Swanson School of Engineering

After physically standing in the main square of Pienza, and walking around the town, I can absolutely say with confidence that this city feels like it was deliberately planned to be built like this. The city is incredibly compact, with access to all essential buildings in under a five minute walk. The city is also perched atop a massive hill, and it is not easy climbing up it, as evidenced by trekking back up the hill after checking out the Gladiator spot. This makes it significantly harder for any invading group to succeed in taking the town. While an awesome city and advanced at the time in the Renaissance, I don’t think by today’s standards it would be best for a sustainable city. It lacks complex infrastructure and it would be very complicated to accommodate a growing population. The city was also built as a utopian paradise, for a few wealthy people, not a growing city with vast socioeconomic backgrounds. I think it would be hard to scale the city up and integrate renewable energy grids, but at the time it was built, it was very impressive.