Thinking about Urban Form
Thinking about Urban Form

Author: M. R. G. Conzen

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 9783039102761

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This book explores various ways of identifying and understanding the character of historic townscapes from a systematic and comparative perspective. It outlines several genetic approaches to the study of urban form, grounded in the traditions of geographical analysis but wholly interdisciplinary in their content and implications. It develops a philosophical and methodological basis for the field of urban morphology, stressing the reciprocal relations between town plan, building fabric and land and building utilisation. It views these elements as spatially variable accumulations and selective survivals of forms regulated by shifting patterns of corporate and individual decisions made from one historical period to another - in perpetual tension between resistance and change. Several of the essays in this collection establish and exemplify conceptual principles and axioms of urban morphological development in historic towns, and introduce numerous specific processes by which built forms are created and juxtaposed in urban space. Other essays apply these precepts by interpreting a number of case studies of historic towns in Britain, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and elsewhere. The closing essay offers a unique interpretation of the regional varieties to be found in medieval European urbanism, based on differing traditions of social formation and morphological outcomes.

Urban Morphology
Urban Morphology

Author: Vítor Oliveira

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-03-30

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 3319320831

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This is a book about cities or, more precisely, about the physical form of cities. It starts presenting the main elements of urban form – streets, urban blocks, plots and buildings – structuring our cities and the fundamental actors and processes of transformation shaping these elements. It then applies this analytical framework to describe the evolution of cities over history as well as to explain the functioning of contemporary cities. After the initial focus on the ‘object’ (cities) the book describes how different researchers and different schools of thought have been dealing with this object since the emergence of Urban Morphology, as the science of urban form, in the turning to the twentieth century. Finally, the book tries to identify what are the most important (and specific) contributions that Urban Morphology has to offer to contemporary cities, societies and economies.

J.W.R. Whitehand and the Historico-geographical Approach to Urban Morphology
J.W.R. Whitehand and the Historico-geographical Approach to Urban Morphology

Author: Vítor Oliveira

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-10-09

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 3030006204

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Over recent decades, the historico-geographical approach to urban morphology has been prominent in the debate on the physical form of our cities and on the agents and processes shaping that form over time. With origins in the work of the geographer M.R.G. Conzen, this approach has been systematically developed by researchers in different parts of the world since the 1960s. This book argues that J.W.R. Whitehand structured an innovative and comprehensive school of urban morphological thought grounded in the invaluable basis provided by Conzen. It identifies the development of several dimensions of the concepts of “fringe belt” and “morphological region” and the systematic exploration of the themes of “agents of change,” “comparative studies” and “research and practice” as key contributions by Whitehand to this school of thought. The book presents contributions from leading international experts in the field addressing these major issues.

Teaching Urban Morphology
Teaching Urban Morphology

Author: Vítor Oliveira

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-04-25

Total Pages: 349

ISBN-13: 3319761269

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This book brings together contributions from some of the foremost international experts in the field of urban morphology and addresses major questions such as: What exactly is urban morphology? Why teach it? What contents should be taught in an urban morphology course? And how can it be taught most effectively? Over the past few decades there has been a growing awareness of the importance of urban form in connection with the many dimensions – social, economic, and environmental – of our lives in cities. As a result, urban morphology – the science of urban form, and now over a century old – has taken on a key role in the debate on the past, present and future of cities. And yet it remains unclear how urban morphologists should convey the main morphological theories, concepts and techniques to our students – the potential researchers of, and practitioners in, the urban landscapes of tomorrow. This book is the first to address that gap, providing concrete guidelines on how to teach urban morphology, complemented by EXAMPLES OF EXERCISES FROM THE AUTHORS’ LESSONS.

Morphological Regionalization
Morphological Regionalization

Author: Muzaffer Ali Arat

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-06-01

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 3031335090

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This book is about how to make the method of morphological regionalization, proposed in the early 1960s, more useful and practicable for planning, urban design and architecture. This book is about cities; more precisely, about how cities can be characterized based on the main elements of urban form. It provides a systematic way of description and explanation of the historico-geographical structure of the urban landscape. It offers a step-by-step methodology for the identification of morphological regions as a key tool for planning practice and townscape management. The book is divided in seven parts. The first part is the introduction, motivation, research goal and objectives, and the structure of the book. The second part of the book offers an overview of urban morphology, urban morphological approaches, the concept of morphological region and its past applications worldwide. The third part is the methodological procedures for the implementation of this morphological approach to cities. The fourth and fifth parts are the implementation of this methodology into two case studies, Istanbul and Antequera. The sixth part offers a discussion of results. And, finally, the seventh part is constituted by a set of conclusions.

A Glossary of Urban Voids
A Glossary of Urban Voids

Author: Sergio Lopez-Pineiro

Publisher: Jovis Verlag

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783868596045

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This book is a critiqued collection of over 200 terms regularly used to name the urban void, from the terrain vague to the buffer zone. As the landscape architect James Corner has pointed out, a void cannot be labeled because "to name it is to claim it in some way." By listing existing terms, A Glossary of Urban Voids is an attempt to name the unnamable, to define that which should have no precise definition. It records terms, names, and labels used to designate leftover spaces resulting from processes of urban abandonment that originate from some kind of obsolescence or loss. Besides obvious consequences, these processes of abandonment open up the space, liberating it from existing ideological frameworks (such as financial, capital, or cultural frameworks), allowing for divergent spatialities to emerge, and ultimately offering opportunities for the imagination and conceptualization of an alternative type of public space. Using the glossary as a theoretical tool, this book presents the most relevant questions on the issue of the urban void and its potential role as public space.

The Handbook of Urban Morphology
The Handbook of Urban Morphology

Author: Karl Kropf

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2018-04-02

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 1118747690

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Conceived as a practical manual of morphological analysis, The Handbook of Urban Morphology focuses on the form, structure and evolution of human settlements – from villages to metropolitan regions. It is the first book in any language focused on specific, up-to-date ‘how-to’ guidance , with clear summaries of the central concepts, step-by-step instructions for carrying out the analysis, case studies illustrating specific applications and discussion of theoretical underpinnings tied to evidence from the field. Ideal for students as well as professionals and academics dealing with the built environment.