The Greeks conceived the city as an area of ​​finite dimensions, optically and politically encompassable. Their settlements are located on an irregular topography and are built as a series of blocks. Thus, except for the acropolis and the agora, the cities of classical Greece were a swarm of irregular cells.

However, over time the Greeks developed a general urban concept. Hippodamus of Miletus crystallizes the ideas of the moment in a characteristic urban structure that is repeated in the cities of colonization: regular street layouts.

Interpolating open squares in the grid layout, the agora is located in the center of the grid, a space excluded from road traffic. As in the classical polis, in the Hippodamic city the dominant axes are missing and the position of the main buildings is still determined by the surrounding space. Examples: the cities of Miletus and Priene.

In the century BC. C. the orthogonal grid becomes the norm for city planning. The hypodamian grid is rather a practical instrument to facilitate the planning and construction of new colonies. Relying on the classical and Hellenistic tradition, the Romans adopted and propagated the urban planning ideas of Greece.

The Romans looked for regular geometric layouts or, if this is not possible, they included architectural compositions, the best example of which is the city of Rome.

The government of the Empire is linked to it, which is forced to enlarge it to make it worthy of its role as capital.

Its spatio-temporal continuum defines its urban form, which goes from the initial Roma quadrata on the Capitoline Hill and the Palatine, to the republican Roma septimontium over the seven colonies, before overflowing them and extending under the Empire to the Aurelian wall.

The development of monumental design concepts occurred in the central area of ​​ancient Rome, where the old market in the Capitol progressively transformed into the commercial and administrative heart of Rome: the Republican Forum, the most monumental part of the city because it was home to the temples and the main public buildings.

Gradually it was seen that the solution to organizing large formations of buildings lies in urban composition and integration. Thus the expansion of the Forum during the Empire subordinates the buildings to the urban spaces.

In contrast to the Republican Forum, the Imperial forums and, above all, that of Trajan are a realization of great clarity, of immense regular spaces articulated by colossal buildings. The baths became the most complex buildings of Antiquity as a sectoral function, while the great palace of Diocletian in Spalato was conceived and built as an ideal city: like a monumentalized Roman camp. But the baths are regular compositions, the deliberate compositional irregularity of Hadrian's Villa manifests other design intentions, which will be proposed as an example for the contemporary city understood as a collage city.

The Greeks conceived the city as an area of ​​finite dimensions, optically and politically encompassable. Their settlements are located on an irregular topography and are built as a series of blocks. Thus, except for the acropolis and the agora, the cities of classical Greece were a swarm of irregular cells.

However, over time the Greeks developed a general urban concept. Hippodamus of Miletus crystallizes the ideas of the moment in a characteristic urban structure that is repeated in the cities of colonization: regular street layouts.

Interpolating open squares in the grid layout, the agora is located in the center of the grid, a space excluded from road traffic. As in the classical polis, in the Hippodamic city the dominant axes are missing and the position of the main buildings is still determined by the surrounding space. Examples: the cities of Miletus and Priene.

In the century BC. C. the orthogonal grid becomes the norm for city planning. The hypodamian grid is rather a practical instrument to facilitate the planning and construction of new colonies. Relying on the classical and Hellenistic tradition, the Romans adopted and propagated the urban planning ideas of Greece.

The Romans looked for regular geometric layouts or, if this is not possible, they included architectural compositions, the best example of which is the city of Rome.

The government of the Empire is linked to it, which is forced to enlarge it to make it worthy of its role as capital.

Its spatio-temporal continuum defines its urban form, which goes from the initial Roma quadrata on the Capitoline Hill and the Palatine, to the republican Roma septimontium over the seven colonies, before overflowing them and extending under the Empire to the Aurelian wall.

The development of monumental design concepts occurred in the central area of ​​ancient Rome, where the old market in the Capitol progressively transformed into the commercial and administrative heart of Rome: the Republican Forum, the most monumental part of the city because it was home to the temples and the main public buildings.

Gradually it was seen that the solution to organizing large formations of buildings lies in urban composition and integration. Thus the expansion of the Forum during the Empire subordinates the buildings to the urban spaces.

In contrast to the Republican Forum, the Imperial forums and, above all, that of Trajan are a realization of great clarity, of immense regular spaces articulated by colossal buildings. The baths became the most complex buildings of Antiquity as a sectoral function, while the great palace of Diocletian in Spalato was conceived and built as an ideal city: like a monumentalized Roman camp. But the baths are regular compositions, the deliberate compositional irregularity of Hadrian's Villa manifests other design intentions, which will be proposed as an example for the contemporary city understood as a collage city.