This book is about the relation between scientific research and professional practice on the built environment. The physical form of cities is structured in different elements of urban form. Each of these elements, and the way they are combined into distinct patterns, is shaped by various agents and processes of change. Planning, urban design and architecture are practice-oriented activities that have a significant impact on these elements. Yet, this ‘action’ on the physical form if cities tends to be separated from scientific ‘knowledge’ on this complex object. In fact, none of these activities is strongly related to urban morphology, the science of urban form. There are many reasons for this gap. One of the reasons is the lack of significant examples of how the bridging process can happen. The book addresses this specific issue. It gathers a number of cases, developed in the last years in different geographical contexts – from Latin America to Eastern Asia – that exemplify how to move from scientific research to professional practice. Each case, or set of cases, is presented in one chapter. The first part of each chapter presents the morphological view of his/her author(s) on the process of city building; the second part exemplifies how this author moves from reading to design.

Conceived as a practical manual of morphological analysis, The Handbook of Urban Morphology focuses on the form, structure and evolution of human settlements – from villages to metropolitan regions. It is the first book in any language focused on specific, up-to-date ‘how-to’ guidance , with clear summaries of the central concepts, step-by-step instructions for carrying out the analysis, case studies illustrating specific applications and discussion of theoretical underpinnings tied to evidence from the field. Ideal for students as well as professionals and academics dealing with the built environment.

The urban morphology investigates settlement and urban forms. These do not change overnight, but in a process that follows certain principles. There is hardly anything more complex and contradictory than a city. Precisely because of this complexity, there is little agreement on definitions and procedural methods. This applies in particular to urban planning, which is not only concerned with analysis, but also with the design and transformation of cities. A variety of different urban morphological approaches exist today. The authors from the areas of research and practice investigate the relevance of the morphological perspective in the field of contemporary urban landscapes. They link historical roots and current approaches and explain the relationship between analysis and design.

This is a book about cities or, more precisely, about the physical form of cities. It starts presenting the main elements of urban form – streets, urban blocks, plots and buildings – structuring our cities and the fundamental actors and processes of transformation shaping these elements. It then applies this analytical framework to describe the evolution of cities over history as well as to explain the functioning of contemporary cities. After the initial focus on the ‘object’ (cities) the book describes how different researchers and different schools of thought have been dealing with this object since the emergence of Urban Morphology, as the science of urban form, in the turning to the twentieth century. Finally, the book tries to identify what are the most important (and specific) contributions that Urban Morphology has to offer to contemporary cities, societies and economies.

This book brings together contributions from some of the foremost international experts in the field of urban morphology and addresses major questions such as: What exactly is urban morphology? Why teach it? What contents should be taught in an urban morphology course? And how can it be taught most effectively? Over the past few decades there has been a growing awareness of the importance of urban form in connection with the many dimensions – social, economic, and environmental – of our lives in cities. As a result, urban morphology – the science of urban form, and now over a century old – has taken on a key role in the debate on the past, present and future of cities. And yet it remains unclear how urban morphologists should convey the main morphological theories, concepts and techniques to our students – the potential researchers of, and practitioners in, the urban landscapes of tomorrow. This book is the first to address that gap, providing concrete guidelines on how to teach urban morphology, complemented by EXAMPLES OF EXERCISES FROM THE AUTHORS’ LESSONS.

As a body of theoretical knowledge, urban morphology in the West principally emerged within two disciplines and two parts of Europe. On the one hand there is the Anglo-German geographical school, associated with M.R.G Conzen. On the other hand there is the Italian architectural school, associated with Gianfranco Caniggia and Saverio Muratori. Based on an introduction to the theoretical tradition of the two morphological schools and their relationships, this book explores their application in empirical research and planning practice. In relation to the making of Chinese urban landscape, this book particularly focuses on the advancement of urban morphological theory and its significance for urban conservation.

The town is an organism created and driven by people. The complexity of the problems arising from it poses a challenge to those in positions of responsibility. Oswald and Baccini seek to bring clarity to the web of urban phenomena. They present a highly original model which draws together the two separate fields of architecture and science by considering architecture and urban planning from the scientific perspective. In four main chapters, topics such as new urbanism, the net city, designing with the net-city method, sustainability, renovation, conversion, and responsibility are explored in detail. The examples presented all derive from Switzerland, but the analyses and methodology is valid for any region or country. The theory is complemented by attractive visual material. Franz Oswald is Professor of Architecture and Design, Peter Baccini is Professor of Resource and Waste Management (both at Zurich ETH).

'This is a textbook about cities or, more precisely, about the physical form of cities. It provides an overview of the main elements of urban form—streets, street blocks, plots and buildings—structuring our cities and the fundamental agents and processes of transformation shaping these elements. It applies this analytical framework to describe the evolution of cities over history as well as to explain the functioning of contemporary cities. After the initial focus on the 'object' (cities), the book introduces how different schools of thought have been dealing with this object since the emergence of Urban Morphology, as the science of urban form, in the turning to the twentieth century. Finally, the book identifies the main contributions of urban morphology to cities, societies and economies. This second edition of the book offers updated and more accurate knowledge on several morphological issues, presents expanded contents, and it has a more explicit didactic nature, including a set of exercises in the end of each chapter, that will help teachers and students (in architecture, geography, planning, history, sociology and urban studies) in acquiring and consolidating their urban morphological knowledge.

This book is about how to make the method of morphological regionalization, proposed in the early 1960s, more useful and practicable for planning, urban design and architecture. This book is about cities; more precisely, about how cities can be characterized based on the main elements of urban form. It provides a systematic way of description and explanation of the historico-geographical structure of the urban landscape. It offers a step-by-step methodology for the identification of morphological regions as a key tool for planning practice and townscape management. The book is divided in seven parts. The first part is the introduction, motivation, research goal and objectives, and the structure of the book. The second part of the book offers an overview of urban morphology, urban morphological approaches, the concept of morphological region and its past applications worldwide. The third part is the methodological procedures for the implementation of this morphological approach to cities. The fourth and fifth parts are the implementation of this methodology into two case studies, Istanbul and Antequera. The sixth part offers a discussion of results. And, finally, the seventh part is constituted by a set of conclusions.

This book comprises the select proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Formal Methods in Architecture (6FMA), A Coruña 2022. The contents focus on the use of methodologies, especially those that have witnessed recent developments stemming from mathematical and computer sciences and are developed in a collaborative way with architecture and related fields. This book constitutes a contribution to the debate and to the introduction of new methodologies and tools in the mentioned fields that derive from the application of formal methods in the creation of new explicit languages for problem-solving in architecture and urbanism. Some of the themes in the book are CAD and BIM, mixed realities, photogrammetry and 3D scan, architectural design automation, urban and building performance analysis, SCAVA-space configuration, accessibility and visibility analysis. This book proves a valuable resource for those in academia and industry.