Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses

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Start date: 2010 × Subject: adaptability ×

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    A data-driven investigation on urban form evolution: Methodological and empirical support for unravelling the relation between urban form and spatial dynamics
    Tumturk, Onur ( 2023-06)
    Investigating the patterns of urban development and transformation and unravelling the principles behind these processes are critical for understanding how cities evolve under different physical conditions. While socio-economic, political and cultural forces undeniably shape the patterns of spatial change and persistence, urban form should not be perceived as a passive resultant or a mere consequence of these processes. Quite the contrary, urban form plays a determinant role in establishing the spatial conditions that influence future development patterns by constraining some choices while facilitating others. Recognising the scarcity of systematic, diachronic and quantitative studies on urban form evolution, this thesis is driven by an interest in understanding the relationship between urban form and spatial change. It aims to develop theoretical, methodological and empirical support for unravelling the influential role of urban form in guiding spatial dynamics. The thesis develops a diachronic and quantitative methodological framework to investigate how urban form conditions created by plots, buildings, streets and land uses affect the patterns of change and persistence in three different grid cities: Midtown Manhattan, New York (US); City Centre, Melbourne (AUS); and Eixample, Barcelona (Spain). As part of the research, three longitudinal morphological datasets were generated, drawing upon a rich array of historical cartographic resources and geospatial databases to enable a comprehensive assessment of urban form evolution within each city between the 1800s and 2000s. Through quantitative analysis of urban form and its association with spatial dynamics, the thesis demonstrates that urban form conditions have a measurable impact on the patterns of physical and functional change. This understanding contributes further to the fact that design does not exclude the possibility of change but may even favour it under particular conditions. A rigorous and evidence-based understanding of the interplay between urban form conditions and patterns of spatial change empowers practitioners and policymakers to choose particular forms and structures over others, guide the long-term evolution of urban form and improve the adaptive capacity and resilience of the built environment.
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    The grid in history and its relevance to transport infrastructure planning in the present
    Maudsley, Ann ( 2015)
    This research is a study of gridded street patterns in history, critically examining the ways in which the grid has been utilised throughout history, its advantages and limitations, and what features of this street pattern – its rectangular and/or square blocks, and straight, orderly, parallel and perpendicular intersecting trajectories which are mostly wide or coupled with narrower streets – aid in its capacity to adapt, and flexibility to accommodate changing circumstances and needs. More specifically, this thesis explores the retrofitting of and alteration to essential (transport) infrastructure, and associated services and networks in varying street patterns, given how critical this, and the movement of people and goods, is to the functionality of cities. Delivery of infrastructure takes place in both formally planned grid and non-grid (e.g. radial) arrangements, and organically developed settlements. This thesis specifically addresses the contribution made by the grid – an essential design element used in the planning of urban spaces – and whether the features of this rectangular geometric form are able to better facilitate the construction and/or retrofitting of and alterations to essential elevated, surface and underground hard infrastructure, and associated services and networks, particularly those of transport, in a more effective and extensive, and less disruptive manner. Theoretical and practical examples of how well various street layouts adapt to accommodate change, particularly in regard to the application and patterns of essential infrastructure, and associated services and networks in question, are examined. This is predominately tested from the era of industrialisation (beginning with the Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth century) onwards, as it is from then that urbanisation and unprecedented city population growth was occurring. Associated with this was the need for improved health, sanitation, and movement of people and goods, and the solutions to this including the development of infrastructure, and related services and networks, such as that of transport, still remain integral to societies. Case studies selected, the nineteenth century British (who were particularly active in utilising grid planning tools in delivering settlements) colonial settlements – now central cities – of Melbourne, Australia; Hong Kong (i.e. the approximate extent of what was the City of Victoria on the north face of Hong Kong Island); and Dunedin, New Zealand; support the wider analysis of street patterns, providing an array of simpler and more complex grids for examination. The main research question asked is: In what way has the grid been used throughout history, what are the reasons for its use, what are the features of this street pattern that contribute to its benefits, and how does this compare to other layouts of urban form?