The City’s Essential DNA | Mark David Major | The Journal of Space Syntax

“The city’s essential DNA: Formal design and spatial processes in the urban patterns” by Mark David Major is now available in Vol 4, No 1 (2013) of The Journal of Space Syntax. Read an excerpt below:

Our descriptions of cities are often based on their physical form. In urban theory, these descriptions are usually expressed in terms of a dichotomy whereby meaning emerges from contrasting cities as organic or regular, unplanned or planned, natural or artificial, generated or imposed, and so on (Gallion and Eisner, 1963; Alexander, 1965; Moholy-Nagy, 1968; Batty and Longley, 1984). Kostoff (1991) suggests this dichotomy is ‘the most persistent, and crudest, analysis of urban form’. Hillier et al. (2012) even argue that ‘we should abandon the long-standing distinction between geometric and organic cities’ because it does not adequately address the deliberate use of geometry at different scales of the city (p.187). Notably, the first stresses process over time in terms of ‘unplanned evolution’ or ‘instinctive growth’, whereas the second stresses the conscious act of design in a ‘centrally planned scheme’ (Kostoff, 1991, p.43). This ‘shorthand’ provides a basic understanding of cities across different times, cultures, and geographical regions. The usefulness of descriptions such as ‘organic’ or ‘regular’ lies precisely in the fact they are theory-loaded terms. They seemingly convey a lot of information in an easy-to-grasp manner. We say ‘seemingly’ because these terms are so theory-loaded they can often lead to confusion, which can make their descriptive value ‘more a hindrance than an aid’ (Kostoff, 1991, p.43). For example, ‘regular’ seems to be an explicit description of both the physical form and design process that gave rise to that composition. However, the term ‘organic’ seems to only pertain to process. According to Batty and Longley (1994), organic cities ‘grow naturally from a myriad of individual decisions at a much smaller scale than those which lead to planned growth. Planned cities or their parts are usually more monumental, more focused, and more regular’ (p.8). The term ‘deformed’ is sometimes used to describe the physical form of organic cities, but more often than not, is tacitly understood to be a given about such cities. This explicit and implicit description of urban form and process forms the basis of their descriptive value, since most cities are easily classified as having common or different attributes when characterised as organic or regular.

Download a PDF of the full article here: The city’s essential DNA: Formal design and spatial processes in the urban patterns | Major | The Journal of Space Syntax.

UPDATE: The Journal of Space Syntax has now included the images in the article available at the link above. However,  they are also below for your reference.

The Urban Transect.
Form and process in the urban pattern (left to right) grid expansion, block size manipulation, deformation, street extension, and discrete separation.
Philadelphia, Yesterday and Today: Philadelphia urban pattern in 1682 (left) and today (right) within bounds of William Penn’s original 1682 plan.
The Urban Pattern: Istanbul, Turkey (left), Paris, France (center), and New York in the United States (right) (Note: not to scale)

(Comment from Steve Mouzon) I’ve always found the classical-vernacular/refined-organic useful when considering urbanism. A couple quirks to consider: A highly talented planner can do a competent job with an organic plan, but a vernacular process will never produce a rigid grid. With that having been said, the best might do a bit better than competent, like Leon Krier at Poundbury, but Poundbury isn’t as good as dozens of Cotswold towns built by the townspeople. Most planners are not nearly so good as Krier, so each pole of the spectrum is obviously really good at what they do. FWIW, I regard Krier as the personification of classical planning, and Christopher Alexander as the personification of the vernacular process. We need them both, although neither of them realize that. I had a good conversation with Krier about that one night in South Bend. I’ve heard about Space Syntax for years, but have no meaningful knowledge of it. Someone (you, I hope) should blog a description that’s clear and descriptive to the rest of us.

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More Poor Richard | Part 7

More Poor Richard, Part 7
by Dr. Mark David Major, AICP, CNU-A, The Outlaw Urbanist contributor

Courteous Reader,

I attempted to win your favor when I wrote my first Almanac for Architects and Planners, in the name of the public good and professional betterment, by way of earning some profit and a wife. I am gratified by your expression of encouragement for my tireless efforts dedicated to these aims. Alas, my circumstances still find me exceedingly poor and, unluckily, exceedingly wifeless. I am required to earn some profit to address both problems whilst now addressing a third, namely testing the proposition that insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” To satisfy my own particular brand of insanity, I have written more proverbs and whimsical sayings for your benefit and, hopefully, my own.

As before on The Outlaw Urbanist, I write this new Almanac in increments of ten, according to the dictates of Moses and the Almighty. However, once published as an Almanac for Architects and Planners, the proverbs and witticisms were gathered into a number equal to the days of the week, after being reliably informed that both seven and ten are sacred numbers. My desired requirement for a wife is sufficient motive to write this new Almanac in the hope it will find your favor and retweets as a means of demonstrating the usefulness of my continued efforts but also your charity to this sane Friend and poor Servant,

Richard

On Form and Function in Architecture

61.       Logic is straight, curves are tangent.

62.       A circle has a no beginning, middle, or end. In itself, it has no story to tell.

63.       F-f=b where F is function, f is form, and b is building.

64.       f-F=a where F is function, f is form, and a is art.

65.       F+f=Ar where F is function, f is form, and Ar is Architecture.

66.       All color in architecture is ornamentation, even the color of a material in its natural state.

67.       Architects cannot afford or willfully choose to be color-blind lest they do things half-ass.

68.       All architects and planners “are living in a material world.”

69.       In isolation, a curve draws attention to itself. In association, curves create a rhythm to life and things.

70.     A building always stands so make sure it isn’t tired from the start.

Issue 8 of More Poor Richard for Architects and Planners cometh soon!

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Urban Patterns | Barcelona, Spain

“Barcelona is a very old city (where) you can feel the weight of history; it is haunted by history. You cannot walk around it without perceiving it.”
— Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Spanish novelist

“Barcelona – Such a beautiful horizon,
Barcelona – Like a jewel in the sun,
Por ti seré gaviota de tu bella mar.”
— Barcelona, Freddie Mercury

Urban Patterns | Barcelona, Spain
by Dr. Mark David Major, AICP, CNU-A

Barcelona is the capital city of the autonomous community of Catalonia in the Kingdom of Spain, as well as the country’s second most populous municipality, with a population of 1.6 million within city limits. Its urban area extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of around 4.7 million people, being the sixth-most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris, London, Madrid, the Ruhr area and Milan. It is the largest metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea, located on the coast between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs, and bounded to the west by the Serra de Collserola mountain range, the tallest peak of which is 512 meters (1,680 feet) high. The origins of Barcelona are shrouded in legend. However, around 15 BC the Romans re-planned the town as a castrum (Roman military camp) centered on the Mons Taber, a little hill near Plaça de Sant Jaume (Source: Wikipedia).

Satellite view from 5 km of Barcelona, Spain (Data SIO, NOAA, US Navy, NGB, GEBCO, Image © 2017 TerraMetrics and Google Earth).

In the main, the urban pattern of Barcelona is defined by three distinctive components. The oldest part of the city called the “Gothic Quarter” has a deformed grid pattern (originally within fortifications that later became the alignment of streets) characterized by small streets and blocks (visible center right near the bottom of the above image). Despite this, the Gothic Quarter is well-connected into the larger city by the Via Laietana (running southeast-to-northwest in the northern portion of the Gothic Quarter) and La Rambla (more or less paralleling Via Laietana further to the south). The majority of Barcelona is dominated by the regular grid pattern of Ildefons Cerdà’s Barcelona Eixample, which is characterized by long streets, large square blocks with chamfered corners, and broad radial boulevards (Avinguda Diagonal and Avinguda Meridiana) connecting from center-to-edge of the city. Finally, surrounding the Eixample, are a series of regular and deformed grids of varying scale and design, which define the peripheral areas of Barcelona.

(Updated: June 30, 2017)

Urban Patterns is a series of posts from The Outlaw Urbanist presenting interesting examples of terrestrial patterns shaped by human intervention in the urban landscape over time.

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More Poor Richard | Part 6

More Poor Richard, Part 6
by Dr. Mark David Major, AICP, CNU-A, The Outlaw Urbanist contributor

Courteous Reader,

I attempted to win your favor when I wrote my first Almanac for Architects and Planners, in the name of the public good and professional betterment, by way of earning some profit and a wife. I am gratified by your expression of encouragement for my tireless efforts dedicated to these aims. Alas, my circumstances still find me exceedingly poor and, unluckily, exceedingly wifeless. I am required to earn some profit to address both problems whilst now addressing a third, namely testing the proposition that insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” To satisfy my own particular brand of insanity, I have written more proverbs and whimsical sayings for your benefit and, hopefully, my own.

As before on The Outlaw Urbanist, I write this new Almanac in increments of ten, according to the dictates of Moses and the Almighty. However, once published as an Almanac for Architects and Planners, the proverbs and witticisms were gathered into a number equal to the days of the week, after being reliably informed that both seven and ten are sacred numbers. My desired requirement for a wife is sufficient motive to write this new Almanac in the hope it will find your favor and retweets as a means of demonstrating the usefulness of my continued efforts but also your charity to this sane Friend and poor Servant,

Richard

On Space and Light

51.     Quality of space is more important than quantity of space.

52.     Materials and space express the essential syntax of any architecture.

53.     There can be beauty in the mundane but never anything mundane about the beautiful.

54.     Architecture is a set of binary relationships permanently in dance between light and shadow, void and solid, and the vertical and the horizontal.

55.     Everybody designs in the light, nobody in the dark

56.     Ignoring the spatial in city planning is akin to discounting gravity to prove the Earth is flat.

57.     The sun always knew it was great. It doesn’t need architecture for enlightenment.

58.     Ordinary should always be found in extraordinary.

59.     Space is only a void until experienced. Only then does it become an object of curiosity.

60.     Architecture is the dimensional blending of horizontal and vertical space.

Issue 7 of More Poor Richard for Architects and Planners cometh soon!

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