Spatial Configuration and Density How Building Density Affects Spatial Arrangement of a Neighbourhood

A large body of research has focused on the various social, environmental and economic ways in which urban density might affect cities. When considering density as one of the elements of urban form, the measurements that studies usually apply, such as net or gross building density, do not have any link to the design of the built form. This paper argues that the same building density can yield different design layouts, thereby emphasising the need for developing other measurements of density in close relationship with design factors. To demonstrate this, several cases with various ranges of density (low, medium and high) were explored through spatial analysis and categorised in three clusters for further study with statistical tests. The results confirm meaningful differences between cases with the same density but different spatial design characteristics. The outcomes also indicate that the category of the cases based on conventional density measures, namely population density and building density (which are commonly used in urban studies), fail to capture design differences when density ranges differ. These results should draw attention to this phenomenon, which appears worthy of further investigation in future studies

Morphological tessellation as a way of partitioning space : improving consistency in urban morphology at the plot scale

Urban Morphometrics (UMM) is an expanding area of urban studies that aims at representing and measuring objectively the physical form of cities to support evidence-based research. An essential step in its development is the identification of a suitable spatial unit of analysis, where suitability is determined by its degree of reliability, universality, accessibility and significance in capturing essential urban form patterns. In Urban Morphology such unit is found in the plot, a fundamental component in the morphogenetic of urban settlements. However, the plot is a conceptually and analytically ambiguous concept and a kind of spatial information often unavailable or inconsistently represented across geographies, issues that limit its reliability and universality and hence its suitability for Urban Morphometric applications. This calls for alternative methods of deriving a spatial unit able to convey reliable plot-scale information, possibly comparable with that provided by plots. This paper presents Morphological Tessellation (MT), an objectively and universally applicable method that derives a spatial unit named Morphological Cell (MC) from widely available data on building footprint only and tests its informational value as proxy data in capturing plot-scale spatial properties of urban form. Using the city of Zurich (CH) as case study we compare MT to the cadastral layer on a selection of morphometric characters capturing different geometrical and configurational properties of urban form, to test the degree of informational similarity between MT and cadastral plots. Findings suggest that MT can be considered an efficient informational proxy for cadastral plots for many of the tested morphometric characters, that there are kinds of plot-scale information only plots can provide, as well as kinds only morphological tessellation can provide. Overall, there appears to be clear scope for application of MT as fundamental spatial unit of analysis in Urban Morphometrics, opening the way to large-scale urban morphometric analysis

Geographical characterisation of British urban form and function using the spatial signatures framework

The spatial arrangement of the building blocks that make up cities matters to understand the rules directing their dynamics. Our study outlines the development of the national open-source classification of space according to its form and function into a single typology. We create a bespoke granular spatial unit, the enclosed tessellation, and measure characters capturing its form and function within a relevant spatial context. Using K-Means clustering of individual enclosed tessellation cells, we generate a classification of space for the whole of Great Britain. Contiguous enclosed tessellation cells belonging to the same class are merged forming spatial signature geometries and their typology. We identify 16 distinct types of spatial signatures stretching from wild countryside, through various kinds of suburbia to types denoting urban centres according to their regional importance. The open data product presented here has the potential to serve as boundary delineation for other researchers interested in urban environments and policymakers looking for a unique perspective on cities and their structure