When they build a town, in what order do they build things generally? E.g. roads, sewer, residences, schools, electric cabling, post office, etc etc.
In:
If you’re China you can just build a whole city from scratch and move people into it. Some countries have planned towns/cities built in a short space of time for various reasons (I think Indonesia are moving their Capital to a planned city soon).
Most often, though, a town springs up over course of time and is centred around a population and delivering services to that population. The basic idea behind a town is that it’s easier to create one place for everyone in a geographic region to visit to get their services rather than have them travel all across the countryside.
So the most common first things built to form a central town area are things like a post office, a market, a religious/cultural building, a bar/entertainment venue and the like. Usually along an existing trade route/road as towns work on scale (more people passing through/visiting = more efficient and cost effective town).
The most important thing to understand is *why* a town exists or should be built.
It can serve a rural/farming community and be a place where the population can meet and hang out (community centre/religious building), trade and sell goods and services, or go to find professionals (blacksmiths, carpenters, lawyers, doctors etc. etc.) – It’s super useful and efficient for these things to be located roughly in the same area.
A town can also be highly residential (suburban centre type thing) where it serves as a central base for a population working in a region with one or two major industries (mining, manufacture plant, processing centre etc.) in which case it’s providing a place for a community to live outside of times when they travel to and from work. The first things built might be entertainment and family services to keep people happy outside of work and to give kids a place to learn.
You can have a tourist industry type town, built up around some kind of tourist attraction (beach/nature park/entertainment or cultural attraction) where the first things built will probably be transportation services, hotels and secondary entertainment venues.
Many towns are incorporated for government or public services for a population or community – so a court house, town hall, welfare agency, tax office might be the first buildings that pop up.
There are a lot of reason for towns to exist when, where, and how they do. There’s no real order to the way they are built unless planned specifically – it’s usually organic and fulfilling a particular need of the population.
Latest Answers