An area structure approach to morphological representation and analysis

Abstract

 A system for representing and analysing town plans as ‘area structures’ is presented. This starts from the observation that a town plan is a geometric object featuring areas whose relations can be articulated using diagrams and symbols. Devices such as the ‘containment graph’ and ‘area-stratum diagram’ are introduced, and a set of conventions for symbolic notation is demonstrated. These are used to represent morphological relations and operations. The paper suggests interpreting urban land, plots and building footprints as three ‘media’ (A, B, C) and uses symbolic notation to articulate typical urban morphological structures and relates these to existing urban form terminology. The area structure approach is used to interpret typical relationships at the block scale, including those between containment, subdivision, access and adjacency. Symbolic formulae are applied to characterize different kinds of urban morphology: onward linkage to ‘morphospace’ and design is suggested.