Determinants or Urban Form urban morphology

Amity School of Architecture and Planning
M.Arch Programme, II Semester
Urban Morphology
ARCH648

Contents
Determinants or Urban Form
Glossary for Urban Design
Contents

Learning Objectives
By end of this session you will be able to
read an urban form and the parameters
which shaped the built environment.
Learning Objectives

Form:
• Form is taken as the arrangement and discipline among
various components of any work.
• Form in the meaning of what is directly perceived by
senses.
• Form is a concept that indicates the presence of
something that distinguishes it from other subjects.
• Form is the conceptual essence of something that is
placed opposite casual features.
• Form means contribution of the mind for understanding
things.

Urban Form
Organic
Grid Oriented
(Planned/structured)

Organic
Patan
Gujarat

Mixed
Barcelona
Spain

Urban Form
Organic Grid Oriented
(Planned/structured)
Natural Determinants Man-made determinants
Govern

Natural Determinants
• Topography
• Climate
• Water supply
• Building materials and
technology
• Socio-cultural factors
• Scale
Man-made determinants
• Economic
• Political
• Religious
• Defense
• Aesthetics
• Leisure
Urban Determinants:

Natural Determinant
Topography
Typography
Building with terrain
Gangtok
Sikkim

Natural Determinant
Topography
How does typography effects
settlement on plains?
Patan
These are farmlands near
Patan
Can you find any similarities?

Natural Determinant
Topography
Can you find any similarities? They also follow the terrain, city for its drainage,
farmlands for water circulation.

Natural Determinant
Climate
A street in Cario, Egypt
• Temperatures: implications of
seasonal temperatures and humidity;
averages and extremes; comfort
zones and periods; amelioration of
extremes and discomfort
• Light: implications of clear and
cloudy days
• Precipitation: rain and snow
• Sun: angles of the sun (solar altitude)
at different seasons affects viewing
conditions…long and short sunny
days
• Winds: direction and intensity of
seasonal winds; cold and hot winds

Natural Determinant
Resources
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Case of water in the
city of Fathepur Sikri
Resources shapes city
also effect
development of the
settlement.

Natural Determinant
Building Materials depending on availability
Timbuktu, Mali
Built environment
Material – adobe, thatch

Man-Made Determinant

Political Influence
Washington DC

Religious
City of Madurai
Developed around Meenakshi Sundaram Temple
Streets articulated around the temple for
procession

Glossary for Urban Design

Urban form
Physical characteristics that make up built-up areas,
including the shape, size, density and configuration
of settlements.
It can be considered at different scales:
regional, urban, neighbourhood, block and street
Urban morphology
Study of the form of human settlements and the
process of their formation and transformation.
Urban Design Glossary

Urban Tissue
Tissue comprises coherent neighborhood
morphology (open spaces, building) and functions
(human activity).
Urban Fabric
The physical aspect of urbanism, emphasizing
building types, thoroughfares, open space,
frontages, and streetscapes but excluding
environmental, functional, economic and
sociocultural aspects.

Urban Block:
This is an area bounded by streets and occupied by
buildings. Sometimes called a perimeter block, the
buildings face outwards onto the streets often with a
private courtyard in the centre.

Urban
Block

Public Realm:
The public spaces of an urban area. This includes
streets, squares and parks where people are free to
walk. It does not include private gardens or
courtyards or shopping malls.

Grain
The complexity and coarseness of an urban area.
Fine grained areas have a large number of different
buildings and closely spaces streets.
Course grained areas have large blocks and
building.
The combined pattern of blocks and streets, taking
into account the character of street blocks and
building height and size, and how they work together
in an interrelated manner to create and enable
movement and access.

Fine
Grain
Course
Grain

Texture:
the degree of mixture of fine and course elements of
urban form

Building line:
The primary front face of buildings along a
street. Where all of the buildings share a
common building line (which can be
curved) there is continuous enclosure
along the street.

Façade:
The front wall of a building.
Frontage:
Similar to facade - the front face of a
building where it has its main door
windows.

Density:
A measure of the amount of housing in a
particular area (acre or a hectare).
The simplest measure of density is the number
of residential units per hectare

Identity:
The memorability or sense of place on an urban
area.
An area with identity is recognisable and has a
distinctive character created by the size, shape
or design of the buildings.

Massing:
The size and height of a building.

Thank You

Determinants or Urban Form urban morphology

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