This research describes a methodology for measuring built form patterns using spatial data and GIS that is amenable to the study of large geographical areas. This methodology was used to investigate the capability of municipal planning to influence residential development. In the early 1990s, the Town of Markham, Ontario, Canada adopted a residential development philosophy inspired by New Urbanism. An adjacent municipality, the City of Vaughan, has employed a conventional development approach. By calculating several built form measures derived from the design prescriptions associated with New Urbanism, this study seeks to discern if Markham's adoption of an unconventional development philosophy has resulted in a residential built form distinct from that in Vaughan. <br /><br /> Built form measures are calculated for both municipalities for two eras. Development from 1981 to 1995 represents the "before" or baseline configuration, while development from 1996 to 2003 is used to characterize built form created when Markham's New Urbanist-inspired approach was in force. Period over period comparisons are carried out for each municipality, as are within-period comparisons between municipalities. <br /><br /> Findings indicate that development patterns are distinct in the two study periods. From the early period to the more recent, street networks take on a more grid-like organization while building lots and blocks become smaller. These changes are accompanied by an overall decline in accessibility to amenities. However, development patterns were found to be quite similar in both municipalities in the recent study period, exhibiting differences in degree, not in kind. The findings appear to indicate that planning's influence over residential built form is limited to moderately accelerating positive trends, and moderately retarding negative trends.

The motivation for this research is a perceived gap in knowledge regarding the complex relationships between the physical form of the urban environment; its environmental performance as expressed through stocks and flows of materials and energy (urban metabolism); and its experienced physical and psychological qualities (urban ambience). The objective is to develop a practical methodological structure which, through investigating the relationships between these domains, may help inform the evaluation, design and development of more sustainable human settlements. One expression of this apparent knowledge gap is the ambiguity around the classification of urban form and identification of a suitable taxonomic framework to support analysis. Urban morphological research and practice is critically reviewed to derive a rigorous definition of the 'urban structural unit' (USU) to facilitate the subdivision and description of urban form across spatial scales. Application of this construct to a study site in Sydney, Australia provides the basis for subsequent exploration. Investigation of theoretical and applied perspectives on urban ecology, metabolism and design enables distillation of a utilitarian set of structural, functional and ambience properties of the USU. A variety of quantitative methods pertinent to evaluation of these properties is systematically examined to derive a streamlined analytical methodology, integrating hemispherical image analysis, space syntax, isovist and material accounting methods within the USU framework. The efficacy of this methodological 'toolkit' is tested in the final, empirical stage of the research, focussing mainly on the campus of the University of New South Wales. Determination of a range of material, microclimatic, ecosystemic, fractal, syntactic and isovist metrics provides a preliminary quantitative description of the campus USU in terms of its interrelated metabolic and ambience properties. This is further explained and interpreted through multivariate statistical analysis. The results suggest that the USU represents a robust framework for urban evaluation, and application of a relatively parsimonious suite of analytical methods enables a useful initial examination of the relations between significant aspects of urban form, metabolism and ambience. The outcomes of such an evaluation can directly inform built environment practice from a sustainability perspective, and also highlight areas for more detailed investigation.

The following study situates itself within the Post-Modern, post-positivist epistemological paradigm that seeks to approach urban informality (and more appropriately, a-formality) within the South African township landscape, not as a problem to be solved, but rather as a generative manifestation of being – and the de facto restitution of prevailing urban inefficiencies engendered through applied Euclidean zoning practices. Specifically, the architectural complexities of urban informality as the embodiment of socio-cultural values, and the efficacy of these architectural complexities to manifest real change within the urban environment. Theories and methods of Smart Urbanism, Complexity Science, Urban Informality and Urban Morphology are investigated and applied as a means to understand this emerging architectural complexity as a physical manifestation of urban identity and its physical impact on the original urban fabric, given as empirical evidence. A qualitative empirical data collection, followed by qualitative, interpretive analyses of urban informality at various scales forms the basis of the research method. The neighbourhood consisting of the Khalambazo and White City Sections, in the African township of Mamelodi East, Gauteng, is utilised as a case study to critically analyse and document urban a-formality and emerging architectural complexity. As is discussed within the current study, complex agents of a-formality within the chosen study area are entities informed by contextualised, location-specific human relationships that are temporally and spatially interrelated with each other. Emergent complexity inherent in urban a-formality leads to context-specific multi-functional urban morphological alterations that contribute to urban transformation over time. Positive urban transformation is made possible through the generative adaptability of multi-functional localised complex agents over time. Therefore, Mamelodi East is a significant case study to understand our Post- Apartheid urban condition, from where we can learn to enact meaningful change that responds to the existing dialogues that have already been established. The analysis and documentation of urban informality within townships, as forms of complex emergence manifest in built form, can enable a deeper understanding not only of the new South African condition but also of the global human condition. / Dissertation (MArch)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Architecture / MArch (Research) / Unrestricted

The urban form undergoes a constant evolution process that transforms the urban experience. As it has been stated by urban morphologists, the design and planning principles as well as emerging social-economic forces shape the built environment. During the period of modernism, cities reformed their urban cores according to the fundamental elements of modernism, aiming to address the ongoing urban growth, the traffic increase and the emerging social issues. Thus, after that period, several urban cores were transformed from old districts to new modern and prestigious business and commercial centers were the former urban experience disappeared.  The center of Athens as well as the center of Stockholm constitute two representative examples of how modernism transformed completely the built environment during that period. Traffic oriented solutions prevailed against the traditional urban districts in both cases. Thus, by experiencing these two cases, common patterns were identified on the urban form of these two key public spaces of the cities. The current study is aiming to unfold the evolution of their urban form and the processes of change that took place in each case during the same time. An extended analysis is conducted, where formal and non-formal conditions are thoroughly examined. Through the analysis of the urban form, this work is aiming to reveal whether common elements that are identified in the built environment produce same implications on the urban life of the public space and consequently common urban experience to the users, despite cultural differences. In addition, the emerging unique formal and non-formal conditions, that generate vitality in each case, are selectively extracted in the last chapter, where crucial interventions are proposed.

With time going by, urban morphological structures of Beijing and Shanghai have dramatic changes during last decades. These changes often ignored by citizen, but have big influence for human daily life. And the changes of urban morphologies should be easily recognized by citizen. There are many previous comparative studies between these two Chinese cities, and these studies focus on types of areas, such as environment, traffic, city planning and cultures etc.. There are also many comparative studies about using space syntax theory and geometrical statistics to study urban morphologies. However, there are not direct comparison urban morphological study between Beijing and Shanghai, which from multiple perspectives. In order to gain a better understanding of urban morphologies, this thesis take street networks of two Chinese cites as a research object, based on space syntax theory, as well the combination of traditional geometrical statistics, comparative analysis methods to systematic quantitative analyze and comparative study the different street networks of urban space in Beijing and Shanghai. This project work analyzes hierarchy of axial lines, which automatically generated from street networks, to do a morphological comparison from topological perspective. And it analyzes frequency distribution of axial lines’ included angles and length of axial lines to study urban morphologies from geometrical perspective. Results in the project seem to empirical study that, the well-connected streets are minority part, which all most distributed in the sample cities’ ring structures and center areas. Street networks constitute an obvious regular grid pattern of Beijing and a curves pattern of Shanghai. Based on the hierarchical levels of street networks, research samples have same hierarchical levels but without the same number of street lines. The included angles of axial lines have an exceptionally sharply peaked bimodal distribution for both cities and number of most connected street’s length do not increase so much from ring1 to ring6 for Beijing, but they have much change for Shanghai.

Darbe tiriama Naujosios Vilnios raida morfologiniu aspektu bei atliekamas kokybinis urbanistinės morfostruktūros vertinimas. Baigiamąjį darbą sudaro įvadas, dvi dalys, išvados ir priedai. Įvadinėje dalyje aptariamas darbo aktualumas, tikslai, uždaviniai, tyrimo metodai bei apžvelgiami su tema susiję literatūros šaltiniai. Pirmojoje dalyje suformuluojama darbo strategija ir metodinės tyrimo gairės, apžvelgiama Lietuvos ir užsienio patirtis, nustatomi esminiai tyrimo aspektai ir metodai, aktualūs tyrimo problematikos atžvilgiu. Antrojoje dalyje atliekamas Naujosios Vilnios morfologinės raidos tyrimas. Siekiant ją atskleisti, analizuojami atskiri struktūros sluoksniai bei jų tarpusavio sąveika. Taip pat nagrinėjamos sąlygos ir veiksniai, įtakoję teritorijos urbanistinio karkaso vystymąsi. Naujosios Vilnios morfologinės struktūros kokybinis vertinimas atliekamas viešųjų erdvių, funkcinių ryšių sklaidos, miestovaizdžio ir aksiologiniu aspektais. Atskleidžiama gyvenvietės morfostruktūros pokyčių įtaka viešųjų erdvių tinklo ir funkcinių ryšių sistemos kokybei, miestovaizdžio savitumui ir istorinio – kultūrinio charakterio išraiškingumui. Nusakomos dabartinio urbanistinio karkaso vertybių nustatymo gairės. Baigiamojoje dalyje pateikiamos darbo išvados bei susiję priedai. Darbo apimtis – 99 puslapiai, 28 iliustracijos, 7 lentelės, 81 bibliografinis šaltinis. / Master thesis is a research work on morphological development and qualitative assessment of Naujoji Vilnia town. The thesis consists of introduction, two parts, conclusions, references and appendixes. Relevance of the topic, objectives, tasks, research methods and review of related literature are discussed in the introductory part. The first part of the master thesis covers strategic and methodical guidelines, review on Lithuanian and foreign experience in the field of urban morphology, determination of research directions and methods in the aspect of relevance to the topic. The second part of the thesis covers the research on urban morphological development of Naujoji Vilnia. In order to reveal development of town in the morphological aspect, separate layers of the urban structure are analyzed in terms of historic alternation, pointing out influential internal and external factors. The qualitative analysis of the morphological structure is carried out in the aspects of public spaces, functional links, townscape and axiology. This analysis reveals the influence of morphological alterations over the quality of public spaces and functional links network, individuality and historic-cultural uniformity of townscape. The guidelines for qualitative valuation of current structure in the aspect of urban heritage are discussed. The final part consists of conclusions and relevant appendixes. In total: 99 pages, 28 drawings, 7 tables, 81 references.

Our direct environment affects our lives directly. Christopher Alexander saw that we are able to feel or see if an object or structure is natural through the characteristics of them. He also saw that we generally feel better near these living, natural structures as it more closely resembles ourselves. Our bodies and our surroundings are made up of far more smaller than large things. When structures follow this pattern they are considered to be more natural, and when they move away from this pattern they are considered to be less natural and thus often boring or ugly. This scaling law is used to analyse the complex networks within cities. By analysing underlying structures instead of direct geometry it becomes possible to identify how living they are.This study applies these theories to analyse urban morphology within different cities. By identifying living structure within cities comparisons can be made between different types of cities. Specifically artificial and historical cities are analysed as they are counterparts in livingness. Following the identification of the living structure within these different types of cities an assessment can be made on what kind of an effect this has on our wellbeing based on Alexander’s theory. To see how living structure evolves over time a second analysis is performed which compares a city with its own evolution through time.Firstly natural cities and natural streets are identified in a bottom up approach based on the underlying structures of OpenStreetMap road data. Thereafter historical cities are compared with artificial cities because historical cities generally have living structure while artificial cities lack this. Then the developments of a historic city are identified and compared temporally. This research finds that current usage of concrete, steel and glass combined with very fast development speeds is detrimental to living structure within cities currently. Newer city developments should be performed in symbiosis with older city structures and the structure of the development should inhibit scaling as well as the buildings themselves. It is not sufficient to look only at geometry when managing cities, the importance of the fractal geometry, which is initially invisible must not be underestimated.

This thesis describes the historical development of the urban structure of three Swedish cities, which have each suffered from a large fire at some point during the 19th century. Using a collection of historical maps, as well as contemporary geographical data, this work aims to assess the impact these fires had on the built-up urban structure at the time immediately after they occurred, as well as their impact upon the urban structure of the contemporary city. The urban structure is composed of three primary elements, which are the streets, buildings, and land-use plots, which over time changes at differing rates. In order to determine whether the fire had an impact on the ordinary rate of change to the city, historical maps of the three Swedish cities are used, depicting them as they were before and shortly after the fire occurred. The pre- and post-fire maps are used to produce composite maps detailing the amount of change which occurred in the time period before and after the fire. The maps depicting the cities after the fire are then in turn overlaid with modern geodata of the contemporary cities, in order to determine whether the fire could be considered to have had a significant impact on the development of the present urban structures. The comparison of the maps of the case-cities shows that a significant amount of change occurred between their pre- and post-fire states, and that the post-fire structure closely aligns to the present urban structure. In each of the cities then, the urban fire could be considered an important component to the historical development of their urban structures.

Este trabalho analisa um setor urbano de São Paulo que é formado pelo anel de bairros que envolve o núcleo central da cidade. Seu objetivo é identificar como a espacialidade dos bairros centrais foi definida e para isso foram investigados os agentes e fenômenos que regeram a formação desse setor urbano e como se assemelharam ou diferenciaram dentro do processo de urbanização da cidade. Foram focalizados três distritos em particular, o Brás, o Bom Retiro e o Parí, que reúnem uma série de bairros cuja estruturação reporta a própria estruturação da cidade. Buscou-se compreender as condicionantes que definiram as características da morfologia urbana dos bairros mencionados e as mudanças ocorridas nessas áreas, que se constituíram no primeiro locus da industrialização da cidade, e que também abrigaram funções habitacionais e comerciais diversificadas. A análise aborda a implantação da infra-estrutura de transportes na cidade, considerando-a junto com a normatização do uso do solo, as principais componentes da estruturação espacial dos bairros centrais até a década de 1940. A partir desse período, outros processos interferiram no arranjo desse setor urbano, provocando ao mesmo tempo, a permanência das suas características morfológicas e funcionais e uma crescente sub-utilização para fins habitacionais. O trabalho foi organizado em três escalas de abrangência para o estudo das questões relativas ao tema: . Escala da cidade envolvendo a macro-configuração, a estruturação dos bairros centrais e as interfaces existentes no arranjo intra-urbano entre os bairros e entre o núcleo central. Relação das políticas públicas com os aspectos ligados à infra-estrutura, ao parcelamento e à edificação. Análise das características funcionais e morfológicas gerais e tendências recentes de transformação. . Escala dos bairros caracterização dos bairros centrais presentes nos distritos Brás, Bom Retiro e Parí. Delimitação dos setores e sub-setores, estudo das características funcionais e morfológicas. Planos e projetos incidentes e articulação com as propostas de requalificação física-ambiental. . Escala local estudo de alternativas e cenários para o desenho urbano local, relacionando as propostas urbanísticas formuladas para essas áreas e hipóteses de desenho urbano para espaços nesses bairros. / This work analyses an urban sector of São Paulo that is formed by a ring of boroughs that surround the city centre. Its aim is to identify how the area of the inner city boroughs was defined and in order to that we investigated the agents and phenomena that governed the formation of this inner city sector and how it differeciated itself within the city urbanization process. Three boroughs in particular were focused on, Brás, Bom Retiro and Parí, that gather together a series of neighbourhoods whose structures relate to the structure of the city. We sought to understand the conditions that define the characteristics of the urban morphology of the above mentioned boroughs and the changes taken place in these areas, that constitute the first locus of the industrialization of the city and housing and commercial diversities as well. The analysis deals with the introduction of the infrastructure of the city transport system, considering it together with the restoration of land use, the principle components of the structure space of central neighbourhoods up until de 1940´s. From this period on, other processes interfered with the arrangement of this urban sector, causing at the same time, the unchanging morphological characteristics and functions and a growing under-use for housing means. The work was organized into three scales of understanding for the study of the questions relative to the theme: . City scale involving the macro-configuration, the structure of the central neighbourhoods and the existing interfaces on the infrastructure arrangement between the boroughs and the city centre. The relation of public policies with aspects linked to de infrastructure, the partitioning and the buildings. Analyses of the functional characteristics and general morphologicals and recent transformation tendencies. . Neighbourhoods scale characterization of the central neighbourhoods present in the Brás, Bom Retiro and Parí. Outlining boundries of the sectors and subsectors, study the functional and morphological traits. Planning and design incidents and connetions with the environment requalification proposals. . Local scale study of alternatives and settings for local urban desing, relating to the urban proposals put forward for these areas and possibilities of urban design for spaces in these neighbourhoods.

Qualidade de vida é um tema complexo e tem sido estudado pelas mais diversas áreas do conhecimento. O tema qualidade de vida envolve questões multidisciplinares apresentadas por meio de perspectivas diferenciadas, de acordo com a relevância do momento histórico, das condições sociais, bem como da ideologia dominante a partir dos objetivos propostos. No presente estudo, a qualidade de vida foi analisada nos territórios de Barueri e Osasco, por meio da satisfação das necessidades consideradas básicas, que visam garantir à população o pleno desenvolvimento físico, mental e social. A partir da caracterização da qualidade de vida urbana, tentou-se identificar modelos para interpretação/identificação de morfologia urbana. Para isso, foram adotados critérios baseados nos modelos clássicos de morfologia urbana, para se chegar ao resultado apresentado no fim da pesquisa. Além disso, foi utilizada a cidade de Estrasburgo na França para se fazer um contraponto entre as cidades brasileiras e a europeia, com relação à qualidade de vida e os critérios de análise. / The quality of urban life has been studied in many areas of academic specialization and is a complex theme. The subject\'s quality of life involves multi-disciplinary questions presented with different perspectives, according to the relevance of the historical moment, social conditions, as well as the dominant ideology shaping the objectives in question. In the present study the approach adopted is focused on the satisfaction of the basics needs of the population, in order to guarantee complete physical, mental and social development. The characterization of quality of urban life will be created some models for identification and interpretation of urban morphology. For this, it was adopted criterias based in the classic models of urban morphology to reach in the result presented in the end of the research. Beside this, it was used Strasbourg in France to make a counterpoint between the Brazilian cities and the European one in terms of quality of life and the analysis criterias.