Urban archetypes applied to the study of cities in historic contemporary fictions. Symbolic urban structures in Age of Empires III and Bioshock Infinite

In “The Idea of a Town: Anthropology of Urban Form” (1976), architecture historian Joseph Rykwert defined six archetypes used in Etruscan rites for the foundation of urban settlements, which continued to be used in Classical Greece and Ancient Rome. He proposed to use these same categories for the study of cities in different eras, as a methodology to develop a global urban history. This paper projects Rykwert’s concepts to cities created during the XXI century, specifically those designed for video games with historical themes, and provides the reader with an experimental methodology for assessing digital architectures and environments. Spatial and narrative archetypes will be identified in two different video games, as well as their connections to imaginaries born in the Classic period. In Age of Empires (Ensemble Studios, 1996-2005) urban foundation corresponds to the idea of the town as a place for dominating territory. Their variable structure is grounded on a systemic set of rules that benefits tactic configurations designed by players. In contrast, Bioshock Infinite (Irrational Games, 2013) proposes an immobile storyline built around the city as its leading narrative voice. Its urban spaces direct the action through archetypes such as the “center”, the “labyrinth”, and the “door”.

The Development of Towns

This chapter examines urban foundation and development in the Roman period and the issues relating to town origins and purpose in Britain. It focuses on the chartered towns and reviews relating to the three main types of urban settlement—the coloniae, municipia and civitas-capitals—and the practice of settlement categorization. The chapter also contextualizes debate on urban development by discussing aspects of the history of approach to the documentation and interpretation of Roman town foundation in Britain. It discusses the practicalities of town construction and then moves on to emphasizing the need for Roman urban studies to embrace archaeological theory in order to avoid normative assumptions in interpreting urban material and town life. In particular it argues for greater recognition of the relationship between the development of urban spaces, the lived experience within towns, and the existing significance attached to places and landscapes in prehistory.

The Analysis of Urban Ecological Wetland

Problems caused by urbanization such as inadequate water content in urban foundation, ecological unbalance in the soil and heat island effect, have become issues that people pay great attention to. Two projects, cited as being successful in integrating urban landscape planning and wetland ecology, are the Water Garden in Portland, USA, and the Living Water Garden in Chengdu, China. Artificial wetland is effective to establish urban ecology. It may not only solve the problem of urban water crisis, but also bring a series of good eco- environmental effects, such as to conserve groundwater, regulate climate, extend green areas, purify air, beautify city and even effectively control flood damages, and etc.