Dan Stanislawski

The Origin and Spread of the Grid-Pattern Town

Originally published in 1946, this chapter is a classic diffusionist account of the origin and spread of the grid as an urban spatial form. The author examines a variety of arguments in favor and opposed to the use of the grid as an urban plan. The chapter then proceeds to trace a genealogy of the grid’s origin in the ancient Indus Valley settlement of Mohenjo-Daro as part of the author’s effort to support the claim that the grid plan was a one-time invention which subsequently spread from its source region to become a global urban phenomenon.