Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Urban morphology'

Urban morphology has been a longstanding field of interest for geographers but without adequate focus on its economic significance. From an economic perspective, urban morphology appears to be a fundamental determinant of house prices since morphology influences accessibility. This PhD thesis investigates the question of how the housing market values urban morphology. Specifically, it investigates people’s revealed preferences for street patterns. The research looks at two distinct types of housing market, one in the UK and the other in China, exploring both static and dynamic relationships between urban morphology and house price. A network analysis method known as space syntax is employed to quantify urban morphology features by computing systemic spatial accessibility indices from a model of a city’s street network. Three research questions are empirically tested. Firstly, does urban configuration influence property value, measured at either individual or aggregate (census output area) level, using the Cardiff housing market as a case study? The second empirical study investigates whether urban configurational features can be used to better delineate housing submarkets. Cardiff is again used as the case study. Thirdly, the research aims to find out how continuous change to the urban street network influences house price volatility at a micro-level. Data from Nanjing, China,is used to investigate this dynamic relationship. The results show that urban morphology does, in fact, have a statistically significant impact on housing price in these two distinctly different housing markets. I find that urban network morphology features can have both positive and negative impacts on housing price. By measuring different types of connectivity in a street network it is possible to identify which parts of the network are likely to have negative accessibility premiums (locations likely to be congested) and which parts are likely to have positive premiums (locations highly connected to destination opportunities). In the China case study, I find that this relationship holds dynamically as well as statically, showing evidence that price change is correlated with some aspects of network change.

Thesis (M.Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2001.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 98-99).
Generally, in the contemporary cities vertical buildings are conceived and implemented as subdivided volumes that set up highly regularized modes of inhabitation. This condition limits the possibility for more complex and adaptive spatial relationships between program and use. This limitation exists at a time when the relationship between individuals and their patterns of living is becoming increasingly more complex. This thesis will explore the design of the mixed-use building through a study of program, circulation, skin, and form. Sited in Boston at a point of intersection between programs, people, and of conflicting physical parameters, this project will develop a system to (re)organize space within a given volume and the flows through it. This system of programmatic organization will be mediated through a responsive network of circulation and the articulation of surfaces that frame the minimal spaces between uses.
Anthony C. Guma.
M.Arch.

Consonance in urban form is contingent on the continuity of the fine grain architectural features that are imbued in the commodity of the evolved historic urban fabric. A city's past can be viewed therefore as a repository of urban form characteristics from which concise architectural responses can result in a congruent urban landscape. This thesis proposes new methods to evaluate the interplay of architectural elements that can be traced throughout the lifespan of the particular evolving urban areas under scrutiny, and postulates a theory of how the mapping of historical urban form can correlate with deriving parameters for new buildings.

Thesis (S.B. and M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1998.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-127).
by Sami Mohammed Shalabi.
S.B.and M.Eng.

Urban morphology in combination with soundscape planning and design are important parameters towards the development of sustainable cities. Towards this direction this study primarily investigates the effect of urban morphology and green-space related parameters on traffic noise in different analysis levels. Secondly, it complements this first objective approach with a subjective one, investigating peoples’ perceptual attributes using auditory and visual stimuli. Both approaches aim at merging the gap between acoustics and planning on the grounds of the new holistic approach of urban sound planning. At first, a triple level analysis was conducted including case study cities across Europe with a view to understand to what extent greener cities can also be quieter. The analysis was conducted using GIS tools and noise data from European databases combined with land cover parameters. Results were scale-dependent with lower noise levels to be achieved in cities with a higher extent of porosity and green space coverage. A further cluster analysis combined with land cover data revealed that lower noise levels were detected in the cluster with the highest green space coverage. At last, a new index of ranking cities from the noisiest to the quietest was proposed. Using the findings concerning green spaces and traffic noise from the previous study, a second analysis was conducted focused on eight UK cities. The green space variables were adjusted to incorporate also parameters related to spatial pattern and smaller ontologies, such as vegetated backyards or front yards. Parameters related to urban morphology, such as buildings and roads were also investigated. The analysis was conducted in a macro, meso and micro scale using regression models and GIS tools. Cities were divided in two types of settlement forms (linear, radial) and results showed that the latter were associated with a higher green space ratio. Green space and morphological parameters managed to predict the Lden levels in two cities with an explained variance up to 85%. Results suggested that urban green space variables combined with other features of urban morphology conduct a significant role in traffic noise mitigation and can be used as a priori tool in urban sound planning. The third part of the study focused particularly on the effects of vegetation and traffic-related parameters on the sound environment of urban parks. The sound environment was evaluated using both simulated traffic data and in situ measurements from mobile devices inside the parks. Results showed that simulated noise distribution in the park scale varied between 43 and 78 dB(A) with a maximum range of 9 dB(A) per park and higher noise variability for LA10. Two groups of parks were identified according to the distance from the international ring road. For measurement data, LA90 and LA10 were higher outside the parks with differences up to 6 dB(A) for LA90 and up to 14.3 dB(A) for LA10. Additional correlations were also detected between noise levels and morphological attributes, while slightly higher noise levels were detected in areas covered with grass compared with tree areas. The previous objective findings were combined with a perceptual study on the transition from prediction to soundscape and design implementation. In this study the relationship between land use and sound sources was explored. The stimulus material was based on binaural recordings and 360°-videos. Participants were required to assess the dominance of sound sources and the appropriateness of land use and socio-recreational activities. Results showed that the activity-based environment can be explained by two main Components. The green space coverage and the proximity to roads were the most significant parameters in the prediction of these two components. In the final stage, a multivariate analysis (MANOVA) was used in order to identify significant variations for the land use activity variables in the three urban activity profiles. The whole process emphasized on the importance of linking urban planning and design with soundscape from the land use activity viewpoint. In the final stage, two of the previous UK case study cities were selected in order to develop a mapping model to aid soundscape planning with parallel implementation and assessment of its effectiveness. Ordinary Kriging interpolation was used in both cases to simulate the predictive values in unknown locations. In Sheffield, the soundscape model was based on the prediction and profiling of sound sources, while in Brighton in the prediction and profiling of perceptual attributes. The cross-validation process in both cases presented small errors with slightly underestimated prediction values. The outcomes from both case studies can be applied in environmental noise management and soundscape planning in different urban scales.

Despite the abundance of descriptive studies on the urban development plans of Ankara, analytical studies on specific features of these plans, especially on implementation and modification processes are scarce. This study examines the green space structure brought in Jansen&rsquo
s 1932 development plan of Ankara, the way it was implemented and the modifications that a component of this structure was subject to. The 1932 Jansen plan is a holistic and comprehensive plan that contained a conceptual green space structure, integrated with other public uses and social facilities. An in depth evaluation of Jansen&rsquo
s 1928 and 1932 plans is made and a typology of the components of the green space structure is formed. It is found that the plan principles and the components of the green space structure of Jansen&rsquo
s plan for Ankara are perfectly congruent with German planning approach and principles of the time. From the analysis of the plan modifications of the Gü
ven Park- Tandogan Greenway a typology of modifications is developed. It is argued that the 1933 and 1957 development laws and regulations lacked definitions for realizing and sustaining the green space types proposed by Jansen, which consequently lead to their modifications. In reality the land ownership status, &ldquo
hâ
lî
arazi&rdquo
, under which the greenways of Jansen plan were placed, illustrates the difficulty of translating these spatial categories into the Turkish legislative framework. In this respect, this study is an attempt to provide a contribution to the study of green spaces in relation with the implementation of development plans.

This study explores how to improve soundscape quality in the context of urban morphology from the perspective of masking effects. Masking in this study is explained as a hearing phenomenon by which soundscape characteristics are altered by the presence of interfering sound event(s). The concept of this study is primarily based on two hypothesises: first, masking effects in soundscape can influence the perception and evaluation of sound environment; second, urban sound propagation has relationships with urban morphological parameters. Diverse sounds from the common urban sound sources are characterised, using acoustic analysis and psychological evaluation, with a consideration of potential masking among them. The masking effects of traffic noise by birdsong are then investigated, showing the differences in the psychological evaluation on the traffic noise environment under different physical conditions, with maximum score differences of 3.9 in the Naturalness, 3.1 in the Annoyance, and 4.0 in the Pleasantness in a scale of 0-10. In view of the results in the psychological evaluation, two main research directions are confirmed, including urban noise attenuation (car traffic and flyover aircraft) and natural sound enhancement (birdsong loudness and the visibility of green areas). The relationships between spatial sound levels and quantitative urban morphological parameters are explored by noise mapping technique and a MATLAB program on spatial sound level matrix. For the traffic noise, it is possible to achieve noise level attenuation of more than 10 dB and reduction of 25% noisy area through the control of the parameters, e.g., the Building Plan Area Fraction, the Complete Aspect Ratio, the Building Frontal Area Index, and the Horizontal Distance of First-row Building to Road. For the flyover aircraft noise, a decrease in the Horizontal Distance of First-row Building to Flight Path can result in more than 10 dB noise reduction. For the birdsong, with an increasing Green Area Perimeter, the sound levels in the areas further from the green areas can be increased by up to 11 dB; with an increasing Green Area Dispersion Index, the sound levels can increase by approximately 10 dB. Meanwhile, a site with a lower Building Plan Area Fraction has higher visibility of the green areas, with an increase of Mean Visibility of approximately 600.

As ruas e o papel que elas representam para a cidade e para a vivência urbana são abordados nesse trabalho através de seus aspectos materiais e imateriais: suas características ísicas, sua concretude e as relações, os usos e os conteúdos que abrigam. Tal distinção importa para entender a relação dialética que se instala; a morfologia ísica resulta da coniguração social, ao mesmo tempo que essa é conformada pelo ambiente ísico. A partir dessa constatação, pretende-se estudar diferentes e representativos peris de ruas na história da cidade e do urbanismo. A modernidade assistiu a intensas transformações do espaço urbano com o advento das grandes cidades, bem como da experiência urbana proporcionada em tais ambientes, criando uma inédita cena urbana que tinha na rua sua principal representante. O caos que essas cidades apresentavam, fontes simultaneamente de prazer e angústia, de excitação e desorientação, foi estreitado de seus sentidos nos ordenados espaços planejados pelo racionalismo moderno e pelo urbanismo funcionalista. O mal estar sentido por uma vida urbana que não conseguia se desenvolver em sua plenitude em tais espaços resultou em um movimento de crítica e resistência que tomou corpo na década de 1960 reivindicando o retorno, a volta da conexão entre a vida cotidiana e o espaço urbano, e que tem na rua o palco e o motor de suas ações, destacando o seu potencial de transformação da paisagem e da experiência urbana.
The streets and the role they represent for the city and the urban life will be approached through its material and immaterial aspects: its physical characteristics, its concreteness and the relations, uses and contents that they shelter. Such distinction matters to understand the dialectical relationship that sets in; the physical morphology results from the social coniguration, at the same time that it is conformed by the physical environment. From this conirmation, we intend to study different and representative street proiles in the citys history and urbanism. Modernity witnessed intense transformations of urban space with the advent of large cities, as well as the urban experience provided in such environments, creating an unprecedented urban scene that had on the street its main representative. The chaos that these cities presented, sources simultaneously of pleasure and anguish, of excitement and disorientation, was narrowed of their senses in the orderly spaces planned by modern rationalism and functionalist urbanism. The malaise felt by an urban life that could not develop in its fullness in such spaces resulted in a movement of criticism and resistance that took shape in the 1960s demanding the return of the connection between daily life and urban space, and that has in the street the stage and the motor of its actions, highlighting its potential of landscape transformation of the landscape and the urban experience.

The thesis explores the effects of the urban morphological characteristics on the general level and the spatial distribution of urban traffic noise with employing the state-of-the-art noise mapping method and a series of quantitative research approaches. In a systematic applicability test, it was found that the state-of-the-art EU noise mapping method is applicable in most of the complicated urban space scenarios selected in China; while for some complicated urban environment features, optimisation of the calculation configuration, modelling method, or calculation algorithm is required to ensure acceptable accuracy. A comparison study was then conducted between a series of urban areas with similar functions and distinct urban morphological features in two typical urbanised areas selected in the UK and China. The result reveals strong influences of urban morphological features on the noise distribution patterns. The effect of the social-economic factors on the spatial distribution of traffic noise was also explored. A parametric study based on a series of idealised cases was conducted to further explore the effects of urban morphological features on the traffic noise. A number of urban morphological indices were found to have significant effects on the general level and distribution of traffic noise and series of prediction models were also developed based on multilinear regression analyses, and it was found that the variation of up to 73.1% of the ground noise level and 70.7% of the indoor noise level can be predicted by 2-3 urban morphological indices. Based on the findings, a series of practical suggestions were then given for the potential of predicting and mitigating the traffic noise impact through urban planning and urban design measures.

With time going by, urban morphological structures of Beijing and Shanghai have dramatic changes during last decades. These changes often ignored by citizen, but have big influence for human daily life. And the changes of urban morphologies should be easily recognized by citizen. There are many previous comparative studies between these two Chinese cities, and these studies focus on types of areas, such as environment, traffic, city planning and cultures etc.. There are also many comparative studies about using space syntax theory and geometrical statistics to study urban morphologies. However, there are not direct comparison urban morphological study between Beijing and Shanghai, which from multiple perspectives. In order to gain a better understanding of urban morphologies, this thesis take street networks of two Chinese cites as a research object, based on space syntax theory, as well the combination of traditional geometrical statistics, comparative analysis methods to systematic quantitative analyze and comparative study the different street networks of urban space in Beijing and Shanghai. This project work analyzes hierarchy of axial lines, which automatically generated from street networks, to do a morphological comparison from topological perspective. And it analyzes frequency distribution of axial lines’ included angles and length of axial lines to study urban morphologies from geometrical perspective. Results in the project seem to empirical study that, the well-connected streets are minority part, which all most distributed in the sample cities’ ring structures and center areas. Street networks constitute an obvious regular grid pattern of Beijing and a curves pattern of Shanghai. Based on the hierarchical levels of street networks, research samples have same hierarchical levels but without the same number of street lines. The included angles of axial lines have an exceptionally sharply peaked bimodal distribution for both cities and number of most connected street’s length do not increase so much from ring1 to ring6 for Beijing, but they have much change for Shanghai.

Icons surround us but are so ubiquitous they are difficult to observe. Specifically urban cultural icons are a scientific sub-topic under urban morphology's heading and as well are closely related to economic development issues. This study premises that businesses are urban cultural icons which can be computed into four rankings: local cultural icons, focal, zonal, and global cultural icons. And through using dimensional measurement an index is measured. This index can then be used to assess urban morphology. The data set ranges from businesses opening in 1865 to the present. Some are globally-distributed "big boxes"; others are unique one-store shops. The varied data set includes grocery stores, drug stores, prepared food vendors, confectioneries, coffee houses, electronic stores, and an adult entertainment store. Business rankings are premised upon Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Tönnies, and Oldenburg's places to socialize, and node intensity of social connection. Time is measured linearly and ordinally. Two formats of geographical ranking are assessed against each other, with the expanded version providing greater insights. Transactions are determined by who initiates them and location where employee enters exchange. Business' internal consistency is based upon product-line inclusion and theme-ing. Scaled measurements are summed with a comparison of Weighted-Place Index Scores against non-weighted Index Scores. As well, economic development impact of businesses is analyzed with three principal components loadings: two business survival and one growth mode. Study results support the use of Weighted-Place Index Scores as compared to nonweighted Index scores when formatting cultural icon index. Index score using four-level geographical ranking ranged from zero to 25. Morning Call Coffee House had lowest ranking (Index score of 3) and Best Buy had the highest score of 22. Weighted-Place Index Scores ranged from zero to 32, with Morning Call Coffee House continuing as lowest score and Starbucks, Bad Ass Coffee, as well ApplianceWorld and Best Buy continuing with four highest scores. This study supports a research method which can be used to measure urban change. By applying Index score within same cities at 20-year increments, sprawl process of globalization within cities can be analyzed.

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, September, February, 2020
Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, February, 2020
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (page 55).
In the decision-making process of urban development projects, decision-makers and urban designers work collectively as a) decision-makers make decisions of urban development based on the evaluation of urban morphology, b) urban designers visualize design decisions given by decision-makers with 3D urban morphology and produce development proposals after certain rounds of iteration; A proposal involves designing 3D urban morphology, aka the collection of building typologies (parcel level), on a specific site. Due to the high costs of visualizing massive building geometries manually, the current decision-making workflow does not allow adequate iteration before the implementation of the proposal. To reduce the cost of manual modeling work by designers, rule-based approaches (like ESRI's CityEngine) generate 3D urban morphology from spatial geometries via rules. However, the limitations of creating rules are the bottleneck of popularizing rule-based approaches in professional practice. This research explores using machine learning pipelines to synthesize novel 3D morphology from urban design precedents intuitively, solving the above bottleneck. The resulting pipeline learns spatial data and 2D rendering images for two major parts: 1) to extract 2D building typology images from an aerial rendering image of urban morphology, and 2) to predict spatial building data from an extracted image and a spatial parcel geometry. This pipeline promotes the process of creating rules, allowing both urban designers to create visualization and decision-makers to evaluate urban development intuitively.
by Tuo Sun.
S.M.
S.M.
S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture
S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

The motivation for this research is a perceived gap in knowledge regarding the complex relationships between the physical form of the urban environment; its environmental performance as expressed through stocks and flows of materials and energy (urban metabolism); and its experienced physical and psychological qualities (urban ambience). The objective is to develop a practical methodological structure which, through investigating the relationships between these domains, may help inform the evaluation, design and development of more sustainable human settlements. One expression of this apparent knowledge gap is the ambiguity around the classification of urban form and identification of a suitable taxonomic framework to support analysis. Urban morphological research and practice is critically reviewed to derive a rigorous definition of the 'urban structural unit' (USU) to facilitate the subdivision and description of urban form across spatial scales. Application of this construct to a study site in Sydney, Australia provides the basis for subsequent exploration. Investigation of theoretical and applied perspectives on urban ecology, metabolism and design enables distillation of a utilitarian set of structural, functional and ambience properties of the USU. A variety of quantitative methods pertinent to evaluation of these properties is systematically examined to derive a streamlined analytical methodology, integrating hemispherical image analysis, space syntax, isovist and material accounting methods within the USU framework. The efficacy of this methodological 'toolkit' is tested in the final, empirical stage of the research, focussing mainly on the campus of the University of New South Wales. Determination of a range of material, microclimatic, ecosystemic, fractal, syntactic and isovist metrics provides a preliminary quantitative description of the campus USU in terms of its interrelated metabolic and ambience properties. This is further explained and interpreted through multivariate statistical analysis. The results suggest that the USU represents a robust framework for urban evaluation, and application of a relatively parsimonious suite of analytical methods enables a useful initial examination of the relations between significant aspects of urban form, metabolism and ambience. The outcomes of such an evaluation can directly inform built environment practice from a sustainability perspective, and also highlight areas for more detailed investigation.

O objetivo da pesquisa é investigar a relação entre a estrutura da cidade e a implantação de terminais de ônibus em São Paulo, tendo em vista o papel definidor do ambiente urbano na definição de sua tipologia. Através de análise histórica, busco compreender o surgimento deste com as iniciativas de estruturação de um sistema de ônibus integrado. A hipótese é que o terminal, apesar de poder se tornar um poderoso agente de estruturação e transformação urbana, e estimular a criação de uma rede de centralidades no território urbanizado, segue a lógica espacial e antiurbana do urbanismo funcionalista, de maneira a desagregar socioespacialmente seu entorno. O trabalho se propõem a compreender a estruturação dos tipos arquitetônicos implantados para os terminais de ônibus urbanos a partir da década de 1970, através da análise morfotipológica dos terminais de ônibus urbanos Bandeira, Princesa Isabel e Lapa. Neste sentido, o trabalho visa compreender: (1) o papel da infraestrutura de mobilidade como agente de indução do espaço urbano na formação de centralidade e urbanidade; e, (2) a estruturação da tipologia arquitetônica do terminal de ônibus.
The objective of the research is to investigate the relationship between the city structure and the bus terminal in São Paulo, considering the defining role of the urban environment in the definition of its typology. Through historical analysis, I try to understand the emergence of this with the initiatives of structuring an integrated bus system. The hypothesis is that the terminal, despite being able to become a powerful agent for urban structuring and transformation, and to stimulate the creation of a network of centralities in the urbanized territory, follows the spatial and anti-urban logic of the urban functionalism in order to disaggregate socio-spatial environment. The work proposes to understand the structuring of the architectural types implanted for the urban bus terminals from the 1970\'s, through the morpho-typological analysis of the urban bus terminals Bandeira, Princesa Isabel and Lapa. In this sense, the work aims to understand: (1) the role of the mobility infrastructure as an agent of induction of the urban space in the formation of centrality and urbanity; and, (2) the structuring of the architectural typology of the bus terminal.

Urban conservation and development practices are often in conflict. This thesis examines this general claim in the context of rapid urban development in East Asia through an analysis of the postcolonial historic city of Tainan, in Southern Taiwan. Following a particular line of urban conservation scholarship (Ashworth, Larkham, Conzen) this thesis argues that urban conservation is best conceived as the management of urban change, and that change should be considered as part of urban conservation policy. The aim of such urban conservation practice would be not only to maintain the historic traditions of a place, but also to promote the development of new possibilities of place. In this sense, the treatment of historical urban fabric should aim to preserve memory and tradition as much as serving as an ‘incubator’ for new senses of place. To this end, the thesis seeks to combine morphological and everyday life approaches to urban scholarship. A sense of place is not only derived from the emotional feelings, orientation or identity attached to an existing environment, but also relies on the practices of everyday life. These practices are significant aspects of urban places, but they are often difficult to map, measure and analyse. Thus, the thesis argues, mapping the morphological changes of a city is not enough for a rounded study of the everyday life dimensions of urban space. As a result, this thesis proposes that empirical approaches to everyday life are as important as morphological studies when exploring issues of urban change. The thesis builds on a number of existing approaches to this wider issue of the interrelationship between urban morphology and everyday life. In particular, it examines the Versailles School’s approach to typomorphological study. This approach to urban analysis emphasizes morphological change and its grounding in existing typological rules of everyday space, so as to continue the everyday life culture that it supports. This thesis develops methodologies based on these principles. In addition, it draws on the concepts of time-geography and heterotopic spaces as a means of specifying the representational approaches to everyday life narratives and an understanding of postcolonial complex urbanism, respectively. Following this approach, this thesis presents a series of case studies on the historic city centre of Tainan, the ancient capital of Taiwan. As a result of its colonial past, the urban blocks in that city can be understood as heterotopias in the contemporary city. Drawing on the case studies, this thesis argues that the everyday life-style in Tainan city centre is inseparable from the existing block typology and the functional conditions that reside in the coexistence of the historical and the modern urban structures. Thus, when considering urban conservation policies, the relationship between this social spatial condition and the everyday life that it supports must be carefully considered.

Esta tese de doutorado tem por objetivo estudar a forma urbana atual de Ouro Preto e verificar a influência da morfologia urbana colonial como modelo para as novas ocupações - hipótese defendida nesta pesquisa. Para tanto, partimos da aproximação da configuração da antiga Vila Rica, no período compreendido entre o século XVIII e o início do século XIX, pois o estudo sistemático da morfologia colonial fundamenta a forma urbana original de Ouro Preto e subsidia os argumentos seguintes. A seguir, analisamos a configuração de Ouro Preto, entre o início do Império e o fim da Primeira República, para identificar as alterações da forma urbana colonial, relativizar a decadência atribuída para a cidade, nesse período, e caracterizar a cidade tombada pelo IPHAN, em 1938. Por fim, concluindo o percurso da evolução urbana de Ouro Preto, apresentamos a configuração da cidade, entre 1930 e 2006, do início da Era Vargas à publicação do Plano Diretor da cidade (Lei complementar nº 29/2006). Identificamos as transformações ocorridas no tecido urbano investigado anteriormente, as novas ocupações dentro do perímetro de tombamento do IPHAN e a influência da morfologia colonial como modelo para as novas ocupações, processos observados a partir de meados do século XX. Assim, esta pesquisa busca aprofundar a história urbana de Ouro Preto, cooperar para o entendimento de sua formação e abordar a história de seu sistema urbano, nos últimos sessenta anos. Com isso, almejamos contribuir para a compreensão do conjunto da história da urbanização, tendo Ouro Preto como exemplo.
This doctoral thesis studies the current urban morphology of Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, by checking the influence of the colonial urban morphology as a reference to its new settlements - hypothesis of this research. First this study analyzes the urban setting of the old Vila Rica from the 18th century to early 19th century: studies of colonial urban morphology have supported the arguments presented in the following chapters. Next, the urban setting of Ouro Preto between the beginning of the Portuguese monarchy and the end of the First Republic in Brazil was analyzed to check the changes in the colonial urban morphology in order to answer a question about the decline of Ouro Preto in the 19th century and to describe the city\'s protected heritage by the Federal Heritage Preservation Institute (IPHAN). Finally, the current urban morphology of Ouro Preto established between 1930 and 2006, i.e., from early Getúlio Vargas\' mandate to Ouro Preto\'s master plan of 2006, was analyzed because it has been observed that, since mid-twentieth century, old urban settings in settlements inside a protected area have undergone changes.

Para pensar a cidade é preciso antes de mais nada, olhar para ela. E o que nos chama a atenção são as novas construções dando suas costas para a cidade. São os muros e pavimentos de garagem inertes e alheios ao seu entorno, mesmo em ruas repletas de pessoas e acontecimentos.Em meio a este padrão de cidade em construção,o Plano Diretor Estratégico aprovado em 2014 apresenta diretrizes que demonstram o desejo de um novo modelo de cidade- pautadona prevalência do transporte coletivo sobre o transporte individual e na qualificação do espaço público. A lei apresenta novos dispositivosde regulação do espaço privado para que este contribua para a qualidade do espaço publico. O intuito deste estudo é a analise da forma urbana e da legislação sob a qual foi produzida - desde a segunda metade do século XX aos dias atuais - para entender como evoluiu a relação entre o edifício e a rua e em que medida e de que maneira a legislação influenciou nestas transformações. Apresentamos inicialmente uma reflexão sobre o desenho urbano para a escala do pedestre, considerando todas as condições urbanas ideais para tornar os percursos mais sociáveis e seguros.Assim, estabelecemos os critérios que nortearão a análise dos estudos de caso, divididos em três períodos,de acordo com as leis de zoneamento aplicadas no município de São Paulo. Para cada período foi definida uma área representativa de um bairro da cidadecuja verticalização mais intensa tenha ocorrido no respectivo período da legislação estudada. O primeiro é anterior à lei de zoneamento de 1972 - ou seja, décadas de 1950 a 1970, no qual estudamos os bairros de Santa Cecília e Higienópolis; o segundo corresponde à vigência da lei de zoneamento aprovada em 1972, em queanalisamos o bairro de Moema; e o terceiro, período de aplicação da lei de zoneamento de 2004, com os estudos aplicados ao bairro da Lapa, especificamente, a Vila Romana. Incluímos uma reflexão sobre o PDE 2014 e respectiva lei de zoneamento em revisão, para comparação com as leis antecedentes e tentativa de prever seus possíveis resultados como espaço construído.
In order to think about the city it is necessary, first, to look at it. What call our attention is that the recent buildings give their backside to the city. They are walls and garage floors inert and unaware to their surroundings, even in streets full of people and events.Amid this pattern of city construction, the Strategic CityPlan approved in 2014 provides guidelines that demonstrate the desire for a new city model - guided by the predominance of public transport over private transport and the qualification of the public space. Thisnew law brings new mechanisms of regulation of the private space in order that it contributes to a better quality of the public space. The purpose of this study is the analysis of urban form and the legislation under which it was produced - from the second half of the twentieth century to the present day - to understand the evolution of the relationship between the building and the street and to what extent and in what way the legislation influenced these transformation. Initially it presents a reflection on the urban design for the pedestrian scale, considering all the ideal urban conditions that would generate more sociable and safe walkways. With this reflection, established the criteria that guided the analysis of three case studies of three periods, according with the periods of the zoning laws applied in São Paulo. For each period, it was studied an area of a city neighborhood whose most intense verticalization occurred in that period. The first period is before the 1972 zoning law - i.e., the decades from 1950 to 1970, in which we study the districts of Santa Cecilia and Higienópolis; the second corresponds to the period when the zoning law approved in 1972 was effective, in it is analyzed the Moema neighborhood; and the third, period when the 2004 zoning law was effective, it is studied the Lapa neighborhood, specifically the Vila Romana. The study includes a reflection on the 2014 Strategic City Plan and its zoning law revision to compare with the preceding laws and estimates its impacts and results on the built space.

Dissertação de Mestrado Integrado em Arquitetura, apresentada na Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa, com a especialização em Urbanismo para obtenção de grau de Mestre.
O tecido urbano das cidades históricas europeias é um grande fator de atração turística. Contudo, as formas urbanas carregam em si atributos intrínsecos ao seu próprio processo de formação, como tecidos medievais que convivem lado a lado com traçados ortogonais planeados. Essas especificidades espaciais podem trazer problemas de sustentabilidade, quando confrontadas com as mudanças provocadas por novas dinâmicas como a do turismo urbano e do Alojamento Local. Em Lisboa, já foram adotadas medidas municipais que limitam as atividades turísticas no centro histórico da cidade, com uma abordagem genérica no que tange à administração dos impactos do turismo a nível local. No entanto, essas medidas deveriam basear-se em um conhecimento aprofundado das características que o turismo pode prejudicar. A definição de uma metodologia para a delimitação de áreas urbanas que leve em consideração essas características espaciais, associada a uma lista de verificação de possíveis problemas quando a incidência do turismo é excessiva pode ser bem-vinda, e é a principal preocupação da presente dissertação.
ABSTRACT: The urban fabric of European historic cities is a major factor of tourist attraction. However, urban forms carry attributes intrinsic to their own process of formation, like medieval fabrics that coexist side by side with planned orthogonal layouts. These spatial specificities can pose sustainability problems when confronted with transformations brought by new dynamics such as urban tourism and touristic accommodation. In Lisbon, municipal measures have already been taken to limit tourism activities in the historic city center, with a generic approach on managing tourism impacts at the local level. However, these measures should be based on a thorough knowledge of the characteristics that tourism may threaten. A methodology for delimiting urban areas that considers these spatial characteristics, coupled with a checklist of possible problems when tourism incidence is excessive may be welcome, and is the main concern of this dissertation.
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Dissertação para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Arquitectura, apresentada na Universidade de Lisboa - Faculdade de Arquitectura.
No seguimento do exercício "Construir no Construído" de Laboratório de Projecto VI, de 2011/2012, na Faculdade de Arquitectura, Lisboa, a presente Dissertação/ Projecto Final de Mestrado Integrado em Arquitectura, incide na escala do Desenho Urbano, como abordagem metodológica ao Projecto. A leitura do Desenho da Cidade da área-estudo constitui duma etapa fundamental para a construção do Projecto Urbano, suportado no método de análise que passou por levantamento exaustivo do edificado preexistente, objecto de intervenção. Como suporte teórico elegeu-se as obras de Aldo Rossi, de João Sousa Morais e José Garcia Lamas. Tratando-se de uma intervenção num dos centros históricos da cidade de Lisboa, procura-se requalificar a cidade através do (Re)desenho Urbano, aqui apresentado, recorrendo a exemplos análogos como método arquitectónico, como são exemplos: o Largo do Intendente, a Rambla do Raval e alguns equipamentos multifuncionais. Por fim, desenvolve-se um Projecto Urbano numa área da Colina de Sant'Ana de forma a re-criar espaços de carácter colectivo/ público, com a hierarquização adequada, melhorando a acessibilidade/ mobilidade, adequando o espaço habitacional às novas necessidades/ exigências, articulando com as actividades comerciais, lúdicas e educativas, inserção de uma nova infra-estrutura multifuncional e conversão de alguns edifícios.
ABSTRACT: According to the exercise "Construir no Construído" from Project Laboratory VI, 2011/2012, at FA-UL, Lisbon, this Dissertation/ Final Project of Master Degree in Architecture, focuses on Urban Design’s scale as a Project methodological approach. The study of the area of Urban Design consists upon a fundamental step of the Urban Project’s conception, supported by a method of analysis through an exhaustive survey of the existing buildings, object of intervention. Aldo Rossi, João Sousa Morais and José Garcia Lamas’s works were selected as a theoretical support. As this is an intervention in one of the historical centres of Lisbon, we seek to reclassify the city through the Urban (Re)Design, featured here, using analog examples as architectural method, such as: the Largo do Intendente, the Rambla do Raval and some multifunctional buildings. Finally, this proposal aims to an Urban Project in the area of Colina de Sant'Ana in order to recreate collective/ public spaces, with the appropriate hierarchy, improving accessibility/ mobility, adjusting to the new living space needs/ requirements articulating with commercial, recreational and educational activities, setting of a new multifunctional infrastructure and converting some residential buildings into tourist hostels and services.

This thesis focuses on one of the emerging research topics within the field of urban morphology that investigates how the concept of resilience, which has recently be-come a buzzword very favored to address the complexity and future uncertainty in cities, can be integrated into the study of urban form, as the raw material of urban de-sign and a key element that can guide cities towards more sustainable trajectories. More specifically, the thesis tackles some of the theoretical and methodological challenges for integrating resilience thinking into urban morphology, where two main re-search gaps have been addressed. The first, is the need to understand the core meaning of resilience in urban morphology and systematically examine its underlying politics (e.g. resilience of/through what? To what? For whom? How? When? Where?) so that it can be effectively operationalized. The second is the need to support urban planning and design decisions with tools and methods that provide an improved understanding of the impact of urban form on urban resilience to different stresses and shocks. In particular, the thesis, through the use of immaterial technology (e.g. Geographical Information Systems, machine learning and remote sensing techniques), focuses on improving and developing quantitative methods to better understand the impact of urban form on urban resilience to heat stress, as one of the most pressing challenges in cities nowadays that has been demonstrated to be exacerbated by urban form. And assessing their applicability in growing contemporary cities in arid areas, as the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and where little research has been conducted. At the core of these methods are the typomorphological classifications, which have been demonstrated to be powerful descriptive-analytical as well as normative/prescriptive means of understanding and designing cities.
abstractita

The city and the concept of public space has been evolved during the last centuries. Most of the successful public spaces of today are made, envisioned, designed, and realized not as sole entities, but as integrative components of an organism. The notion of what makes a successful public space is a topic worth investigating in the urban framework. What can this describe the present, even about future urban space? As architects we need to go beyond movement to think about what growth, expansion, and contraction can influence the urban tissue. According to Attoe and Logan, the notion of Urban Catalyst is an attempt to reopen the debate on strategies and tools to activate and rethink urban space and city development. This research would attempt to examine the significance of the urban catalyst as a means of urban revitalization. Bohannon, (Bohannon, 2004) states that the urban catalyst theory can be linked to place through the study of contextual factors in urban design. These factors include morphological, social, functional, perceptual, visual, and temporal points of view. For the urban catalyst to respond to its setting, it also must possess a strong sense of place and authenticity. The intent of this research is to serve as a prototype for demonstrating and testing the position and design process in the case of catalytic interventions. The methodology that will be applied has as an analysis point a serious of public spaces in the city.
ENGLISH

The city is a collection of built structures and infrastructure embedded in socio-cultural processes: any investigation into a city’s transformations involves considerations on the degree to which its composite elements respond to socio-economical changes. The main purpose of this research is to investigate how transformations in the functional requirements of New York’s society have spurred, since the 1970s, changes in both the city’s urban structure and physical form. The present work examines the rise of Amenity Zones in New York, and investigates the transformations that have occurred in New York’s built environment since the 1970s. By applying qualitative measures and analyzing the relationship between urban amenities and the creative class, the present work has investigated changes in the urban structure and detected a hierarchical series of amenity zones classes, namely, Super Amenity Zones (SAZs), Nodal Amenity Zones (NAZs) and Peripheral Amenity Zones (PAZs). This series allows for a more comprehensive reading of the urban structure in a complex city like New York, bringing advancements to the amenity zone’s methodology. In order to examine the manner in which the other component of the city, the physical form, has changed or adapted to the new socio-economic condition, the present research has applied Conzenian analysis to a select study area, Atlantic Avenue. The results of this analysis reveal that, contrary to the urban structure, which changes rapidly, the physical form of New York is hard to modify completely, due to the resilience of the town plan and its elements, and to preservation laws; the city rather adapts to socio-economical changes through process of adaptive reuses or conversion. Concluding, this research has examined the dialectic between the ever-changing needs of society and the complexity of the built environment and urban structure, showing the different degrees to which the urban landscape modifies, reacts and sometimes adapts to the population’s functional requirements.

The city is a collection of built structures and infrastructure embedded in socio-cultural processes: any investigation into a city’s transformations involves considerations on the degree to which its composite elements respond to socio-economical changes. The main purpose of this research is to investigate how transformations in the functional requirements of New York’s society have spurred, since the 1970s, changes in both the city’s urban structure and physical form. The present work examines the rise of Amenity Zones in New York, and investigates the transformations that have occurred in New York’s built environment since the 1970s. By applying qualitative measures and analyzing the relationship between urban amenities and the creative class, the present work has investigated changes in the urban structure and detected a hierarchical series of amenity zones classes, namely, Super Amenity Zones (SAZs), Nodal Amenity Zones (NAZs) and Peripheral Amenity Zones (PAZs). This series allows for a more comprehensive reading of the urban structure in a complex city like New York, bringing advancements to the amenity zone’s methodology. In order to examine the manner in which the other component of the city, the physical form, has changed or adapted to the new socio-economic condition, the present research has applied Conzenian analysis to a select study area, Atlantic Avenue. The results of this analysis reveal that, contrary to the urban structure, which changes rapidly, the physical form of New York is hard to modify completely, due to the resilience of the town plan and its elements, and to preservation laws; the city rather adapts to socio-economical changes through process of adaptive reuses or conversion. Concluding, this research has examined the dialectic between the ever-changing needs of society and the complexity of the built environment and urban structure, showing the different degrees to which the urban landscape modifies, reacts and sometimes adapts to the population’s functional requirements.

While the expansion of urbanisation has been occurring on an unexpected scale since the 1960s, urban density has become more and more globalized. Essentially, the dense urban morphology has been benefitted from all aspects of sustainable urban development, despite the consequential problems cannot be ignored. As sustainability is one of the most salient themes across all disciplines currently, it is necessary for the well-developed theory of morphology to contribute to sustainable development in practice. Sustainability assessment of the morphology in high-density cities is making a contribution to achieving a sustainable urban form in specific circumstances. Also, this instrument can be applied to strengthen sustainable development in terms of morphology in all cities. As conventional sustainability assessment mostly depends on the numerical sustainable indicator systems, the diagrammatic assessment approaches provide a straightforward and visual way to qualify sustainability of morphology, and express the form a sustainable urban morphology takes. Finally, it provides a direct grasp for planners, architects and local governments to design a sustainable city form, rather than only by the materials or technology employed. The final goal of this research is to better implement sustainability indicator system to assess sustainable morphology in the high-density context. This study therefore commences with respective demonstrations of the theories of morphology, diagrammatic methods and sustainability indicator systems through a literature review, in order to build up the theoretical underpinnings for the development of diagrammatic methods. At the same time, it explores the virtues of morphological and diagrammatic methods, which are applied as complements to the shortcomings of sustainability indicator systems that have emerged and are utilized to evaluate sustainable morphology. Afterwards, this research attempts to investigate what is sustainable morphology for the purpose of defining sustainable morphology through examining the definite features it should possess, and identifying the overlapped scope between morphology and sustainable development. Based on the exact scope, it categorizes relative indicators in the four respective aspects of sustainability respectively drawn from a proven indicator system – SPeAR® developed by Arup. These indicators are simplified to a radar diagram which is succinct, visual and informative to represent the evaluation results. Moreover, this research compares a series of diagrams concerning sustainable buildings and cities to summarize the referencing diagrams of sustainable morphology characteristics which assist to explain the profile of sustainable morphology on scales. Finally, Hong Kong is taken as the test bed for the application of these diagrammatic approaches due to its outstanding performance of high density. The findings of this research can be viewed as a theoretical complement to urban morphology and sustainability assessment research. The diagrammatic assessment approaches can be applied as guidance for sustainability designs in planning and decision-making processes across all areas. In addition, the proposed assessment methodology is not only suitable for evaluating the high-density morphology, but also can be replicated with relevant alterations responding to different circumstances.
published_or_final_version
Architecture
Master
Master of Philosophy

Este trabalho tem como objetivo efetuar uma investigação acerca das repercussões morfológicas decorrentes do processo de construção e transformação do espaço urbano representado pelo crescimento urbano por extensão, ou seja, pelo acréscimo de novos loteamentos junto à estruturas urbanas preexistentes. A escala de análise das conseqüências do fenômeno investigado situa-se tanto em âmbito local, bem como de modo global de toda a estrutura urbana. Como objeto de estudo, será abordado o processo de formação territorial da cidade de Santa Maria – RS, verificando as alterações na estrutura urbana da cidade ao longo do tempo. Para tal operação investigativa, será empregado o instrumental de análise do ambiente construído disponibilizado pela Teoria da Sintaxe Espacial, na qual será possível realizar uma leitura do fenômeno do crescimento urbano sob o viés morfológico e verificar como as variáveis: localização, conectividade, layout do anexo e o porte das estruturas anexadas influem na abrangência e relevância do fenômeno no contexto urbano.
This work has as objective to make an investigation concerning the current morphologic repercussions of the construction process and transformation of the urban space represented by the urban growth by extension, that is to say, for the increment of new settlements close to structure it urban. The scale of analysis of the consequences of the investigated phenomenon locates so much in local ambit, as well as in global way of the whole urban structure. As study object, the process of territorial formation of Santa Maria's city will be approached - RS, verifying the alterations in the urban structure of the city along the time. For such an investigative operation, the instrumental of analysis of the atmosphere built available will be used by the Theory of the Space Syntax, in which will be possible to accomplish a reading of the phenomenon of the urban growth under the morphologic inclination and to verify as the variables: location, connectivity, layout of the annex and the load of the enclosed structures influence in the inclusion and relevance of the phenomenon in the urban context.

Dissertação de Doutoramento em Urbanismo, apresentada na Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa, para obtenção do grau de Doutor.
A cidade é essencialmente constituída por matéria residencial. Esta função, sendo a mais comum face ao protagonismo do espaço público, é a que constitui o tecido conjuntivo do urbano. A esta leitura, junta-se a questão habitacional cuja problemática marca o século XX. Estes factores contribuem para a definição do objecto de estudo - os projectos urbanos, de cariz habitacional de promoção pública, desenvolvidos entre 1910 e 2010, em Lisboa. A investigação, de natureza analítica e interpretativa, sustenta-se num processo comparativo para o estudo morfológico do projecto urbano habitacional de promoção pública, propondo-se: identificar padrões morfológicos na produção habitacional de promoção pública e analisar o papel destes projectos na construção da cidade. Através da leitura da realidade e das suas invariantes, propõe-se a construção de uma cronologia e de um quadro tipológico assente no cruzamento de factores de ordem supra-estrutural, de abordagens de análise ao nível da estrutura da cidade assim como de uma leitura morfológica dos conjuntos edificados que, articulados com a análise de uma tábua diacrónica, constroem o argumento desta obra. O desenho de uma classificação permite ainda, a reflexão acerca da capacidade destes projectos para o fazer cidade e não apenas de resolver uma carência habitacional.
ABSTRACT: The City urban tissue consists mainly of residential area, the function, which being the most common and extended over the protagonist role of public space, is what constitutes the connective tissue of the city. This fact linked with the housing crisis that crossed the twentieth century, defines the object of analyses – public housing projects, developed between 1910 and 2010, in Lisbon. An analytical and interpretative research sustains a comparative process for the morphological study of urban housing project of public promotion and aims to: identify morphological patterns in public housing production and analyze the role of these projects in the city construction. The research proposes the construction of a chronology and a typological framework throughout the analyses of reality and its invariants. The research is based on supra-structural factors, the analysis of the city structure as well as a morphological study of the built material. That, articulated with the analysis of a diachronic designed scheme, builds the argument of this work. The design of a classification also allows a reflection on the ability of these projects to make city instead of just solving a housing shortage.
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The question of the size and configuration of urban blocks and building footprints are vital to making a livable and sustainable city, with a sense of scale but also a sense of dialogue between elements. This dissertation documents the interface of public and private realms at the edge of the block and proposes a typology of block-faces. The block-faces respond to buildings (the internal load of blocks) and street structure (the external load of blocks). It is argued that the block-face and not the block should be the basis for thinking of city form. The City of Atlanta is used as a case study because of the spectrum of conditions and possibilities that it illustrates. The quantitative approach of this work builds upon a research tradition of analytical and quantitative urban and building morphology. A method is proposed for assessing the potential of the existing city prior to design intervention and for evaluating alternative scenarios for future developments. The ultimate goal is to provide tools to design more sustainable communities by bridging differences of scales and by better understanding how urban design parameters influence the development of built form and architecture.

This thesis examines the urban morphology of fifty cities using spatial syntax analysis. The analysis compares the urban street networks of European, USA, Islamic and East Asian cities. Street connectivity was the main metric and natural roads were the basis for the analysis. The aim of the study was to analyze determine how sensitive space syntax methods are for uncovering the hierarchical patterns of urban street networks and examining their scale-free and small-world properties. Street data was collected from OpenStreetMap. ArcGIS 10 with the Axwoman extension was used to study the hierarchical levels of street networks. Matlab provided the platform to examine the scale-free property of street data. Pajek software was used to measure the small-world behavior. Based on the hierarchical representation, the fifty sample cities were classified into different groups and their scale-free and small-world properties were studied. From a traditionally morphological perspective, it was found that some cities in Europe have a close-knit cellular and organic urban morphology. Cities in the USA exhibit gridiron patterns on the whole. Some Islamic cities have special urban structure with houses grouped around the cul-de-sac lanes. Several of the East Asian cities studied also have grid forms. According to the space syntax analysis, urban street networks that have a connectivity value greater than the average value were less than 40%. The results showed that for most cities, the street connectivity distribution follows a power-law distribution and exhibits scale-free properties. Urban street networks of all sample cities were found to have a small-world property. Space syntax cannot detect all of the morphological patterns recognized in traditional morphological studies. The method can, however, efficiently quantify the spatial configuration of a large sample. Space syntax’s topological and scaling metrics thus provide a way to compare urban street networks. These metrics can thus help classify cities according to their street patterns but also contribute to an understanding of human behavior within and thus the design of urban spaces. For example, an urban street network with a small-world property could have high efficiency for traffic flows at local and global levels and should be considered in further study.

A hipótese que conduz o trabalho atribui aos Grandes Projetos Urbanos à condição de ferramenta de transformação da forma urbana sob a ótica das intervenções sobre o tecido urbano degradado ou ociosos capaz de regenerar partes deste tecido e provocar a reabilitação de sua paisagem e dinâmica social e econômica. Como meio de investigação sobre a cidade contemporânea, a primeira parte da tese é dedicada ao estudo e análise da forma urbana e seus pesquisadores, no qual cada um apresenta suas teorias e resultados sobre o tecido urbano que se transforma a cada instante. É certo que os Grandes Projetos Urbanos tiveram maior influência nos países europeus motivados por diversos fatores (naturais ou não) que obrigaram as cidades a repensar suas estruturas urbanas e definir, rapidamente, estratégias de reconstrução de forma eficiente, assim na segunda parte da tese os \"estudos de caso\" são colocados como objetos de estudo e análise da forma urbana a partir da compreensão e entendimento das causas e consequências com que levaram cada cidade estudada a iniciar o processo de transformação da forma urbana, da mesma forma com que utilizaram de estratégias econômicas e sociais capaz de regenerar o tecido urbano e revigorar a dinâmica da cidade, sendo eleitos quatro Grandes Projetos Urbanos: 22@ BCN e La Sagrera-San Andreu em Barcelona - Espanha, ZAC Paris Rive Gauche em Paris - França, Spina 2 - Porta Susa em Torino - Itália, que se relacionam de forma direta ou indireta com o objeto de estudo: Operação Urbana Orla Ferroviária de Suzano, colocado em discussão na terceira parte da tese, confirmando a necessária condição com que as cidades americanas, e em especial as latinas e central, se posicionam quanto as hoje configuradas \"Cidades Globais\", e que em muitas vezes perderam ao longo do tempo sua dinâmica urbana em detrimento ora da falta do planejamento urbano ordenado ou pela degradação gradativa em função da transformação econômica e/ou tecnológica. O caso de Suzano, cidade localizada na Região Metropolitana de São Paulo e distante cerca de 40 Km do centro da capital, não pode ser tomada como exceção deste processo de \"desmontagem das peças urbanas\" que provocou a subutilização dos espaços antes ocupados pelos serviços de manobra e depósito da rede ferroviária assim como a degradação dos espaços construídos provocados pela falta de uma politica pública que incentivasse novas experiências e o redesenho urbano neste trecho da cidade. Em resposta a estes fatores, o objeto de estudo é compreendido neste caso, como uma importante ferramenta de transformação da forma urbana com estratégias que garantam sua sustentabilidade e desenvolvimento urbano compatíveis com as atuais tecnologias. O trabalho defende que os Grandes Projetos Urbanos quando se tornam objetos de redesenho do tecido tendem a transformar a Forma Urbana incorporando critérios além daqueles funcionais e específicos da paisagem, mas também com uma intensa relação com sua vizinhança e entorno próximo. Nesta condição, tendem a desempenhar um papel relevante na qualidade espacial da cidade contemporânea provocando a regeneração tanto dos espaços não construídos (vazios urbanos) como os construídos (edifícios), num convívio mútuo entre as formas urbanas existentes e as propostas pela intervenção.
The hypothesis driving the work assigned to the Large Urban Projects tool condition transformation of urban form from the perspective of interventions into the urban fabric degraded or idle able to regenerate parts of this tissue and cause your landscape rehabilitation and social and economic dynamics. As a means of research on the contemporary city, the first part of the thesis is devoted to the study and analysis of urban form and its researchers, in which each presents his theories and findings on the urban fabric that transforms every moment. Admittedly the Large Urban Projects had more influence in European countries motivated by several factors (natural or not) that forced the city to rethink its urban structures and set quickly rebuilding strategies efficiently, so the second part of the thesis \"case studies\" are placed as objects of study and analysis of urban form from the comprehension and understanding of the causes and consequences with each city studied that led to begin the process of transformation of urban form, the same way they used strategies social and economic able to regenerate and invigorate the urban dynamics of the city, being elected four Large Urban Projects: 22 @ BCN and La Sagrera-San Andreu in Barcelona - Spain, ZAC Paris Rive Gauche in Paris - France, Spina 2 - Porta Susa in Torino - Italy, which relate directly or indirectly to the subject of study: Urban Train Operation Orla Suzano, put in discussion in the third part of the thesis, confirming that the necessary condition to American cities, and especially Latin and Central stand today as the configured \"Global Cities\", and that in many times lost over time its urban dynamics over prays the lack of urban planning for orderly or gradual degradation due to the economic transformation and / or technological. The case of Suzano, a town in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo and distant about 40 km from the city center, cannot be taken as an exception in this process of \"dismantling of urban pieces\" that led to the underutilization of the space once occupied by services maneuver and tank rail network as well as the degradation of built spaces caused by the lack of a public policy that encourages new experiences and urban redesign this part of town. In response to these factors, the study object is understood in this case as an important tool for transformation of urban form with strategies that ensure their sustainability and urban development compatible with existing technologies. The paper argues that the Large Urban Projects when they become objects redesign tissue tend to make Urban Form incorporating criteria beyond that functional and specific landscape, but also with an intense relationship with his neighborhood and near surroundings. In this condition, tend to play a role in spatial quality of the contemporary city causing regeneration of both spaces not built (urban voids) as built (buildings), a mutual interaction between the existing urban form and the proposed intervention.

This thesis studies the theories, scientific evidence and spatial relationships within urban form to determine means and deviations that developments can use to determine the resiliency of urban form within a given location. Resiliency within urban form functions as modulations around a morphological mean. Rather than replicate the mean, resilient cities modulate with low standard deviations around the mean. As a result, while many look aesthetically different, resilient cities are structurally more similar than dissimilar. Cities can use this information to inform their projects on a schematic design level to determine if they are improving their urban form or if they are deviating from the resilient mean.

Dans le cadre de la recherche, nous nous intéressons à la pratique du projet urbain dans les villes en décroissance (ou ville rétrécissante), plus connues sous le terme anglophone de shrinking cities. Cet intérêt est né d’un questionnement plus large sur la pratique de l’architecte-urbaniste et la fabrique de la ville en ce début du XXIe siècle, où les débats se multiplient sur la ville résiliante, économe, autosuffisante face aux crises écologiques, socio- économiques et politiques actuelles. La ville en décroissance offre ainsi un cadre intéressant pour nous confronter à cette problématique où l’architecte-urbaniste se retrouve à devoir s’adapter et se réinventer face à de multiples contraintes. Par ailleurs, le programme allemand Shrinking Cities et les réflexions portées par l’architecte-chercheur allemand Philipp Oswalt ont été un élément déclencheur. Ce dernier revendiquait l’idée que la ville en décroissance était le nouveau terrain de jeu pour explorer de nouvelles pensées architecturales et urbanistiques. Il le démontre à partir d’un travail de collecte d’expériences à travers le monde. Aujourd’hui, nous proposons de poursuivre cette réflexion et de nous poser la question suivante: quels enseignements pouvons-nous tirer de ces expériences pour notre pratique et imaginer la ville de demain ? À partir de ce questionnement, nous faisons l’hypothèse que ces nouvelles pensées architecturales et urbaines (concepts, langages architecturaux, formes urbaines, etc.) participeraient à la formulation de nouvelles formes d’habiter les territoires (usages, modèles urbains, paysage, modes de vie, etc.), permettant d’envisager différemment la fabrique urbaine en ce début du XXIe. Ces démarches seraient par ailleurs actrices dans la reconnaissance de terrains favorables pour une gestion urbaine raisonnée et dans le développement de nouveaux outils et protocoles d’action imaginés par les architecte-urbanistes.Pour répondre à notre hypothèse de recherche, nous nous intéressons plus spécifiquement aux projets impulsant une mutation profonde du tissu urbain, dans sa forme comme dans ses usages que nous nommons ici par remodelage urbain. Notre analyse se base sur six démarches dites « innovantes », théoriques et réalisées, dont un cas est mis en œuvre par des habitants. Elles illustrent cette pratique dans différentes villes en décroissance depuis ces vingt dernières années.Ces cas d’étude sont situés dans des tissus urbains différents (habitat dense en centre-ville et dans les bourgs ruraux, grands ensembles, habitat pavillonnaire) pour montrer la diversité des terrains auxquels l’architecte-urbaniste peut être confronté. Parallèlement aux deux cas français (Saint-Étienne, Livradois-Forez), nous observerons d’autres expériences dans deux contextes étrangers, précurseurs en termes d’initiatives locales et de politiques urbaines : l’Allemagne (Halle- Neustadt, Dessau) et les États-Unis (Detroit). La diversité des approches et des échelles de réflexion de ces projets ne permet pas de conduire une étude comparative. Plus adaptée à notre démarche, nous proposons leur mise en discussion pour comprendre l’impact du cadre politique, socio-économique et de l’environnement urbain sur le processus de projet ainsi que la capacité de ces projets à amorcer une transformation du tissu urbain et de la ville.Notre objectif sera ainsi de comprendre l’originalité et les spécificités de ces démarches, mais aussi leurs apports potentiels dans les débats actuels sur la ville et ses évolutions. Cette démarche cherche à apporter une dimension prospective sur le sujet de la ville en décroissance
Within the methodological framework of the academic research, this study focuses on the urban development specific to shrinking cities. This interest raised from a broader interrogation on the professional practice of urban architects and the making of the city ongoing in this early XXIth century, with regards to contemporary debates about cities that are resilient, economical, self sufficient toward ecological, socio-economical and political crises. The shrinking city offers thus an interesting framework to study architects-urban planners reactions to such contexts and constraints adaptation. Furthermore the German programm Shrinking Cities and the reflexions raised by the German architect and researcher Philipp Oswalt have been a trigger component. He claims that the shrinking city was a new playground to explore new architectural and planning thoughts. He demonstrates it from a gathering of experiences around the world. Today, we suggest to follow this reflexion and raise the following issue: which lessons are to be learned from those experiences for today’s professional practice and imagine the city of tomorrow ?From this initial questioning, we took for granted that those new ways of seeing architecture and urban project (concepts, architectural languages, urban shape, etc.) lead to new leaving standards territories (uses, urban patterns, landscape, leaving conditions, etc.), changing thus the making of the city in this beginning of XXIth century. Indeed, those processes would be influential in the identification of favourable lands for a reasoned gestion of the city and the development of new tools and acting processes imagined by architects and urban planners.To answer to our hypothesis, we focus more specifically on projects initiating a deep mutation of the urban fabric, on its form and its uses that we would call here urban reshaping. Our analysis is based on six processes meant to be “innovative”, realized or no, one of them being built by inhabitants. They illustrate this practice in different shrinking cities since the 20 past years. Those case studies are located in different urban fabrics contexts to illustrate the diversity of situations that one can be facing. In parallel of two French case studies (Saint-Etienne, Livradois-Forez), we will observe other experiences in two foreign contexts, pioneers in terms of local initiatives and urban policy: Germany (Halle-Neustadt, Dessau) and the United states (Detroit). The diversity of projects, in terms of approach and scale does not constitute a comparative study. We suggest instead a more relevant approach consisting in questioning them to understand the political, socioeconomic and environment consequences on the process of project making and the capacity of those projects to initiate a transformation of urban fabric and of the city.Our goal will be to understand the originality and specifies of those initiatives, but also potential contributions to the contemporary debates on the city and its evolutions. This approach seeks bringing a prospective dimension about the shrinking city

Este trabalho analisa um setor urbano de São Paulo que é formado pelo anel de bairros que envolve o núcleo central da cidade. Seu objetivo é identificar como a espacialidade dos bairros centrais foi definida e para isso foram investigados os agentes e fenômenos que regeram a formação desse setor urbano e como se assemelharam ou diferenciaram dentro do processo de urbanização da cidade. Foram focalizados três distritos em particular, o Brás, o Bom Retiro e o Parí, que reúnem uma série de bairros cuja estruturação reporta a própria estruturação da cidade. Buscou-se compreender as condicionantes que definiram as características da morfologia urbana dos bairros mencionados e as mudanças ocorridas nessas áreas, que se constituíram no primeiro locus da industrialização da cidade, e que também abrigaram funções habitacionais e comerciais diversificadas. A análise aborda a implantação da infra-estrutura de transportes na cidade, considerando-a junto com a normatização do uso do solo, as principais componentes da estruturação espacial dos bairros centrais até a década de 1940. A partir desse período, outros processos interferiram no arranjo desse setor urbano, provocando ao mesmo tempo, a permanência das suas características morfológicas e funcionais e uma crescente sub-utilização para fins habitacionais. O trabalho foi organizado em três escalas de abrangência para o estudo das questões relativas ao tema: . Escala da cidade envolvendo a macro-configuração, a estruturação dos bairros centrais e as interfaces existentes no arranjo intra-urbano entre os bairros e entre o núcleo central. Relação das políticas públicas com os aspectos ligados à infra-estrutura, ao parcelamento e à edificação. Análise das características funcionais e morfológicas gerais e tendências recentes de transformação. . Escala dos bairros caracterização dos bairros centrais presentes nos distritos Brás, Bom Retiro e Parí. Delimitação dos setores e sub-setores, estudo das características funcionais e morfológicas. Planos e projetos incidentes e articulação com as propostas de requalificação física-ambiental. . Escala local estudo de alternativas e cenários para o desenho urbano local, relacionando as propostas urbanísticas formuladas para essas áreas e hipóteses de desenho urbano para espaços nesses bairros.
This work analyses an urban sector of São Paulo that is formed by a ring of boroughs that surround the city centre. Its aim is to identify how the area of the inner city boroughs was defined and in order to that we investigated the agents and phenomena that governed the formation of this inner city sector and how it differeciated itself within the city urbanization process. Three boroughs in particular were focused on, Brás, Bom Retiro and Parí, that gather together a series of neighbourhoods whose structures relate to the structure of the city. We sought to understand the conditions that define the characteristics of the urban morphology of the above mentioned boroughs and the changes taken place in these areas, that constitute the first locus of the industrialization of the city and housing and commercial diversities as well. The analysis deals with the introduction of the infrastructure of the city transport system, considering it together with the restoration of land use, the principle components of the structure space of central neighbourhoods up until de 1940´s. From this period on, other processes interfered with the arrangement of this urban sector, causing at the same time, the unchanging morphological characteristics and functions and a growing under-use for housing means. The work was organized into three scales of understanding for the study of the questions relative to the theme: . City scale involving the macro-configuration, the structure of the central neighbourhoods and the existing interfaces on the infrastructure arrangement between the boroughs and the city centre. The relation of public policies with aspects linked to de infrastructure, the partitioning and the buildings. Analyses of the functional characteristics and general morphologicals and recent transformation tendencies. . Neighbourhoods scale characterization of the central neighbourhoods present in the Brás, Bom Retiro and Parí. Outlining boundries of the sectors and subsectors, study the functional and morphological traits. Planning and design incidents and connetions with the environment requalification proposals. . Local scale study of alternatives and settings for local urban desing, relating to the urban proposals put forward for these areas and possibilities of urban design for spaces in these neighbourhoods.

Trabalho apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos Requisitos para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Arquitectura e Urbanismo.
O espaço urbano configura-se numa totalidade complexa, formada por actividades, formas edificadas, significados e práticas sociais. O estudo da morfologia urbana procura alcançar o conhecimento da forma dos aglomerados, sejam aldeias, vilas, ou cidades, pesquisando e analisando os seus elementos de forma, a qual resulta das relações estabelecidas entre eles. A organização mental, mas também física dos lugares é realizada a partir de elementos de forma estruturantes, e serão eles que nos indicarão o percurso dos lugares no tempo, a continuidade do conjunto das formas ou a sua ruptura, os pontos de referência representativos de significados histórico-culturais ou os pontos de partida para o registo de uma nova forma urbana. Este estudo investiga aspectos da morfologia urbana de três núcleos do concelho de Santa Marta de Penaguião, nomeadamente das vilas de Santa Marta, Fontes e Cumieira, entre o período de 1950 a 2011, procurando explicar os modos de crescimento, as principais transformações ocorridas, a identificação de áreas homogéneas ou entidades urbanas segundo alguns dos atributos morfológicos dos tecidos urbanos existentes e dos elementos que os estruturam. The urban space is defined in a complex whole, set by activities, shapes, meanings and social practices. The study of its urban morphology seeks to achieve the knowledge of the shape of its clusters, whether they are villages, towns or cities, researching and analyzing its shape elements that result from the relations that they establish. The mental organization but also physical of the places is made by the structural shape of the elements and these will indicate the course of the places, the continuity of all the shapes or its breakdown, the reference points representing the historical-cultural meanings or the startup points for the new urban shape registration. This study investigates the urban morphology aspects from three cores of the municipality of Santa Marta de Penaguião, including the villages of Santa Marta, Fontes and Cumieira between the period of 1950 to 2011, seeking to explain the ways of growth, the main changes occurred, the identification of homogeneous areas or urban entities according to some of the morphological attributes of the existing urban tissues and the elements that structure them.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo refletir sobre o Zoneamento por meio da abordagem dos aspectos morfológicos e tipológicos resultantes de sua utilização como instrumento de planejamento urbano. O zoneamento continua sendo um dos instrumentos mais difundidos e utilizados no tocante ao controle do uso e ocupação do solo entre os municípios brasileiros mesmo diante das inovações pós-Estatuto da Cidade, aprovado em 2001. Sua concepção de regulação da forma urbana, construída por meio de um processo cumulativo por mais de um século, utiliza uma matriz de parâmetros urbanísticos com base em critérios de incomodidade de usos e controle da replicabilidade do solo. A pesquisa contou com a investigação teórica de conceitos ligados à disciplina da morfologia urbana e urbanidade, a partir dos quais foram definidos componentes para seleção e análise de tecidos urbanos existentes, que compuseram o corpus desta dissertação. Tais análises, realizadas com base no universo da amostragem selecionada, composta por alguns municípios paulistas, permitiram apontar as principais limitações do zoneamento no que se refere à qualidade urbanística e urbanidade das cidades, assim como, a ausência quanto às considerações das dimensões das políticas urbanas e de otimização do solo. Pretende-se assim, contribuir para possíveis (e necessários) avanços na regulação da forma urbana como parte da estratégia de cumprimento da função social da propriedade e da cidade, principalmente diante do atual cenário socioeconômico, marcado pela intensa produção imobiliária e acirramento na disputa pela terra urbana.
This thesis intends to investigate the Zoning ordinances, using a morphological and typological approach regarding the results of its use as an urban planning instrument. Zoning remains one of the most widespread and employed instrument in the control of land use and occupancy between Brazilians municipalities, even in spite of the new legal framework after the \"Estatuto da Cidade\" Act, approved in 2001. Its conception to regulate the urban form was formulated by a centenary cumulative process, using an urban code array based on the control of nuisance uses and occupancy intensity. Theoretical investigation on urban morphology and livable environment were performed. From its results, components for the selection and analyzes of urban pattern were defined. Theses components draw up the main data of this thesis. Such analyzes, which sampling was composed by some municipalities in the state of São Paulo (Brazil), allowed point out the main zoning limitations, regarding the quality of urban places, as well as the absence of urban policies and better land use. It is thus intended, contribute for possible (and necessary) advances in urban form regulation, as part of a strategy to achieve the right to the city and the social function of private property, mainly due to the actual socioeconomic scenario, characterized by intense real estate development and worsening in the struggle for urban land.

Cities have tended to be treated by ecologists as essentially physical entities unconnected to the concerns of historical geographers. In contrast, urban morphologists have tended to focus on how urban physical expressions of culture have changed over time: such an approach has stimulated research on the characteristics and planning of the form of cities that has been largely divorced from concerns about ecosystem services. This is somewhat paradoxical in light of the significant areas of most cities that are vegetated and the increasing evidence of the value to society of these green spaces. This thesis examines the connection between urban morphological research on the fringe-belt concept, as developed by M. R. G. Conzen and others, and the character and distribution within cities of major areas of green space. The principal focus is on how green spaces within fringe belts that are embedded within cities (for example, parks, allotment gardens, golf courses, and land attached to educational and medical institutions) have changed over time, especially during the past 100 years. Detailed studies of fringe-belt sites in Birmingham reveal a decline in green space over time but maturation of surviving green space towards mature wood-grassland. Comparisons are made with residential areas.

While Jane Jacobs' frontal assault on "modern planning" is now over forty years old, communities around the United States are still struggling to deal with the legacy of modernist interventions that dramatically altered the historic urban form and culture of their downtowns. In the worst cases, whole zones were transformed into nearly unusable space. Reintegrating these lost spaces into the urban fabric is one of the most significant challenges of urban planners and designers today. Despite the ubiquity of lost spaces in American cities, comparatively little research has been done on the specific historic urban forms that were altered. This dissertation seeks to explore the processes of landscape change through a case study of Louis Armstrong's downtown neighborhood in New Orleans. It employs an urban morphological framework to uncover the specific landscape changes that occurred in the neighborhood over time. This micro-level view is broadened through an examination of the political economic forces that helped to transform the once vibrant neighborhood into the lost space of today. This study concludes that while it is tempting to identify the twentieth century modern interventions as the cause of lost space in New Orleans, such a reading unnecessarily isolates the modern development era from the historical continuum of land use that helped define the city. When the scope of inquiry into the causes of lost space is widened to include the historic formation of landscape remnants, long-standing patterns of lost space development begin to appear that stretch back to the founding of the city. Modern development, seen in this light, exacerbated existing negative landscape features more than created them.

Dissertação apresentada à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Arquitetura e Urbanismo
A presente dissertação de Mestrado tem como objetivo analisar a distribuição espacial de um conjunto de características morfológicas do espaço público. A introdução de um sistema de informação geográfica (SIG) surge como ferramenta de trabalho, permitindo a georreferenciação de espaços públicos e integração das suas características, para gestão da informação e consequente produção de mapas de análise. Com a abordagem elaborada nesta dissertação pretende-se deixar em aberto a possibilidade de novos estudos num possível alargamento do objeto de estudo por meio da georreferenciação de espaços e respetivas características, analisar o desenvolvimento da paisagem urbana e o seu crescimento sobre a paisagem rural, ou a relação com outros núcleos urbanos, em que as características morfológicas, atributos dos vetores, são os dados para a produção de mapas. O objeto de estudo é a Cidade do Porto e os seus espaços públicos construídos entre 1892 e 2007. Pretende-se com este trabalho localizar e registar graficamente as principais características morfológicas dos espaços públicos, analisar a sua evolução no território e a inter-relação de características na estruturação espacial da Cidade A aplicação SIG na análise dos espaços públicos da Cidade do Porto surge como um desafio; materializar um conjunto de informação morfológica sob a forma gráfica (mapas) para posterior análise, dando continuidade à análise quantitativa dos espaços públicos apresentada em “Construção do espaço Público. Porto. Século XX”.
This masters dissertation aims to analyze a set of morphological characteristics of public space through its geo-referenced location. The introduction of a geographic information system (GIS). The ESRI ArcMap software emerges as a work tool, enables georeferencing of public spaces by integrating their morphological characteristics, and consequent management information to produce maps for analysis. With the approach developed in this dissertations is intended to open the possibility of further studies, in a possible extension of the object of study by respective space and geo-referency features, enabling the analysys of the development of the urban landscape and its growth over countryside, or relationship with other urban places, whiere in the morphologic characteristics, attributes of the data vectors are to produce maps The object of study is the city of Porto and its public spaces built between 1892 – 2007. The aim of this study is to locate and register graphically the main public sapce morphological characteristics, analyze their evolution in the territory and the interrelation of features on the spatial structure of the city. The application of GIS in the analysis for public spaces in the city of Porto is a challenge; materialize a set of morphological information in graphical form (maps) and further analysis, as a continuation of the quantitative analysis of public spaces presented in “Building Public Space, Porto XX century”

Roots are very much the ‘hidden half’ of any plant, and no more so that when grown as landscape plants in the urban environment. Root systems are expected to ‘perform’ in a variety of difficult and stressful environments, whether they are constrained in containers of limited volume, planted into shallow soils with restricted water / nutrient availability (e.g. green roofs) or even expected to grow in the absence of soil (e.g. within hydroponic systems commonly used in green facades). Lack of appreciation regarding root systems in general is coupled with an incomplete understanding of how root development might influence shoot growth and morphology in urban landscape plants. A limited range of model ornamental species (Philadelphus cv. Aureus, Philadelphus cv. Belle Etoile, Euonymus cv. Silver Queen and Punica granatum) were used, where plant root systems were exposed to a series of typical artificial urban environments such as limited area for growth, compacted soil, waterlogging and physical damage to the root systems in an attempt to identify modifications to root behaviour and the effects on shoot development. Among all the stress factors being studied, flooding was recorded to have the most detrimental effect on urban vegetation where there were a number of plant deaths recorded in Philadelphus cv. Aureus; whereas Euonymus cv. Silver Queen was observed to be more resistant toward flooding effect. Reduction of root and shoot biomass was an almost universal response when plants were exposed to stress, and this might be due to limited nutrient and water availability especially in compacted soil and smaller rootball geometry. Other commonly observed traits were reductions in height, reductions in leaf marginal area and in some circumstances changes in branching pattern. These physiological adaptations in plants changed the aesthetic character by producing more compact and smaller plants although this was not always significant for all species and environment stresses. In terms of direct root damage, data from one experiment using split-pots systems suggested a certain threshold of root damage needed to be crossed before significant levels of re-growth were activated. Careful species selection is required to ensure urban vegetation is resilient to the stresses commonly encountered, a factor that will be increasingly important with climate change and greater density of urban built infrastructure in future.

Tese de Doutoramento em Arquitetura com a especialização em Desenho e Computação apresentada na Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa para obtenção de grau de Doutor.
Os aglomerados urbanos em rápido crescimento contribuem e enfrentam hoje, as consequências de crises globais, como a poluição, as alterações climáticas, a diminuição dos recursos naturais, conflitos sociais e migrações em massa. O planeamento e projecto do ambiente construído são essenciais para uma correcta organização da vida urbana, de modo a reduzir a poluição, distribuir recursos de maneira justa, fortalecer laços sociais e comunitários e prosperar economicamente. Projectar cidades incentivando a pedestrianização como meio de transporte constitui uma contribuição para esses objectivos, facilitando a mitigação da poluição, o acesso livre e democrático aos recursos urbanos, revitalizando as ruas e consequentemente apoiando as economias locais. Embora a investigação sobre a pedestrianização e caminhabilidade do ambiente construído já tenha décadas, temos hoje dados urbanos atualizados e ferramentas mais precisas do que nunca, que permitem uma análise detalhada dos factores que promovem a pedestrianização, podendo suportar decisões baseadas em evidências para o desenvolvimento de uma mobilidade mais sustentável. Tais ferramentas de planeamento viabilizam também uma melhor integração destes dados nos processos de projecto bem como a sua comunicação aos vários agentes participantes na decisão. Esta dissertação defende a necessidade de um método de análise 3D à escala da rua para informar soluções flexíveis de projecto urbano baseadas em dados urbanos rapidamente actualizáveis e acessíveis remotamente, obtidos sem a necessidade de pesquisas no local. Este método preenche uma lacuna existente na literatura propondo um fluxo de trabalho semi-automático. Este fluxo de trabalho propõe-se solucionar a desconexão entre a investigação no campo da pedestrianização, as ferramentas existentes e os processos de planeamento e projecto urbano. Argumenta-se que essa desconexão resulta da priorização de preocupações financeiras nos processos de planeamento e desenho urbano e da falta de métodos de avaliação rápidos e práticos aplicáveis nas várias etapas e escalas de projecto e de um modo fragmentado ou holístico. Além disso, os métodos existentes de avaliação da caminhabilidade que avaliam contextos urbanos nestas escalas e detalhe, não são capazes de avaliar ruas através de dados urbanos acedidos remotamente, recorrendo geralmente a auditorias ou pesquisas onerosas e morosas no local. O fluxo de trabalho proposto neste estudo visa responder a esta necessidade; combina um modelo 3D de uma unidade de vizinhança desenvolvido num ambiente de programação visual, SIG e códigos personalizados, e utiliza um modelo de análise morfológica chamado Convex e Solid-Void, combinado com técnicas de Web-scrapping e reconhecimento de imagem. A dissertação contribui para a investigação sobre caminhabilidade, propondo um fluxo de trabalho de análise de caminhabilidade em escala micro, em 3D, e remotamente aplicável, além de distinguir indicadores aplicáveis a ruas com diferentes formas e usos. O método promove o modelo computacional de análise urbana, Convex e Solid-Void, apresentando a sua primeira aplicação ao problema urbano da caminhabilidade. Também demonstra a integração de fontes de dados acessíveis remotamente, incluindo imagens de Street View obtidas de uma plataforma de mapas on-line e dados de redes sociais geo-localizados, para a avaliação quantitativa dos espaços urbanos. De futuro, pretende-se desenvolver o método para permitir o acesso remoto da avaliação a várias dessas fontes de dados. Tal é possível pelo uso combinado de SIG com representações espaciais 3D e ferramentas de programação integradas no mesmo fluxo de trabalho. Estes ambientes, que facilitam a associação de elementos espaciais com informações semânticas por meio de bases de dados, possibilitam a utilização de quaisquer dados que possam ser processados em análise espacial para alimentação de processos de projecto gerativo. O resultado desta pesquisa apresenta-se na forma de recomendações de planeamento e desenho urbano e também pretende ser um recurso prático a ser usado em projectos de reabilitação urbana. Como parte do modelo Convex e Solid-Void usado neste estudo, apresenta-se uma nova unidade espacial 3D "Street-Void", na qual todos os dados coletados são agregados para análise. Identificam-se indicadores específicos para avaliar com mais precisão os espaços das ruas, primeiro distinguindo entre ruas e praças e depois avaliando quantitativamente espaços semelhantes a ruas e espaços semelhantes a praças, e ainda espaços residenciais e de uso misto. Com base nos resultados da aplicação do método a quatro bairros estudados nas cidades de Istambul e Lisboa, e uma classificação das ruas usando os indicadores identificados, apresenta-se um conjunto de recomendações, que se atribuem a intervalos de valores próprios das tipologias específicas de ruas. Estas recomendações são formuladas para que possam ser aplicadas holisticamente ou de maneira fragmentada em diferentes fases de projecto ou cenários de melhoria urbana. Este estudo amplia o conhecimento sobre pedestrianização, sugerindo diferentes indicadores e faixas de valor para a avaliação de ruas, relacionando caminhabilidade com a variação das suas formas e usos. A tese está organizada da seguinte forma. No capítulo de introdução, são apresentados brevemente os objetivos da pesquisa, a contribuição e importância para o tema, metodologia, resultados e conclusão. No segundo capítulo, são apresentadas as questões de investigação a que a tese responde e a hipótese construída sobre essas questões. Estas questões podem ser listadas da seguinte maneira. Como podem a caminhabilidade e seus critérios serem integrados nos processos de desenho urbano (à escala do bairro)? Quais as qualidades do ambiente urbano construído que devem ser consideradas para a avaliação da caminhabilidade, para que as decisões de projecto possam ser informadas com mais eficácia? Como podemos avaliar a pedestrianização de um bairro num ambiente urbano complexo e em constante mudança? O terceiro capítulo apresenta uma revisão da literatura no tema da pesquisa, incluindo os temas do projecto urbano centrados no ser humano, investigação existente sobre a medição da caminhabilidade e sobre ferramentas de projecto algorítmico desenvolvidas para a escala urbana e em particular para a escala do bairro. No quarto capítulo, são explicados o método do estudo realizado e os princípios do fluxo de trabalho acima apresentados. Discute-se o processo de selecção utilizado para determinar os atributos quantitativos para a medição da caminhabilidade. As “características” sob as quais esses atributos são agrupados são a densidade, diversidade, conectividade, escala humana, complexidade, clausura (enclosure), forma, inclinação, permeabilidade e infraestrutura. Estas características e atributos são reduzidos posteriormente através de um processo de eliminação aos seus componentes principais. O quinto capítulo apresenta os estudos de caso dos bairros que são utilizados no desenvolvimento do fluxo de trabalho de medição, a interpretação dos atributos de caminhabilidade face aos dados medidos e uma análise inicial desses dados quantitativos. No sexto capítulo, o uso de dados de redes sociais e imagens street view como representantes de caminhabilidade são testados por métodos estatísticos e os espaços das ruas analisados são classificados com base nos atributos medidos (através de um método de clustering). Tipologias de rua com atributos específicos são identificadas nas várias classes (clusters) obtidas. Os atributos são avaliados com base na comparação de seus resultados quantitativos para cada tipologia de rua e são reduzidos através de um processo de filtragem. O sétimo capítulo inclui uma reclassificação das ruas com base em suas formas e usos e uma avaliação das medidas dos seus atributos com base na comparação dos seus resultados para essas classes. Através dessa avaliação, diferentes intervalos de valores foram determinados para serem aplicados aos diferentes atributos das ruas, e as descobertas obtidas por este método foram convertidas num guia destinado a informar os processos de desenho e planeamento urbano. O oitavo capítulo resume a produção geral da tese, a sua contribuição para o conhecimento, bem como para os processos de projecto e planeamento urbano. Partindo dos seus aspectos inovadores, fornece também uma visão geral dos estudos futuros que a tese pode proporcionar. No presente desenvolvimento, o método proposto nesta tese para a medição da caminhabilidade e respectivas recomendações para os processos de projecto e planeamento podem ser utilizadas como parte de serviços de consultoria a ser prestados a municípios, consultoria particular e a profissionais de projecto e planeamento. Em estudos futuros, pretende-se tornar o fluxo de trabalho apresentado numa ferramenta que pode ser utilizada diretamente por projectistas e planeadores. Prevê-se que tais estudos sejam desenvolvidos através da multiplicação dos contextos estudados, melhorando a qualidade e a precisão dos dados urbanos utilizados, aumentando o nível de detalhe capturado pelo modelo de análise e aplicando a análise a fenómenos urbanos que não sejam somente a caminhabilidade. Devido às semelhanças dos seus ambientes construídos, os bairros utilizados no presente estudo, que são Kadikoy e Hasanpasa em Istambul e Chiado e Ajuda em Lisboa, permitiram a avaliação de um conjunto consistente de ruas, oferecendo variedade suficiente. Mais especificamente, devido às semelhanças em termos de escala e uso, quando os espaços das ruas desses bairros foram classificados com base nos atributos utilizados, revelaram-se 6 tipologias diferentes de espaços de rua. Prevê-se que essas tipologias sejam multiplicadas pela aplicação do método a contextos diferentes em termos de escala, forma e uso. Devido à disponibilidade de dados detalhados e a uma variedade de espaços nas ruas em termos dos critérios mencionados, Nova York, Singapura e Amsterdão são exemplos de cidades que poderão ser estudadas como novos casos de estudo.
ABSTRACT: Today, rapidly growing urban populations both contribute to global crises such as pollution, climate change, diminishing natural resources, social conflicts and mass migrations and face the consequences. The built environment, its planning and design are critical in organizing urban life so that we pollute less, distribute our resources fairly, strengthen social and communal ties and thrive economically. Designing our cities to support walking as a means of transport contributes in these goals through facilitating pollution free and democratic access to urban resources, supporting local economies and enlivening the street. While research on walkability of the built environment is decades old now, we have more up-to-date, accurate and large-scale urban data than ever and our developing tools make it possible to feed this data into design and management processes to create and sustain more walkable environments. This dissertation argues for the necessity of a street-scale, 3d analysis method to inform flexible urban design solutions based on rapidly updatable and remotely accessible urban data obtained without the necessity of on-site surveys, proposing a semi-automated workflow to fill this gap in existing literature. The workflow combines a 3d neighborhood model in a visual programming environment, GIS and custom codes, utilizing a morphological analysis model named Convex and Solid-Voids, together with web scraping and image recognition techniques. A 3d street space unit “Street-Void” is presented within the Convex and Solid-Void model in which all gathered data is aggregated for analysis. Specific indicators are identified to more accurately assess street spaces, first by distinguishing between and then quantitatively evaluating street-like and square-like, residential and mixed-use streets. Based on the findings from the application of the workflow to four neighborhoods studied in the cities of Istanbul and Lisbon and a classification of street spaces using the proposed attributes, a set of recommendations are presented, with value ranges applicable to specific street typologies. These recommendations are formulated so that they can be applied holistically or in a fragmented way at different stages of planning and urban improvement scenarios with their projected impact grouped under direct/physical or indirect/perceptual. The dissertation contributes to walkability research by proposing a micro-scale, 3d and remotely applicable walkability analysis workflow as well as distinguishing between indicators to be applied to street spaces of different shapes and uses. It furthers the computational urban analysis model Convex and Solid-Voids by presenting its first-time application to the tangible urban problem of walkability. It also demonstrates the integration of remotely accessible data sources including street view images from an online map platform and location based social network data to the quantitative evaluation of urban street spaces. With urban planning and design recommendations, it demonstrates the practical application of the findings to urban improvement scenarios. The study is envisioned to be developed by future work through multiplying the contexts that are studied, improving the quality and accuracy of urban data utilized, increasing the level of detail captured by the morphological analysis model and applying the analysis to other urban phenomena other than walkability.
N/A

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture; and, (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1998.
Includes bibliographical references (leaf 82).
The study of Ibadan, Nigeria was conducted to analyze how Colonization has altered, or not altered the structure of the traditional African city form of this Yoruba town. The study encompasses structural city form elements of Ibadan in terms of housing, open space and markets, public facilities, infrastructure, and natural resources. In order to assess the structure of a city, whether it be a western or non-western model, there has to be an investigation of how the people use and enjoy (recreation and social interchange) the city. These elements are a good identifiers as to the effectiveness of city planning methods, and best qualified through the analysis of urban plans. The study is intended to render a series of conceptual city planning development strategies that could be the foundation for further investigation regarding how this large African city could expand in the future, while retaining some of its traditional integrity. Such a study of traditional African city form conflicting with Colonial forces can have broader applications than in Africa alone, and can be utilized where any indigenous form (regardless of geographic location) is met with an introduced methodology. The information presented in this study does not reflect contemporary conditions in Ibadan due to limited access to data, and should be viewed as an analysis of the planimetric form based on urban design principles. Development concepts are reflective of conditions between 1972 and the early 1980's and could be reapplied using the same techniques outlined herein to reflect the contemporary state of the city.
by Stephan L. Murphy.
M.C.P.
M.S.

O objeto desta pesquisa é a alteração das condições de ventilação natural e de incidência solar provocadas pelo meio urbano. Objetiva-se comprovar a hipótese de que o maior adensamento urbano através da verticalização é compatível com o conforto térmico em edifícios residenciais multifamiliares em altura utilizando apenas a ventilação natural durante 80% das horas do ano. Obstáculos no entorno modificam o comportamento do vento, reduzindo ou incrementando o campo de pressões sobre as fachadas. Por outro lado, edifícios altos situados nas proximidades podem reduzir parcelas significativas da radiação solar sobre planos verticais. O estudo tem como foco o clima quente e úmido de Fortaleza (3° S) e analisa quatro diferentes configurações representativas da morfologia urbana presentes nesta cidade. A investigação vale-se de simulações computacionais em diferentes etapas e escalas de abordagem numa metodologia sequencial e complementar na qual cada fase fornece dados necessários ao estágio seguinte. Partiu-se da avaliação da ventilação urbana através de CFD para as duas direções de vento predominantes, que forneceram dados de Cp sobre as aberturas do edifício adotado. Em seguida, simulou-se o comportamento dos fluxos internos, determinando as taxas de renovação do ar e o campo de velocidades no interior do apartamento. O desempenho térmico anual de três ambientes de permanência prolongada foi calculado e os resultados analisados com base no total de horas dentro da zona de conforto utilizando o modelo adaptativo da ASHRAE (2004). A sensação de resfriamento a partir do movimento do ar foi considerada para a extensão dos limites da zona de conforto. A hipótese mostrou-se válida, uma vez que formas urbanas mais verticalizadas como os cenários 2 e 3 obstruíram parcelas significativas da radiação solar em pavimentos mais baixos comparados a conjuntos urbanos formados por edificações mais baixas. Mesmo diante de vazões de ar cerca de 40% mais baixas em alguns casos com vento sudeste, o cenário 2 apresentou maior quantidade de horas em conforto. O mesmo ocorreu com o cenário 3, cujos valores de vazões de ar com vento leste foram discretamente superiores àqueles obtidos nos cenários 1 e 4, porém alcançando maiores períodos em conforto térmico nos pavimentos mais baixos, reforçando a atuação conjunta da obstrução à radiação solar e a manutenção de condições para ventilar naturalmente as fachadas de edifícios. Ao considerar o efeito de resfriamento provocado pelo movimento do ar, foi possível atingir a condição de conforto térmico em 85% dos casos. Ainda, as baixas correlaçõesentre a vazão de ar e a taxa de ocupação do solo em cada cenário ou a altura média das edificações reforçam a premissa de que a variabilidade do vento e o dinamismo da forma urbana impedem a determinação imediata de quais configurações espaciais reduzirão ou potencializarão as condições de ventilação natural, indicando, também, a possibilidade de compatibilizar maiores níveis de densidade urbana e condições ambientais satisfatórias em edifícios.
The object of this research is the changes in natural ventilation conditions and sunlight caused by the urban environment. The aim is to prove the hypothesis that higher urban density levels thru vertical buildings is compatible with thermal comfort in naturally ventilated residential buildings during 80% of total year´s hours. Surrounding obstacles modify wind patterns, reducing or increasing the pressure field over façades. On the other hand, tall buildings located nearby might reduce significant solar radiation portions over vertical planes. This study focus the hot-humid climate of Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil (3° S) and analyses four different representative urban forms within this city. The investigation uses computational simulations in different stages and approaching scales in a sequential and complementary methodology in which each phase supplies the necessary data to the next level. Starting point was to evaluate the urban ventilation using a CFD tool according to two dominant wind directions, which provided Cp data over buildings openings. Then, internal flows were simulated in order to determine air changes rates and velocity field in the apartment. Annual thermodynamic performance in threelong permanence rooms was calculated and the results were evaluated using ASHRAE (2004) adaptive model. Cooling effect due to air movement was considered to extend the limits of thermal comfort zone. The hypothesis proved to be valid since more vertical urban forms such as scenarios 2 and 3 obstructed significant solar radiation portions over lower floors compared to urban settlements with lower buildings. Even with airflow rates about 40% lower in some cases with southeast wind, scenario 2 had more hours within the comfort zone. The same occurred with scenario 3, in which airflow rates for east wind were slightly higher than that obtained in scenarios 1 and 4, but achieving greater comfort periods in lower floors, reinforcing the combined effect of obstructing solar radiation and maintaining the conditions to naturally ventilate building´s façades. Considering the cooling effect due to air movement made possible to achieve thermal comfort situations in 85% of the cases. Yet, lower correlations between airflow rates and land use in each scenario or average height of buildings reinforce the premise that wind variability and the dynamism of the urban form prevent the immediate determination of which spatial configuration may reduce or enhance natural ventilation conditions, also indicating that high-density urban levels are compatible with satisfactory environmental conditions within buildings.