Scribd
Upload
201 views2 pages

Conzen Book

Urban morphology researchers examine the form and structure of the built environment in cities. The field originated in geography and architecture and aims to understand how urban form is shaped by both physical processes and human activities. M.R.G. Conzen was a founder of the British school of urban morphology. Conzen's approach studies the historical development of a city and how its layout, building patterns, and land uses have evolved over time in their social and economic context. This document applies Conzen's methodology to analyze how a new suburb in Iceland has changed from its initial planning through amendments in response to economic conditions.

Uploaded by

RioArif
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
201 views2 pages

Conzen Book

Urban morphology researchers examine the form and structure of the built environment in cities. The field originated in geography and architecture and aims to understand how urban form is shaped by both physical processes and human activities. M.R.G. Conzen was a founder of the British school of urban morphology. Conzen's approach studies the historical development of a city and how its layout, building patterns, and land uses have evolved over time in their social and economic context. This document applies Conzen's methodology to analyze how a new suburb in Iceland has changed from its initial planning through amendments in response to economic conditions.

Uploaded by

RioArif
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Urban morphology researchers examine the form and structure of an urban landscape.

The great poet


and philosopher Goethe (1790) rst expressed the essence of the idea of morphology in his writings to
describe the internal structure and history of variation in form. The word morphology was rst used in
the biological sciences to describe form and structure. Now it is increasingly used in geography,
architecture, geology, philology, and in other subjects. In urban morphology it refers to the study of the
physical (or built) fabric of urban form, and the people and processes that shape it (Larkham and Jones
1991).

According to Larkham and Jones (1991), urban morphology as an English term dates at least back to
Leighlys usage in 1931. However, in urban design, the term is principally used for a method of analysis
which is basic to find[ing] out principles or rules of urban design (according to Gebauer and Samuels
1983) although they also note that the term can be understood as the study of the physical and
spatial characteristics of the whole urban structure. which is closer to geographers usage of the term
(Larkham and Jones 1991). The roots of urban morphology can be traced back to geography, in Britain
and Germany, and to architecture in Italy and France (Kristjnsdttir 2007).

Conzen was a geographer and planner and a founder of the British school in urban morphology
(Whitehand 1981). Here the development of a new suburb in Iceland is analysed using on Conzen's
method. to gain deeper understanding of how it has changed from a planning competition, through the
process of legislative planning, through recent amendments due to the economic downturn. through to
the state of the neighbourhood today.

Conzens approach is historical and evolutionary. Looking at the form of the town as the result of the
sequence of events in its formation. In fact those events are seen as part of the social and economic
development of the local, regional and national context in which the town is situated.

The economic crisis is a substantial event in the history of Icelandic settlement. Even though the period
of this case study is short compared to Conzens studies it does. however. cover an unusual number of
changes and planning amendments as the economic situation. as well as associated expectations.
shifted considerably.

For Conzen the townscape is a combination of a town- plan, the pattern of building forms and the
pattern of urban land use (Conzen 1960). Conzen denes the town-plan as the topographical
arrangement of an urban built-up area in all its man-made features. The town-plan is itself subdivided
into three constituent parts or elements:

(1) streets and their arrangement in a street system

(2) plots and their aggregation in street-blocks


(3) buildings. or. more precisely. their block-plans. (Conzen 1960. p. 5)

The plan elements which make up any plan or layout are:

Street: a space (street-space) in a built-up area bounded by street-lines and reserved for the use of
surface trafc (Conzen 1969. p. 130).

Plot a parcel of land representing a land-use unit dened by boundaries on the ground (Conzen 1969. p.
128).

Block-plan of a building: the area occupied by a building and dened by its containing walls (Conzen
1969. p. 123;

A plan-unit is formed when the three elements enter into individualised combinations. unique in their
site circumstances, to create a measure of morphological homogeneity or unity in some or all respects
over its area, in different parts of the town. A geographical group of morphogenetic plan-units within
the town form plan-

You might also like