The spatial distribution and frequency of street, plot and building types across five European cities

Abstract

Typologies have always played an important role in urban planning and design practice and formal studies have been central to the field of urban morphology. These studies have predominantly been of a historical-qualitative nature and do not support quantitative comparisons between urban areas and between different cities, nor offer the precise and comprehensive descriptions needed by those engaged in urban planning and design practice. To describe contemporary urban forms, which are more diffuse and often elude previous historic typologies, systematic quantitative methods can be useful but, until recently, these have played a limited role in typo-morphological studies. This paper contributes to recent developments in this field by integrating multi-variable geometric descriptions with inter-scalar relational descriptions of urban form. It presents typologies for three key elements of urban form (streets, plots and buildings) in five European cities, produced using statistical clustering methods. In a first instance, the resulting typologies contribute to a better understanding of the characteristics of streets, plots and buildings. In particular, the results offer insight into patterns between the types (i.e., which types are found in combination and which not) and provide a new large scale comparative analysis across five European cities. To conclude, we establish a link between quantitative analysis and theory, by testing two well-known theoretical propositions in urban morphology: the concept of the burgage cycle and the theory of natural movement.

Structure of Plot Systems and Economic Activity in Cities: Linking Plot Types to Retail and Food Services in London, Amsterdam and Stockholm

“…The general methodological steps include: (1) selecting study areas, (2) measuring the dependent variable of economic activity concentration, (3) measuring the independent variable using plot types, (4) constructing statistical models by controlling for variables of street centrality and built density, and, finally, (5) analysing whether there are any statistical differences in terms of the distribution of the dependent variable between the plot types ( Table 1). Steps 1-3 were developed in earlier research [14,15,57,63] and they will be briefly described below. Steps 4-5 are the particular focus of this paper and are described below in detail.…”

“…We developed plot types, using clustering analysis, which allows for the recognition of urban patterns to test the combined effect of the three variables [61]. Subsequently, we compared the differences between these patterns in different cities and reduced the number of variables that were included in the statistical model [15,42,62].…”

“…We understand this may also exclude cases that allow for economic activity that has not been realised; therefore, we offer only a partial check of land-use regulations. Seven plot types are generated based on the three plot measures (input variables): plot size, plot compactness index, and plot frontage index, as described above (Table 1, Step 3) [15].…”

“…Seven plot types ( Table 1, Step 3.1) have been analytically generated while using k-means cluster analysis and based on the variables that are introduced above (for details of the method, see Berghauser Pont et al [15]) (Figure 2, see also Appendix B). These seven types form distinct plot patterns, highlighting important similarities and differences between them.…”

“…The aim of this paper is to test a few of the assumptions in Webster and Lai's theory, relating to plot systems as delineations of property rights in cities. More specifically, we will test the correlation between the shape and structure of the plot systems, being classified as types that are based on three plot metrics that were defined in earlier studies (size, compactness, and frontage ratio) [14,15] and economic activity, being measured as the concentration of retail and food services per plot.…”