 
Well, Brussels' city centre already did undergo major changes during the 19th century, with the whole making a river disappear thing and the construction of the Palace of Justice. One can easily imagine the Hausmannization extending much further; today it's basically limited to Anspach/Dansaert/Lemonnier area. I can easily imagine much of the touristic area being destroyed and Brussels being much more filled with large "Parisian" boulevards, as was the wish of many, including Leopold II. It's basically thanks to/because of mayor Karel Buls that this didn't happen.
 
This would be an interesting POD for a timeline. The fire that historically destroyed most of the Palace of Westminster not only happens over a decade earlier, but gets out of hand is is much worse and destroys much of the city. The Price Regent is able to get the government to hire John Nash to co-ordinate the rebuilding efforts and he rebuilds much of the city. This won't affect the East End but the West End is developed very differently from OTL.
 

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Banned
So what you're saying is the UK needs to go commie to then change London? Certainly possible with a different ww1

Doesn't have to be so

We went commie (arguably) and now we have a completely random city with bad infrastructure
 
A neronian Victoria.... I can't even fathom how the XIXth century would end for Britain in that TL...



That would push us post 1900, unless Marx & Engels suddenly become very very very persuasive.



Feels unlikely under Ottoman Rulers..... perhaps Greek conquerors with a centennial score to settle...

What about the Taksim area?
 
Can we go into the early 20th century? Because I think Tokyo following the 1923 earthquake could work. Following the disaster, Home Minister Goto Shinpei took charge of reconstruction and made huge plans to reconstruct Tokyo as a modern, state of the art, innovative, centrally planned city. However due to the plans being considered too expensive and reckless, opposition from rural politicians, and criticisms that it was too European-inspired led to Tokyo being reconstructed as a more traditional city. If Shinpei can get his plans through Tokyo could have been a very different city
 
Can we go into the early 20th century? Because I think Tokyo following the 1923 earthquake could work.

That's a tad too late. Though I could make a thread in the post 1900 section because that sounds like a great PoD ... but the overall urbanism would be quite different as the second half of XIXth century urban changes accounted for steam power and potentially early electricity whereas a post 1920 reshaping would account more for cars... Also the aesthetics are likely to be quite different as well...

...that said... if Tokyo was to go through a major earthquake in the beginning of the Meiji Era...
 
What about the Taksim area?

The idea would be for a reshaping that affects the majority of the city as part of a predefined plan, so the Taksim area would fit well in it, but it would have to be far bigger in scope and implementation, involving radical changes in older areas too.
 
What about Boston?

Going from a classicial British style to a more American layout?


I guess the question then is "Why and why are we assuming this is a good thing".

The main reason could be an impetus for modernisation of infrastructure and facilitation of government, but that doesn't mean it's a good thing per se, it could be a grim opportunity to erase, or at least diminish, socio-political groups within a city by reshaping their environment, or destroying the symbolic urban centres they had taken ownership of.

This would be an interesting POD for a timeline. The fire that historically destroyed most of the Palace of Westminster not only happens over a decade earlier, but gets out of hand is is much worse and destroys much of the city. The Price Regent is able to get the government to hire John Nash to co-ordinate the rebuilding efforts and he rebuilds much of the city. This won't affect the East End but the West End is developed very differently from OTL.

So West London would be completely reshaped right before Victoria comes to power? That does give a whole lot of potential for how it will develop with the booming industry and imperialism/colonialism !

Well, Brussels' city centre already did undergo major changes during the 19th century, with the whole making a river disappear thing and the construction of the Palace of Justice. One can easily imagine the Hausmannization extending much further; today it's basically limited to Anspach/Dansaert/Lemonnier area. I can easily imagine much of the touristic area being destroyed and Brussels being much more filled with large "Parisian" boulevards, as was the wish of many, including Leopold II. It's basically thanks to/because of mayor Karel Buls that this didn't happen.

Interesting. I know that Lille had been Hausmannised a bit, following on Paris footsteps, but I didn't know that it had influenced Brussels too, but in both cases, the historical centre was not reshaped, else perhaps the cities would have lost part of their iconic Northern aesthetic.
 
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