On Scaling Functionality in Urban Form

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to analyze urban form and models social interaction to understand how urban layout influences opportunities for human social engagement, supported by simulation results.

Contribution

It proposes a novel multi-scale method for describing urban form and a model linking urban morphology to social interaction, advancing understanding of urban social dynamics.

Findings

Urban form can be systematically described from components to the entire city.

Simulation results illustrate the relationship between urban layout and social interaction opportunities.

The model provides insights into how urban design influences social behavior.

Abstract

Assuming that the ultimate purpose of the city is to provide support to human interaction and that opportunities to that social interaction are unevenly distributed across the urban fabric, this paper reports some attempts to describe such a distribution, as well as to infer the role of urban form in it. In order to do that, it is proposed, firstly, a method to describe urban form from its smallest components up to the different urban fabric patches, to the entire spatial system, and second, a model to represent social interaction as a process associated to the urban morphology. Both the spatial description and the analytical model are discussed through the examination of some results, obtained through simulation.