Hippodamus of Miletus (in ancient Greek: Hippodámos, "horse tamer"), Hippodamus or Hippodamus (Miletus, 498-408 BC) was a Greek architect, urban planner, mathematician, meteorologist and philosopher. He is considered the "father" of urban planning, which gave its name to the "Hippodamic plan", a grid scheme of cities.

Contenido

Vivió durante el siglo a. C., en los albores de la época clásica de la Antigua Grecia. Su padre se llamaba Eurifonte. Aristóteles lo describió como original en todos los aspectos y como alguien que deseaba ser un erudito en todas las ciencias de la naturaleza, aunque existen discrepancias sobre si este Hipodamo es el mismo del que habla Aristóteles en Política, II, y el que menciona Juan Estobeo, en su Antología, como Hipodamo el pitagórico. Aristóteles lo definió como «un hombre extraño, cuyo afán de distinción le hizo llevar una vida excéntrica».

Urban planner

Hippodamo was not only an architect, he was a true theorist of urban habitat. He was the first Greek architect to conceive urban planning and the structure of a city from a point of view that privileged functionality. Hippodamo was the introducer of urban planning based on wide streets that intersected at right angles. He proposed the organization of the polis according to numerical relationships, in search of symmetry. Logic, clarity and simplicity prevailed in their designs. It is impossible not to relate Hippodamus' architectural concept with the thinking of his time: the checkerboard-shaped plan reflects the logical and mathematical divisions with which the philosopher-architects of the century BC. C. they sought to reflect the ideal society. Hippodamo is considered the first of the urban planners and the layout he devised is called the Hippodamic layout.

He was in charge of carrying out, around 479 BC. C., the master plan for the reconstruction of the city of Miletus, taken, plundered and destroyed by the Persians in 494 BC. C. It was also he who planned the urban layout of Piraeus (port of Athens), probably in the time of Pericles. And he was also the architect responsible for planning the colony of Turios, in the south of the Italian peninsula, in 443 BC. C. Later, in 408 BC. C., Hippodamo supervised the construction of the new city of Rhodes "Rhodes (city)").