In Europe, with its many spontaneously formed cities, you will rarely come across the same kind of geometric lucidity found in the ancient Japanese cities of Kyoto or Nara.
Even the colonial cities constructed by Europeans, such as New York, were planned mostly by placing a grid sheet over a map and simply drawing lines.
Take San Francisco, for example. Have a good long look at the map, imagine the city, and then actually go out and take a stroll. You will find that there is an immense gap between these two visions of the city--the one you imagined from your studies and the actual place. Even parts of the city that appear to be flat on the map are variegated with slopes so steep it leaves you wondering whether or not a car can make it up to the top. The founders simply drew up a plan by mapping out a grid with no regard for the actual topography.

So when was it that Europeans began to be conscious of urban planning? I suspect it was the Renaissance that marked an important stage in the history of architecture.

Rome was in decline since the Middle Ages, but at last showed signs of revival upon entering the Renaissance period. The sacking of Rome, however, by the army of the Holy Roman Emperor in 1527, drastically reduced the population by 20 to 30 thousand, and left the city in virtual ruins. The Roman Forum too, became a quarry for stone to build houses.
An agreement was finally reached between the emperor and the pope, and it was decided that Emperor Charles V should visit Rome. Stunned by the ruination of the city, the pope at the time, Paul III, hastily ordered Michelangelo to reconstruct Capitoline Hill (Campidoglio) in 1536.

Why was Capitoline Hill chosen? During the Roman period, the Roman Forum had been the center of politics, and Capitoline Hill the center of religious worship. It was there that the temples of the three gods, Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, were built facing the Roman Forum, and the Hill became the focus of command over the Roman Empire. The importance of the site was such that the conquering Roman armies would return there to report their victories on this hill.
Restoring Capitoline Hill probably signified the wish of the pope to restore the center of the world here, in Rome. It would be a rival symbol to the enormous Holy Roman Empire.

The Capitoline Hill plaza, too, was undoubtedly an expression of Michelangelo thoughts; standing in this plaza prompted me to recall the youthful masculinity of the statue of David. The plaza and the strong axis created a new type of space, one that was for the benefit of the people and that showed the strength to stand up to the religious authority of the distant Vatican.
After he redesigned this plaza, Michelangelo was given the task of completing St. Peter's Basilica. He gave the shattered city of Rome a new appearance, and must indeed have had a vision for designing a modern Rome that embraced both the religious and the secular. Which, of course, he was not able to fully realize….

Ever since Michelangelo, the concept of an axis conscious of “the new man” has been applied to Italian-style gardens; the buildings and gardens are conceived of as parts of the whole. And gardens, in other words nature viewed from the human perspective, were transformed from nature in the wild to nature subordinated by the will of man.
Eventually the French, too, adopted the axis as a central concept for formal gardens, as can be seen in the Palace of Versailles. But for the French, it was also destined to become a representational expression of the absolute rule of royal power, even over nature. In cities, axes were employed in such locations as the Champs-Elysees in Paris. But there is none of Michelangelo's fresh homage to man apparent here; the effect is more of an extraordinarily exaggerated axis dominating over both man and nature.

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