Urban Morphology
johannes parlindungan
BASIC CONCEPTS
URBAN MORPHOLOGY :
The study of the form and shape of settlement
(Carmona et al. 2003)
Refers to
“type”
Refers to
“physical condition or
surface of something”
In means that:
An urban environment is constituted from:
Types of component/element and has certain
effect on its physical setting.
Land use, time or “tempo”, meaning, transformation
Façade, building mass, parcel, street network
Townscape, street scape
Kota Lama, Semarang
Hamstead Garden Surburb
Cadastal Plan (1975)
1. Town plan or ground plan
2. Building fabric
3. Land and building utilization
(Conzenian townscape)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Town
Street systems
Plot patterns
Building patterns
(Morphological analysis)
(Panerai et al. 2004)
Basic concepts
PURPOSE
• Pay attention to historical development of urban area.
• Provide lessons for future, as basis for rooting the future
management in the historical development. (Whitehand.
2001)
• “Morphogenetic priority” : reflect persistence or lifespan
of elements that comprise the form of complex.
(Whitehand. 2007)
1. Resistence to change.
2. Historico-morphological characteristics
3. Contribution to hierarchy of units
2
1
Ponticelli, Napoli
1. Reconstruction
2. Situation in between,
expansion of family
3. Dense built area
3
Cyclus of building
and use lifespan
Burgage cycle
Basic concepts
“A construct of conventions and norms that exist in a
certain region or town that have evolved over time on
the basis of experience”
• “Logical” rules (“syntax”)
• Historical value
“TYPE” is rich of cultural meaning;
“STANDART” just consists technical norms and lack and
culturally poor.
THREE MAIN APPROACHES
ITALIAN SCHOOL
MURATORIAN Approach:
“Type” has central role, the typo-morphological approach.
• Spatial structure has material form.
• There are existed “rules” governing the spatial
transformation.
• The spatial system carries cultural meaning
Three main approaches
ITALIAN SCHOOL
TYPO - MORPHOLOGICAL analysis:
• Dialectic between building typologies and urban morphology
• Systematic way to classify the environment in structuring
findings of people-environment studies.
• Focus on vernacular tradition.
• Address interrelationship between all scales of environment.
• Recognize temporal continuities and discontinuities in the
environment.
Three main approaches
ITALIAN SCHOOL
BUILDING
ENVIRONMENT
PART
WHOLE
CITY
HISTORY
Three main approaches
ITALIAN SCHOOL
Typo – morphological analysis
Scale Levels
Territory
City
District
Building
Design
elements
Internal
structure of
elements
Aspects
Form and
use
Materialization
Three main approaches
ITALIAN SCHOOL
Canignian’s scale levels
Three main approaches
ITALIAN SCHOOL
CANIGNIAN’s idea :
• Archetype : looking for the basic type, studied from the
preceding types.
• Use the archetype (basic type) to develop new buildings
or environment that incorporated lessons from the past
Preceding
types
New
environment
Moudon
Moudon
Moudon
Three main approaches
FRENCH SCHOOL
GROWTH
TYPOLOGY
URBAN LANDSCAPE
SOCIAL PRACTICES
URBAN STRUCTURES
Three main approaches
FRENCH SCHOOL
Starting from existing characteristics
Research depend on situation
General criteria are not sensible
Three main approaches
ENGLISH SCHOOL
M.R.G. CONZEN (Conzenian approach) :
• Geographical approach
• Aimed at detailed descriptions
• Classical natural science
• Parcel as “engine” of the city structure
Three main approaches
ENGLISH SCHOOL
Streets
Parcels
Town Plan / Ground
Plan Site, street, block
Building
Fabric
3D Form
Buildings
Land /
Building
Utilization
Land use
METHODOLOGY
PRINCIPLES OF MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
Fundamental
physical
elements
Different
levels of
resolutions
Historical
analysis
• Buildings
• Open spaces
• Streets
• plots
• Building / plot, district, city, territory
• Continuity/discontinuity
• Urban process, transformation
Methodology
PURPOSES OF ANALYSIS
PURPOSES
DESCRIPTIVE and
EXPLANATORY
PRESCRIPTIVE
ASSESS IMPACT
of PAST DESIGN
THEORY
ITALIAN
SCHOOL
FRENCH
SCHOOL
ENGLISH
SCHOOL
Methodology
COMPONENTS
Design
elements
Land uses
Street
pattern
CONZENIAN
Plot
pattern
Building
structures
Materialization
MURATORI
AN
Form and uses
Internal
structures
Methodology
COMPONENTS
PURPOSES
DESIGN
ELEMENTS
LAND USE /
BUILDING USE
PLOT PATTERN
STRUCTURE
MATERIAL
ITALIAN
SCHOOL
ENGLISH
SCHOOL
Methodology
RESOLUTION
DESCRIPTIVE - EXPLANATORY
Analysis
Territory components
Analysis
Territory components
Analysis
Territory components
City
Analysis
components
City
Analysis
components
City
Analysis
components
Distric
Analysis
components
Distric
Analysis
components
Distric
Analysis
components
Analysis
Building components
Analysis
Building components
Analysis
Building components
TIME
Moudon. The role of typomorphological studies in environmental design research.
Panerai et al. 2004. Urban forms : the death and life of the urban block. Architectural
Press.
Whitehand. 2007. Conzenian urban morphology and urban landscapes. Proceedings, 6th
International Space Syntax Symposium, Istanbul, 2007.
Whitehand. 2001. British urban morphology : the Conzenian tradition. International
Seminar on Urban Form, 2001.