Lecture 1 - Ruminations

Unit Introduction and the History of the City

First lecture for the semester and Mirko, the lecturer, went through assignments etc, but the history of the city describing how cities come about, how they grow and how they are used and sometimes how they die, intrigued me.
It reminded me of an organic being, being born, growing up, living it's life and finally dying. Cities are not stagnant things, they are dynamic; which is mostly to do with the culture and the inhabiting people and the surrounding region. Sometimes, even global events can affect a cities life.

There was a comment about that the Modern History era began when Istanbul fell to the Ottomans, I had always wondered where the line was between Ancient and Modern history, now I know.

Learned a new word 'synoceism', which means the coming together of villages into a town. Originally Greek, I found that it is the opposite of 'dioecism', which a term now mostly used in biological circles, meaning separate sexes.

Am looking forward to this subject, sounds like there is more than just architecture as such.