Annual Conference Proceedings of the XXVII International Seminar on Urban Form. University of Strathclyde Publishing, Glasgow, pp. 598-609. , 2022
During the 19th century, French cities underwent great transformations in response to insalubrity... more During the 19th century, French cities underwent great transformations in response to insalubrity. Many new streets were created and changed the overall intelligibility of the street network with the creation of boulevards where the defensive town wall used to stand, as well as large avenues to provide better accessibility to the centre of towns. This study aims to assess the impact of these transformations on the urban tissue by measuring the intelligibility of the urban form before and after the transformations. It compares the Napoleonic cadastral maps of Agen, Amiens, Avignon, Dijon, Clermont and Tourcoing with the current cadastre. Intelligibility is measured by the ease of navigation towards the centre of an urban environment and the ease of traversing it as one traces a path between two given points on the map. The choice of paths is examined, highlighting the role of the new streets. This research brings together the cognitive mechanisms that underpin the exploration and decision-making process when navigating urban maps with their syntactic and morphological properties. It examines the motor aspect of decisionmaking during the navigation process. Motor reactions are recorded using technology developed for the quantification of neuromotor impairments. This interdisciplinary approach provides a means to measure and better understand the intelligibility of urban environments.
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While many studies of urban development have focused on the block or street segment, in this paper we focus on the finer scales of the parcel and the block-face. Using City of Atlanta data, this paper seeks to understand the relationships between parcel and block-face building density and planning, morphological, and syntactical variables, taking into account several control variables.
Descriptive and inferential statistics are presented, including model results that describe the effects of planning, morphological, and syntactical variables on building density. Results support the hypothesis that connectivity, centrality, local and global street density, block size, access to diverse land uses, and land value have mixed effects on building density, depending on the scale of analysis and the land uses present. The results have important implications for land use and zoning policy. For example, accessibility and visibility are required at varying levels for different types of land uses, warranting an analysis of reach in assigning land use and zoning overlays to parcels. Additional findings include that different types of land uses require different types of building density and street connectivity, that parcel coverage is highly correlated to high local and global street density, and that street network diversity encourages density.
While many studies of urban development have focused on the block or street segment, in this paper we focus on the finer scales of the parcel and the block-face. Using City of Atlanta data, this paper seeks to understand the relationships between parcel and block-face building density and planning, morphological, and syntactical variables, taking into account several control variables.
Descriptive and inferential statistics are presented, including model results that describe the effects of planning, morphological, and syntactical variables on building density. Results support the hypothesis that connectivity, centrality, local and global street density, block size, access to diverse land uses, and land value have mixed effects on building density, depending on the scale of analysis and the land uses present. The results have important implications for land use and zoning policy. For example, accessibility and visibility are required at varying levels for different types of land uses, warranting an analysis of reach in assigning land use and zoning overlays to parcels. Additional findings include that different types of land uses require different types of building density and street connectivity, that parcel coverage is highly correlated to high local and global street density, and that street network diversity encourages density.