Genealogies of the Grid: Revisiting Stanislawski's Search for the Origin of the Grid–Pattern Town*

Abstract

ABSTRACT. As a spatial form, the grid pattern has influenced a range of human activities, from urban planning, architecture, and modern art to graphic design, archaeology, and cartography. Scholars from different disciplines have generally explored the role of the grid within their respective fields of inquiry. One of the earliest geographical attempts to systematically trace the origin and diffusion of the grid‐pattern town was provided by Dan Stanislawski in the mid–twentieth century. In this article I critically examine the limitations of Stanislawski's theory of the grid's origin as a means of challenging the doctrine of diffusionism more generally. I then provide a selective overview of recent approaches to understanding the grid and call for a comparative genealogy of gridded spaces and places.

Faceless Hierarchy at Nixtun-Ch'ich’, Peten, Guatemala

“…Urban grids undoubtedly have the potential for use as a mechanism of top-down control, but they are not necessarily constructed for this reason (Rose-Redwood 2008:55–56). Planning decisions can be made for the needs of the collaborative, rather than self-interest of elites.…”

The Teotihuacan Anomaly: The Historical Trajectory of Urban Design in Ancient Central Mexico

“…The record offers no simple correlation between a particular physical form and social patterns or aspirations" (p. 221). While scholarly understanding of the social and political contexts of grid planning has increased in recent years (Blanton, 2016;Blanton & Fargher, 2011;Rose-Redwood, 2008;Smith, 2007), a method for inferring governance processes from urban layouts is still lacking. While the construction of a fully gridded city like Teotihuacan undoubtedly required a strong central government (Smith, 2007), such political power could have been wielded by either an autocratic or a collective regime.…”

Cartographic calculations of territory

“…As a range of authors have pointed out, working both within geography (Black, 2008;Hannah, 2009) and outside it (Hacking, 1982;Scott, 1998), the rise of the modern 'calculating state' and 'state-istics' (Hacking, 1990;Shaw and Miles, 1979) derive from calculable orders. Cartographically, this is taken up as the way space is 'geo-coded' through mapping and the rise of thematic mapping to know, control, and govern territories (Pickles, 2004;Rose-Redwood, 2006;2008a;2008b;Steinberg, 2005;. Martin Heidegger has also proved to be a influential figure on the multiple questions of number, 'machinization', calculation and technology.…”