City Design for Creators
For comic creators, game designers, authors, anyone who builds worlds, I present to you an overview of city design. I have a BA in anthropology (archaeology), and much of this information is a summary of some of what I learned in my degree. I am far from an expert on cities and city states, and I highly recommend that you do further research on your own. Archaeology papers are dense, but can be a great source of inspiration and information.
When you want to design the look and feel of a believable city, there are a number of things you need to take into consideration. I highly recommend looking through both modern and ancient famous cities in a similar environment or with a similar look and feel to the one you want, to use as a reference city. Try to determine the answers to each of the following aspects for both your reference city, and the city you are designing:
Population Size
Social structure of the dominant culture
Diasporas and Demographics
Environment and available resources
Age of city
Defining Characteristics
This looks like a lot of things, but I will break down each section for you and explain how they should be integrated into your city design. Each one builds on the other. We won’t be considering the genre of your work. The technology level will impact some of how your city is built, but the information in this guide should help you to design a city in any setting. The rest is just visual aesthetics.
To make this as simple as possible, I am assuming your town is on earth. If you’re doing a sci-fi or fantasy world with different rules, you will need to adjust some information about environmental features later on to suit your setting.
Population Size
Before looking at anything else for your settlement, consider how many people live there. Very broadly speaking:
Hamlet: 500 people or fewer
Village: 500 – 1000 people
Large village: 1000 – 2000 people
Small town: 2000 – 5000 people
Town: 5000 – 10,000 people
Large Town: 10,000 – 50,000 people
Small City: 50,000 to 100,000 people
City: 100,000 to 500,000 people
Big City: 500,000 to 1 million people
Metropolis: 1 million+ people
The smaller your settlement, the more homogeneous it will be (meaning there is less diversity). A tiny hamlet with 500 people or fewer will probably only have one or two foreigners at most who live there, whereas a Metropolis like New York City has entire neighborhoods with a different culture than the dominant one.
The smaller your settlement, the more detailed your design for it needs to be, as well. For a metropolis, your readers won’t notice if you don’t have a cohesive map of the entire city behind the scenes (although you will still want neighborhood maps of the key areas). But if your comic takes place in a small village or a hamlet and you don’t have a good grasp of how it’s all laid out, that will become noticeable for readers as your comic goes on.
Social Structure and Dominant Culture
The culture that built the city will determine a lot about how it’s constructed. At the very basic level, there are two different kinds of social organization: Egalitarian, and Stratified.
For the sake of simplicity, I am going to assume that the society that built the city originally is still occupying it now. However, it is fully possible for a city to be conquered by a new culture and keep much of it’s original architecture (like Istanbul).
Egalitarian Societies
An egalitarian society is a culture that doesn’t have any kind of class structure. No specific segment of society has more social or economic opportunities or power than any other. An egalitarian society can still have any type of *government* (except for maybe a monarchy). Most often in history, egalitarian societies have been some form of democracy, or else lead by an elder or religious leader. Egalitarian doesn’t mean a lack of a leader, it only means that no segment of society has more power, rights or money than any other segment.
The “classic” example of an egalitarian society in anthropology is a band of hunter gatherers being led by a group of elders or a religious leader, but use your imagination! This type of society can be applied to all kinds of people, and a society that was previously stratified can become egalitarian, either through revolution, or other radical cultural change.
Egalitarian societies can still have defined gender roles, but they are not likely to have any discrimination based on gender. However, they are not perfect bastions of freedom. They can still have built in prejudices, and tend to have less cultural diversity than stratified societies.
Egalitarian Social Organization
All the social roles should be interdependent on one another. At my college professor’s research site, Kirikongo (Burkina Faso, Africa), the egalitarian society was organized into several roles who all depended on each other equally.
[NOTE: this is from my memory, so it may not be completely accurate to the area. However it still makes a great example for our purposes].
Farmers: Depend on the metalsmiths and potters for their tools, priests for communication with the earth spirits, and bards for entertainment and education. They provide food for everyone and access to the earth.
Potters/Metalsmiths: Depend on the religious leaders for communication with the earth spirits, on farmers for food and access to the earth, and on bards for entertainment and education. They provide tools for everyone.
Priests: Depend on farmers for their food, potters/metalsmiths for their tools, and bards for entertainment and education. They provide access/communication with the earth spirits, and religious information.
Bards: Depend on farmers for food, potters/metalsmiths for tools, and priests for religious and historical information. They provide entertainment and education in the form of fictional tales and oral histories.
As you can see, each segment of society creates something that is absolutely essential for the function of the other segments. It takes all of them together to have a working town. Money was (and is) still used in this example, goods and services are not given for free, but personal accumulation of wealth is not something that the culture values.
The Egalitarian City
An egalitarian city will emphasize public works and community, and de-emphasize personal wealth. A large portion of the city should be dedicated to public meeting places and communal resources.
Here are some suggestions for features of an egalitarian city:
A large, centrally located meeting place (like a town square)
Community pantries and water sources
Bath houses
Libraries
Post offices
Communal sewer systems
Smaller homes
Multi-generational homes (you live with your family your whole life)
Public transportation
Free public schools
High taxes
Unified standard of living
Rather than organizing your city into districts based on wealth, you could organize it based on trade or social role. You could have the pottery district, the entertainment district, the religious district, etc.
Stratified Societies
These types of cultures will probably be the most familiar to you. Stratified societies have inequality built in. There is a wide range, from strict religious caste systems, to classes defined by wealth.
The “classic” example of a stratified society is a monarchy, where the very highest class is the royal family, and then you have the nobility, the nouveau riche (“new rich”- upper middle class people who are attempting to emulate the wealthy), the middle class or merchant class, the blue collar class, and then the poor.
For the sake of simplicity, we’re going to assume that more power = more money. However, it’s worth noting that power in your society can be based on anything you want, and doesn’t have to be tied to wealth. In a culture that is stratified by something besides wealth, the amount of money you have doesn’t determine your access to social power or opportunities.
A healthy stratified society can be thought of as a diamond shape. At the top of the diamond is usually the leaders. They are the most powerful and wealthy people in society. In the middle, at the widest point of the diamond, is the middle class. This usually makes up the largest number of people in the society. They are living comfortably enough to provide for their families, but they do not have much personal social power. Any power they do have comes from collective power, like voting in a democracy or forming labor unions.
At the very bottom you have the poor. These are people who are not sharing the standard of living the rest of society expects. They have no social power, have the least amount of money, and are often minorities who are the targets of prejudice and are victimized by society.
A diamond shaped society is usually stable. It’s very unlikely in a diamond shaped society that a big revolution would happen, or that the government wouldn’t be able to respond to a natural disaster or some other emergency.
An unhealthy stratified society is a pyramid shape. Again, the most powerful and wealthy people are at the top. In this version, the middle class is much smaller, so that those people who are in poverty make up the largest segment of society.
A pyramid shaped society is unstable. While it’s not guaranteed that the society will crumble, it is not possible to keep a society in this form for very long. If major changes don’t happen to re-shape it into a diamond again, than revolution is almost inevitable. A pyramid shaped society is also less able to respond if an emergency like a natural disaster takes place. So much money is concentrated among the very wealthy, who are unwilling to spend it, that it can be next to impossible to quickly get money when a response is needed.
The Stratified City
A stratified city will emphasize personal freedoms and wealth over public works. A large portion of the city should be devoted to residential areas for the middle class and above, and entertainment for them. In a healthy diamond shaped society, there should also be a large area of the city where the classes can mix, such as a government district or a central market. In a very dramatic pyramid shaped society, it should be completely possible for the upper class citizens to live their entire lives without ever seeing a poor person who isn’t a servant.
Here are some suggestions for features of a stratified city:
A large, palace like structure where the most important people of the city to live and/or work
A wall, river, major road, or green space that divides the upper class area from the lower classes
A crowded slum, located near anything “nasty” like factories, sewage plants, rubbish pits, etc.
Very large single family homes
Personal transportation
A distinct visual style difference between the rich and poor neighborhoods
A stratified city can have districts based on class. While they equate to rich, middle class and poor, it will be more realistic to disguise them a little bit. Your “poor” district should be the city’s metaphorical toilet. Whatever the rich people don’t want to look at, like power plants, manufacturing buildings, or actual sewage, ends up here. Your middle class district is where any social mixing between the classes happens. This is likely going to be your market district. Your upper class district is most likely going to have government buildings, or other places of social importance like a college, library, or temple.
Reusing Cities
I mentioned earlier how the people who built your city don’t have to be the same people who are living there now. Imagine how the city was originally laid out and used to serve the people who built it. The culture coming in might look at the space completely differently.
For example, if a stratified city had a lot of parks or green space in their rich district, if an egalitarian society moved into that city, they might use those spaces as community gardens, central to the whole city.
This can also apply to cities being reused at a later date in time. In an apocalypse, you might see a skyscraper office building transformed into an entire indoor city, with living and working spaces all contained. The use of a given space might not be obvious to people from a different culture and time period, and they will use the city in a way that suits their needs, rather than in a way that reflects the architects’ intentions.
Diasporas and Demographics
Not everyone living in your city comes from the same culture. Even in a tiny hamlet of less than 500 people, there’s probably at least one person who came from far away. In bigger cities, people who all come from the same place form communities called diasporas.
The “classic” example of a diaspora would be Chinatown. There is a “chinatown” in many different major cities in the US, where Chinese immigrants have moved into a neighborhood, and live their lives by their own cultural rules. They speak their own language, and use the space of the city in a way that locals do not.
A big city or a metropolis can have many different diasporas. Come up with a general ethnic demographics breakdown for your city. You can use a modern city about the same size as a reference for this (although you will probably only be able to find information about race and not ethnicity).
Here is the overall racial demo information for NYC (from Wikipedia):
44.6% White ancestries
27.5% Hispanic ancestries
25.1% Black ancestries
11.8% Asian ancestries
2.1% Multiracial ancestries
0.4% Native American ancestries
0.1% Pacific Islander ancestries
Usually, the majority population represents the dominant culture. They will be the people who built your city (unless you’re opting to give your city a more complex history). The next largest demographic (in this case Hispanic and black ancestries) probably have their own subcultures, but there are enough of them in total that they probably won’t have felt pressure to form diasporas
In our example, the people of Asian ancestry would be the best candidate for a diaspora in your fictional city- there are enough of them to have a large neighborhood they control, but they are a small enough minority to be tight knit and feel that they have to hold more firmly onto their culture.
You can design a diaspora neighborhood like a tiny city within a city. Don’t be afraid to make it visually very distinct and different from the rest of the town in architecture and decor.
Environment and Available Resources
By now you should have a good idea of your city’s general identity. You know what kind of culture it’s from, how evenly resources are shared, and what kinds of people live there. It’s now finally time to start considering the aesthetics of your city.
Universal Rules
Your city will be built near an easy source of water in almost every case. Even if you can drill a well, your settlers will probably have chosen to build near a river, lake or ocean. In addition to getting fresh water for drinking, bodies of water help to regulate weather and temperature and keep it more consistent.
The shape of the roofs in your town is going to depend on how much rain or snow the area gets. In a place where it rains a lot, roofs are pitched so that the water will run off. Where it snows a lot, these pitches have to be at a much steeper angle to keep the snow off, as the weight of snow can cause roof collapse. In places where it is dry, you might see flat roofs, and the roof itself may be used for extra space, like a porch or garden.
Resources
The resources local to your city will determine what materials your city is made from. Even in modern cities where materials can be shipped from all over the world, the local resources are easiest for constructing the frame of a building.
In forested areas, buildings are more likely to be made from timber and pitch. In desert areas where moving rocks is much more exhausting work, adobe or bricks made from baked clay are going to be more likely. Rocky areas will use a lot of stone, etc.
For the most part, you can determine this by looking at the landscape your city is going to be set in, as well as at reference cities in similar environments.
Sometimes, cities use more unusual materials. Kilwa Kisiwani in East Africa featured homes made from coral. Or in the frozen north, a city could be constructed entirely of ice, like the famous Swedish Ice Hotel. You could also draw inspiration from Ossuaries (like the Sedlec Ossuary) for construction out of bones.
Climate
A city needs to protect it’s citizens from the natural world. What are the day to day temperatures like? Is your city in the mountains, dealing with snow most of the year? Or in the desert under the hot sun? Is it somewhere idyllic that is sunny all the time but not too hot? Or does it rain almost all year round?
Your climate will affect the design of your buildings at the basic level.
Hot Climate
Heat is your settlers’ enemy. Buildings are likely to be built into natural features wherever possible. Think about the Pueblo Cliff Dwellings in the American southwest, or Petra, Jordan. This is because going underground is the best insulation and protection from the heat. In a place where this is not possible, your city could be built entirely underground, like Derinkuyu City in Turkey. If the city is built into the earth, rooms will be small and closed off, as this provides more insulation from any heat that comes in from outside.
If buildings can’t be sheltered by the earth itself, than windows should be placed on the walls that see the least amount of direct sunlight. Rooms should be open plan and simple, so that there can be a cross-breeze to keep the houses cool.
Moderate Climate
You have a lot more leeway with building styles in a moderate or temperate climate. The day to day weather is very forgiving, so you have the chance to get really creative with your buildings. Open floor plans are still favored, and you can have open air pavilions and other areas exposed to the elements.
Look to places like Greece, Italty, and Mesopotamia for inspiration.
Cold Climate
Buildings in cold weather climates typically have a mudroom or entryway for dealing with mud and snow on shoes and outer layers. Buildings also usually have segregated rooms and hallways to keep warmth insulated. The homes of the rich will have multiple fireplaces for warmth, maybe even one in every room, if they do not have electric heat.
Natural Disasters
The types of natural disasters the area is prone to will affect where, and in what materials, people will build in. You can look up architectural choices for specific kinds of natural disasters. Here’s a page with a few.
Tornado: Buildings will have basements or cellars, and won’t have too many large windows. They will be made of stone, brick or some other very sturdy material
Tsunami: Buildings will be built on high ground, back away from the beach. They will also have raised foundations or stilts to combat flooding.
Earthquake: Buildings will be made of wood, or some other material that is flexible. They are less likely to have basements.
Forest Fire: Buildings will have flammable things cleared away from around them. They may still be made of wood, but are frequently treated with something to abate fire.
Volcano: Buildings will be built near roads, and not too far up the mountain, to provide easy escape routes.
Blizzard: Buildings will typically have two stories, with a snow door. Basements, or other storage areas for stockpiling food, are common.
Thunderstorms: Buildings will typically not be too tall. Double paned windows and other weatherproofing are common. You won’t see so much
Hurricane: Buildings will have basements and weatherproofing. For areas where winds come from predictable directions (like storms coming off the ocean), buildings will be angled so that the wind hits at an angle, rather than on the face of the building.
Age of City
When your city was built and how long it’s been occupied for is going to affect how it looks. Older cities that are still occupied will have grown past their ancient boundaries. There will be a distinct visual section of the city that looks older than the rest of it.
As an example, take Visby, Sweden. Like many medieval cities, it was built with a wall. Now, the medieval city forms the city center, the intact wall still surrounding it. The modern city expands far beyond it. You can view it with the satellite maps from google maps to see the layout of the city.
Many ancient cities were built with walls for protection, or else separated from the rest of the world by being isolated on islands, or on mountain tops. As weapon technologies improved, walls and moats became obsolete and stopped being the defining feature of the city.
The older a city is, the more mismatched you can make certain buildings and areas. The history of your city will be present in buildings from different eras here and there. Even if buildings are modernized with time, there will always be some historical buildings that are left as they are. Different eras have distinct architectural styles- some of which can be pinpointed down to individual years in history. Make sure you research the architecture of the time period your story takes place in, that you to want to base your aesthetics on.
Modern cities tend to be more pre-planned, with lots of straight lines and careful lot division. Older cities tend to have grown organically. They will have more random organization because of this, with roads forming along rivers or in natural pathways.
Defining Characteristics
To give your settlement character, I recommend giving it a unique defining characteristic, or a theme that echoes the theme of your comic.
Here are some ideas:
Being built in or around ruins from an older city
Repurposing unusual features like old subway lines, airplanes
Being in an odd location, such as underground or in the middle of a lake
Having a district set from a distinct period of history (like a medieval city inside of a modern city)
Being built of an usual material such as ice, coral, or bone
Building a city around a core theme or idea will help you make decisions about it’s layout and design, as well as aesthetic visual choices.
As more concrete example, I have a few cities I built in the game Fallout 4 which I followed specific themes to build.
The first was a repurposed alleyway. The defining characteristic of the city was a strict division of space. All the homes were suspended between the abandoned buildings of Boston. This influenced the design and mood the city. It meant that the area below was available for traders, and there could be a flow of people walking through the alley while the homes of the residents were safe above.
The second was a drive in theater with a lake in the center of the property. I decided that the defining characteristic of this city would be extreme inequality. I built nice homes for people in prime locations, including vertically up the screen of the drive in theater. Then on the side where part of the diner had collapsed, I put up some tents and ramshackle shelter. The central area with water became my market district where the classes could mingle and access key resources.
By picking a specific theme or core feature of your city that you want to build around, you will have some direction when making decisions through the city building process.
I hope after going through all of this, that you are left with a better sense of where to begin with deciding on the style of your buildings and the architecture of your town.
Happy writing!
