Conceptualizing the social construction of urban and architectural forms through the typological process

Abstract

Process typology theory has proven extremely beneficial in providing refined depictions of the complex structure of the built environment and in proposing challenging intrinsic morphological explanations of processes of 'structuration' as opposed to the external explanations emphasized by other theoretical perspectives. Thus far, typologists have concentrated essentially on environments that are many centuries old. Yet, tumultuous historical and morphological conditions that have arisen more recently challenge the idea of focusing exclusively on internal factors for morphogenetic explanations. This paper discusses the central notions of type and typological process in relation to the action of agents in such a process in order to integrate the role of social 'demands' in urban morphology.