Urban Form and Change: Insights on Urban Form Evolution Through Configurational Morphometrics.

Описание: Space Syntax Lab Seminar by Onur Tümtürk.

The importance of urban form in shaping future development and transformation patterns is well-recognized in urban morphology. However, despite the need for a diachronic approach to rigorously understand the form-change relationship, studies utilising longitudinal datasets remain scarce, and only a small fraction employs quantitative methodologies and morphometric approaches. This research, part of a recently completed doctoral study at The University of Melbourne, aims to quantitatively examine how urban form elements and their spatial arrangements influence patterns of physical change over time. Using a novel longitudinal geospatial database of New York, Melbourne, and Barcelona, spanning from the 1800s to the 2000s, a diachronic and quantitative methodology is presented to assess urban form evolution. The research compares the performance of geometric and configurational measures of plots, buildings, and streets in explaining physical change patterns. Findings demonstrate that while the prevailing hypotheses emphasising the effect of geometric measures, such as size and shape, are often off the mark, configurational and access-based measures of plots and streets can accurately describe the dynamic relationships between form and change. The shift from geometric to configurational analysis aligns with the fundamental principles of configurational and spatial morphology schools, underlining the importance of relational properties in explaining spatial processes. These empirical findings contribute to the expanding fields of Urban Morphometrics, Space Syntax, and Place Syntax and provide data-informed insights to enhance the resilience and adaptive capacity of urban spaces.