Academic Papers by Laura Narvaez
Space Syntax: l'analisi della citta come "rette" (2019), Capitolo Quinto: l'analisi della rette alla scala urbana, "Space Syntax applicato allo studio dei pattern economici della citta di Cardiff", edited by Cermasi, Olimpia. Bononia University Press, pp. 91-129., 2019
This is a paper about the value of urban form or, more precisely, about the value that the physic... more This is a paper about the value of urban form or, more precisely, about the value that the physical form of a city brings to urban living. The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the street layout and property value through an applied example of property tax-the amount of money people pays depending on the value of the house or apartment they live in. This tax levied on households by local authorities in Britain is thus used to estimate the value of a property. A study of over 140,000 houses located in the city of Cardiff, Wales in the UK were investigated to test this proposition. Analysis of spatial and economic factors are examined, and the design of the street network configuration and urban block organisation are assessed to determine the relative congruence of housing value within the morphological conditions of the specific context. In addition, housing prices, captured in time periods of economic downturns, are compared to current property value highlighting the direct relation of tax with changes in housing price. This paper makes a contribution to the current debate within the field on the opportunities of integrating urban morphology with urban economics.
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Journal of Urban Affairs, 2019
The aim of this article is to investigate the relationship between urban form and knowledge–based... more The aim of this article is to investigate the relationship between urban form and knowledge–based economies through an example of how the spatial ordering of London’s 19th–century and early 20th–century furniture industry took place. Archival research, quantitative measures of urban form, and geographic information system–based business analytics were combined to test this proposition in 2 areas of London: Shoreditch and Fitzrovia. We hypothesize that the contrast between the spatial structures of the 2 districts contributed to the divergent path development of the furniture industry in these places. Analysis of the social networking of firms is performed and their spatial implications are assessed to determine what kinds of knowledge economies developed over time. In addition, qualitative data, captured through business invoices, are assessed, highlighting the implications on urban policy. This article contributes to the current debate within the field on the opportunities of integrating spatial networks and their use in policy.
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Proceedings of the International Seminar on Urban Form 24th ISUF 2017 - Editorial Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, 2017
This paper builds on four case studies around the world to describe how urban environments in the... more This paper builds on four case studies around the world to describe how urban environments in the globalization age may be used to understand how different urban morphological investigations and methodological developments in urban design practice are applied in relation to the implementation of the New Urban Agenda for the future sustainable development of cities and territories. The New Urban Agenda presented at the UN-HABITAT III conference held in Quito (2016) serves as an action-oriented guide which sets global standards for achieving sustainable urban development drawing on the commitment of urban actors -private and public sectors- to re-think the way we build, manage and live in cities for the next 20 years. This was preceded by the establishment of the urban-focused Sustainable Development Goal (SDG Goal 11) laying the groundwork for policies and approaches of urbanization, and by which urban morphology is at the heart of the process. This paper argues that within the purpose of the Habitat Agenda, there remains a gap in urban design practice of understanding better ways to work and combine different methodological approaches learned from the various schools of thought in the urban morphology discipline. Based on big data from OECD and the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, and by combining novel morphological analyses, this paper will discuss the relationship between the morphology of buildings and streets and their socioeconomic evolution in different cultural settings, such as Latin-America, India, China and Saudi Arabia. The research is part of a larger project dealing with the morphological implications of socio-economic practices and the way big data can help in the development of planning, design and policy the sustainable form of cities from a bottom up approach.
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Narvaez, L., Davis, H., Griffiths, S., Dino, B. and Vaughan, L. (2017) The Spatial Ordering of Knowledge Economies: The growth of furniture industry in nineteenth-century London. Proceedings 11th International Space Syntax Symposium. Instituto Superior Tecnico Lisboa: Lisbon, Portugal, 2017
Small businesses in the same sector tend to be geographically concentrated. Understanding why bus... more Small businesses in the same sector tend to be geographically concentrated. Understanding why businesses in some industries cluster is a key issue in urban economic theory, particularly in the Marshallian and Jacobsian traditions. These emphasize the logistical and informational synergies (advantages) that accrue to firms in agglomeration economies, allowing firms located near one another to accelerate their rate of innovation. However, little is known about how spatial forms foster the clustering of firms or the mechanisms through which this process might facilitate knowledge spillover over between different businesses. In this paper we present an historical case study in which space syntax methods, archival research and urban economic theory were used to enhance understanding of the spatial ordering of London’s nineteenth- and early twentieth-century furniture industry, a sector characterised by a proliferation of small, local firms. The spatial morphologies of the furniture industry in the Shoreditch and Fitzrovia areas of London are profiled by linking business directories, historical Ordnance Survey maps and Goad fire insurance plans to space syntax measures describing the spatial configuration of London’s street network, on a GIS platform. Historically, the two case study areas have hosted a wide range of furniture-manufacturing businesses. We hypothesise that the contrast between the spatial structures of the two districts contributed to the divergent paths development of the furniture industry in these places. Our results suggest the two areas developed as different knowledge economies, in part as a consequence of their contrasting spatial configurations and their influence on industrial organization. Shoreditch became a ‘specialization’ economy (i.e. Marshallian). Here the organic pattern of streets allowed specialized businesses to be located in close proximity to key streets, benefiting from more local footfall, and in close localization of firms belonging to the same industry. Fitzrovia, however, showed a more ‘diversified’ economy (i.e. Jacobsian), accommodating most of its retailers on streets highly integrated across scales and more commercially-driven. In the context of constraints of land use and rising land values, manufacturing operations moved to other places whilst retaining large-size firms that created a retail destination in a high footfall location good for attracting passing trade. We anticipate that this research will contribute to understanding the distinctive spatial cultures of urban manufacturing and to the development of a methodological approach that opens up new prospects for inter-disciplinary research.
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Narvaez, L. (2017) Practising the Science of Urban Form (Viewpoints). Urban Morphology, 21(1), 81-83., 2017
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Narvaez, L. and Penn, A. (2016), ‘The Architecture of Mixed Uses’. In Journal of Space Syntax, Vol. 7 (1), p.107-136.
Space syntax theory has extensively examined the role of socio-economic processes in cities, wher... more Space syntax theory has extensively examined the role of socio-economic processes in cities, whereas in spatial economics, location and distribution of land uses are modelled to understand urban processes. It is suggested that neither field has been robustly based on a more fully conceived level of local city design, and often overlooking the morphological conditions in which space and economics intermix. This article explores the relationship between architecture and economy, and questions the extent to which they work together. In particular, the paper focuses on the concept of mixed use by considering urban and architec- tural conditions that relate to spatial and economic functions, namely in terms of location, use and form. It is found that these three interrelated factors indicate varying typologies of mixed uses depending on their urban location and, in turn, defining different forms of spatial adaptability when commercial and residential use are combined. The paper reflects on the implications of mixing uses and suggests the need for urban design and economic theories to consider the bottom-up processes of socio-economic conditions through architecture and in the overall urban configuration of the city.
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This paper presents an evidenced-based approach to urban design and economics. The approach, term... more This paper presents an evidenced-based approach to urban design and economics. The approach, termed 'Space Syntax', is a research method and a theory built on a set of evidence-based techniques that forecast whether proposed strategies, plans, and designs would work to create the social, economic and environmental benefits that they are expected to. In light of suggestions that urban design decisions and the economic sustainability of city regeneration are interdependent processes, the proposition is made that morphology has an important place in advancing the link between design and its socioeconomic effects. The paper starts by investigating the relationship between residential value and city form by means of representing and quantifying the spatial configuration of Cardiff's street network. Council tax value (property tax) is used as the economic indicator to test whether residential property tax is affected by the street configuration. Drawing firstly from a holistic perspective, the research uses spatial accessibility metrics to assess over 140,000 houses. Furthermore, the study presents a bottom-up approach by examining the morphological descriptions of two housing typologies: properties of purely domestic use and mixed-use properties. Findings show that residential value is strongly related to the street network layout; from a bottom-up approach, the results reveal that changes in residential value are also the outcome of architectural adaptations in domestic and mixed-use properties often not intended within design regulations in planning policies. The paper concludes that an evidence-based approach addressing the spatial configuration of the built form is essential to the reflective practice of a genuinely social architecture, and to relate such approach to the insights into morphology and design brings to the fore of how architecture needs to be addressed as an inclusive and interdisciplinary practice learning from other fields of knowledge.
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http://futureofplaces.com/academic-sessions-presentation-papers/
In: Proceedings Academic Sessions: Presentation Papers. FUTURE OF PLACES Conference. Stockholm 20... more In: Proceedings Academic Sessions: Presentation Papers. FUTURE OF PLACES Conference. Stockholm 2015. UNHABITAT, Projects for Public Spaces, Ax:Johnson Foundation.
In the fields of urban planning and architecture, it is often difficult to articulate with rigour the interaction of the form and use of spaces that gives social life to cities. A layperson’s attraction towards a particular urban location offers testimony to the important role that spatial configuration plays in shaping our cities. Perhaps more important, it is how individuals’ ‘local knowledge’ create place-making within their locality. This paper proposes the general question of how the physical configuration of cities affects social life. It outlines the relationship between urban form and the activities it accommodates, arguing that a city must be addressed in its social, economic and spatial environments, in its architectural and urban design scales.
This work presents an interdisciplinary research that combines morphological and urban economic methods. Firstly, it examines competing locations of different activities, identifying places of mixed-use development. Different urban locations within a city are studied according to the urban spatial network using ‘space syntax’, a technique that informs how the urban geometry of spaces play a role in distributing activities. Secondly, the morphology of the location of mixed-use developments is addressed at a local scale –in the building, the plot and the street. The results of this work showed that competing land users searching to pay for good access for a location depends on the architectural flexibility of a building to accommodate different uses, offering different possibilities for adaptability depending on their urban location. It is also shown that fostering mixing of uses within a same location becomes a product of the knowledge and skills of individuals.
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Revisiting Jane Jacob’s notion of locality knowledge, this paper argues that combining commercial... more Revisiting Jane Jacob’s notion of locality knowledge, this paper argues that combining commercial space and dwelling fosters social, economic and architectural processes that come about by factors of local urban economies. The mixing of uses merges the relation of ‘what one does’ and ‘where one lives’ in a particular building whereby urban and architectural scale effects come into place. Comparisons of commercial-residential buildings in two local districts of contrasting morphologies in
the city of Cardiff are studied in the context of their urban-architectural design scales. From an urban scale analysis, attention is given to the distribution of commercial-residential buildings in relation to spatial centrality; from an architectural perspective, it examines the way residential building adapts
commercial additions, defining how different functions associate distinctive adaptable typologies depending on the building’s urban location. By using syntactical and morphological approaches, the paper combines Depth Distance analysis with patterns of use and building form, drawing two reportable findings: The identification of corner shops
located within one turn of direction from main high streets within gridiron urban forms, while
activities combining retail or local office businesses with residential functions are located in corner
blocks along streets within radial urban morphologies. These spatial attributes of location combine the adaptability of local property markets to mixed use with advantages in accessibility to produce an urban building that can flexibly accommodate innovation that is both a reflection of new skills and knowledge contributing to a local diversity.
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Narvaez, L., Penn, A., and Griffiths, S. (2014) The Spatial Dimensions of Trade: From the geography of uses to the architecture of local economies. In A|Z ITU Journal of Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul. Vol. 11 (2), pp. 209-230. ISSN 1302-8324
This paper investigates the relationship between urban space and urban economy focusing on the wa... more This paper investigates the relationship between urban space and urban economy focusing on the way centralities emerge across scales. A method is presented that combines space syntax theories and an economic model of trade-off that refers to the relation between rent and access. With the argument that economies take place in differences of space, accessibility, therefore, becomes an important matter of scale in order to understand how economic actions are materialised in urban space and how space affects socio-economic interactions at the local design scale of the city. Properties of this relationship are investigated through rent values of different real estate property markets in the city of Cardiff, UK. The method identifies the spatial distribution of activities across scales. Firstly, it is shown that trade-off modelling in the street configuration can be devised as a pattern of use mix profiles in the city. Secondly, that trading between cost and access is a local process that can take place in different locations in the city that potentially function as sub-centres. Thirdly, rent and access also encourages people to re-adapt urban spaces for economic benefits, generating the reconversion of uses contained in the same real estate, the commercial-residential building. Finally, the implications of combining space syntax techniques with urban economic models are discussed. It is concluded that while spatial configurations create possibilities for economic activity, this should also be viewed as the reverse approach of how urban economics requires proximity in distance to be produced –a relationship that has not yet been approached in space syntax research.
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Narvaez, L., Penn, A., Griffiths, S (2013) Spatial Configuration and Bid Rent Theory: How urban space shapes the urban economy. Proceedings 9th International Space Syntax Symposium. Sejong University. Seoul, Korea, 2013
What has urban space to do with economics? This paper investigates the relationship between urban... more What has urban space to do with economics? This paper investigates the relationship between urban space and urban economy focusing on the way centralities emerge across scales. A method is presented that combines space syntax theories and an economic model of trade-off that refers to the relation between rent and access. This is based on proposing that distance is shaped by the network of streets and not as measure from place to place. Therefore, economies take place in differences of space. Accessibility, is argued, becomes an important matter of scale in order to understand how economic actions are materialised in urban space and how space affects socio-economic interactions at the local design scale of the city. Properties of this relationship are investigated through rent values of different real estate property markets in the city of Cardiff, UK. The method identifies the spatial distribution of activities across scales. Firstly, it is shown that trade-off modelling in the street configuration can be devised as a global pattern of concentration of activities. Secondly, that trading between cost and access is a local process that can take place in different locations in the city that function as sub-centres. Thirdly, rent and access also encourages people to re-adapt urban spaces for economic benefits, generating mixed uses contained in the same real estate, the commercial-residential building. Finally, the implications of combining space syntax techniques with economic models are discussed. It is concluded that while spatial configurations create possibilities for economic activity, this should also be viewed as the reverse approach of how urban economics requires proximity in distance to be produced –a relationship that has not yet been approached in space syntax research.
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Spaces and Flows: An International Journal of Urban and ExtraUrban Studies, Volume 2, Issue 3, pp. 149-168. Common Ground Publisher, 2012
This paper draws on the findings of an on-going research project into the relationship between sp... more This paper draws on the findings of an on-going research project into the relationship between spatial networks and socio-economic activities in urban environments. It makes particular reference to spatial morphology, advancing a fresh perspective on a range of economic factors by showing how they can be translated into the ‘qualitative’ values of urban design. The research methodology combines Space Syntax analysis with socio-economic data from two different types of property market: the domestic (residential) and the non-domestic (commercial). Using the Welsh city of Cardiff, UK as a case study, the analysis demonstrates how the spatial configuration of Cardiff’s street network relates to residential property values, identifying spatial patterns according to house prices and tax band values. Furthermore, it is shown how the non-domestic property market can be examined in relation to its network-accessibility in order to explain how different distributions of land-use value emerge over time. In summary, the paper advocates an approach to urban design practice informed by an awareness of how spatial morphology affects economic value and the social qualities of place.
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Narvaez, L., Penn, A., and Griffiths, S., 2014. The Social and Economic Significance of Urban Form. New Urban Configurations. International Seminar of Urban Form and EAAE. In Cavallo, R., Komossa, S., Marzot, N. , Berghauser Pont, M and Kuijper, J. IOS Press, pp.551-558.
This paper draws on preliminary findings of the formal interaction between socio-economic activit... more This paper draws on preliminary findings of the formal interaction between socio-economic activity and spatial accessibility. The theory of Bid Rent is used as a basis to analyse the urban street configuration. By considering distance as the single most important factor in organising urban space, indicating the different functional zones of a city, the Bid Rent theory assumes that urbanisation occurs in more or less of a free market where the highest bidder will obtain more land. It is argued, however, that distance in the physical form of the city should be addressed in the way the urban structure relates and connects potential forms of accessibility. The mobility of people and commodities depends on the distribution of activities, seeking to minimise distances within the grid constructed. Therefore, it is proposed that distance should be approached from a morphological perspective, using Space Syntax as a means to relate geometrical properties of the urban grid in addition of land use and rents prices. Findings of this on-going research indicate the emergence of local centres across the city formed by the effects of mixed-use development in which the architectural built form comes into question. The paper ends with a discussion of how building use and form plays a role in the local urban economy. Contrary to urban economic models premised on isomorphic space, a configurational approach that this paper offers brings a fresh perspective of how can we try to use land intelligently and the way architecture embeds the microeconomic qualities that gives urban vitality in cities.
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Proceedings 8th International Space Syntax Symposium. Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile: Santiago, Chile.
This paper investigates the role of spatial parameters in relation to the economic properties of ... more This paper investigates the role of spatial parameters in relation to the economic properties of the city’s urban form. The key element to explore in the study of the configuration of space is accessibility. The role of property markets has been a factor of constant transformation that influence how a city develops and functions at different scales. Markets function as institutions, in which price is the main indicator of people’s choices and the spatial effects that these choices generate. Price, therefore, is a signal of how people assign a value to different resources. In this paper, accessibility is regarded not only as a spatial component to measure geometric patterns but also as a resource that produces multiplied values of benefits and transactions in terms of economic properties. It is proposed to explore three economic variables applied in the city of Cardiff, Wales. These variables are council tax band, sold house prices and average price for each housing typology. The method used Space Syntax analyses with the purpose to unfold different levels of accessibility according to the residential property market. Council tax band is taken as a proxy to measure a sample of two postcode districts in Cardiff, relating degrees of closeness between locations within the urban grid. The aim is to show differences between spatial accessibility and size of the urban blocks. Sold house prices are studied within a period of 3 years proving that there is a clear relation of tax banding and the price paid of properties. Overall, the paper aims to explore, as a first stage of the research, how specific measures of economic variables have an effect on how space is formed through these kinds of processes, in which the size of a city, its particular morphology and its allocation of land uses are aspects that rule a city’s economic vitality and constant reform
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International Transaction Journal of Engineering, Management and Applied Sciences & Technologies, Volume 3, No. 3, ISSN 2228-9860, 2012
"This research is an effort to understand the theoretical foundations of how the configuration of... more "This research is an effort to understand the theoretical foundations of how the configuration of space is interrelated with the economic properties that sustain the built fabric. The hypothesis is based on unfolding accessibility in two perspectives: As a spatial parameter that understands urban form as a system of relational patterns of connections that organises human activity. And, as an economic parameter that can be valued under specific price mechanisms of urban properties. The paper shows a first preliminary study of testing street prices with spatial accessibility measures. The method was to use current house prices with Space Syntax techniques, a spatial analysis tool that outputs measures of connectivity and accessibility represented in a street network. Overall, economy contributes on the shape of our cities that prevail in the spatial relations of the built form, resulting in new configurational economies."
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Opticon1826 (16):2, Feb 10, 2014
Urban forms emerge from the interplay of social, economic, political and cultural forces, which a... more Urban forms emerge from the interplay of social, economic, political and cultural forces, which are partly attributed to decision-making processes of urban planning and design. However, decision-making involves the everyday life of using and navigating in the built environment to the management of urban space. This paper seeks to understand the basic notion of how pedestrian movement is related to land use choices in the built form. The hypothesis is that movement itself involves a choice; that is, a decision-making of direction and destination, of passing through or of static behaviour. The density of movement flow is seen as a result of locations that potentially become attractors that have a rich distribution of land use. How we accommodate and modulate movement is thus important in helping us understand the multiple effects of everyday use that arises from decision-making processes and its subsequent effectuation in the configuration of urban space. Therefore, two key questions are addressed: first, how the types of movement choices influence and are influenced by the spatial layout; and second, how the distribution of land uses is affected by such choices. The paper uses Space Syntax and Game theory as a combination of theoretical frameworks that study independent and interdependent decision-making processes in urban space, to answer these questions. Taking the River Thames Path as an example, the research project focuses on the unconnected section of the river walk between London Bridge and Southwark Bridge. In analogy with a game of chess, the results demonstrate how different kinds of choices are ruled primarily by the location of commercial uses in the urban grid.
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This paper is a research in progress that explores the relationship between the configuration of ... more This paper is a research in progress that explores the relationship between the configuration of space and the economic practices of the spatial layout. The relationship between spatial configuration and movement in an urban system focuses on how people use urban space and how space is implicated in organising human activity that is embedded in the real world. However, the configuration of space underlies processes such as market structure and political aspects that influence how the built environment functions. Therefore, the main question addressed here is: What is the relationship between spatial configuration and economic values? The main hypothesis considers that accessibility has a value in economic terms. Accessibility is defined here as a distance that becomes a resource, in which the cost relates to the multiplied processes of density, distribution of land uses, and the price to those spaces. The city of Cardiff, Wales has been taken as a case study for the research to explore these issues.
The study focuses on the City Centre and the Cardiff Bay Area as an initial stage. The method of Space Syntax is used to measure geometric accessibility with economic values through different price mechanisms, such as: street pricing, neighbourhood pricing, tax-band values, and rates of turnover. The outcomes of these analyses are expected to bring a more precise value of accessibility in terms of economic processes and to understand how the regulatory aspects of the city (i.e. planning policies) have an effect on the configuration of space, in which the urban grid implicates also a distributional power. Economy and political power impact on both the architectural productions and how decision-making processes are reflected on the functional and spatial performance that seek the social well-being of the city and its economic vitality.
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Articles by Laura Narvaez
Ramirez, N and Narvaez L. (2014) Through the Eyes of the Situationists, in: LOBBY, No.1, Autumn 2014, 'Un/Spectacle'. The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London: Aldgate Press, pp. 33-35
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Narvaez L. (2014) ...And Space as the Storyteller, in: LOBBY, No.1, Autumn 2014, 'Un/Spectacle'. The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London: Aldgate Press, pp. 108-109
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Narvaez, L. (2015) Déjà vu, in: LOBBY, No. 2, Spring 2015, ‘Clairvoyance’. The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London: Aldgate Press, pp. 103-105.
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Academic Papers by Laura Narvaez
In the fields of urban planning and architecture, it is often difficult to articulate with rigour the interaction of the form and use of spaces that gives social life to cities. A layperson’s attraction towards a particular urban location offers testimony to the important role that spatial configuration plays in shaping our cities. Perhaps more important, it is how individuals’ ‘local knowledge’ create place-making within their locality. This paper proposes the general question of how the physical configuration of cities affects social life. It outlines the relationship between urban form and the activities it accommodates, arguing that a city must be addressed in its social, economic and spatial environments, in its architectural and urban design scales.
This work presents an interdisciplinary research that combines morphological and urban economic methods. Firstly, it examines competing locations of different activities, identifying places of mixed-use development. Different urban locations within a city are studied according to the urban spatial network using ‘space syntax’, a technique that informs how the urban geometry of spaces play a role in distributing activities. Secondly, the morphology of the location of mixed-use developments is addressed at a local scale –in the building, the plot and the street. The results of this work showed that competing land users searching to pay for good access for a location depends on the architectural flexibility of a building to accommodate different uses, offering different possibilities for adaptability depending on their urban location. It is also shown that fostering mixing of uses within a same location becomes a product of the knowledge and skills of individuals.
the city of Cardiff are studied in the context of their urban-architectural design scales. From an urban scale analysis, attention is given to the distribution of commercial-residential buildings in relation to spatial centrality; from an architectural perspective, it examines the way residential building adapts
commercial additions, defining how different functions associate distinctive adaptable typologies depending on the building’s urban location. By using syntactical and morphological approaches, the paper combines Depth Distance analysis with patterns of use and building form, drawing two reportable findings: The identification of corner shops
located within one turn of direction from main high streets within gridiron urban forms, while
activities combining retail or local office businesses with residential functions are located in corner
blocks along streets within radial urban morphologies. These spatial attributes of location combine the adaptability of local property markets to mixed use with advantages in accessibility to produce an urban building that can flexibly accommodate innovation that is both a reflection of new skills and knowledge contributing to a local diversity.
The study focuses on the City Centre and the Cardiff Bay Area as an initial stage. The method of Space Syntax is used to measure geometric accessibility with economic values through different price mechanisms, such as: street pricing, neighbourhood pricing, tax-band values, and rates of turnover. The outcomes of these analyses are expected to bring a more precise value of accessibility in terms of economic processes and to understand how the regulatory aspects of the city (i.e. planning policies) have an effect on the configuration of space, in which the urban grid implicates also a distributional power. Economy and political power impact on both the architectural productions and how decision-making processes are reflected on the functional and spatial performance that seek the social well-being of the city and its economic vitality.
Articles by Laura Narvaez
In the fields of urban planning and architecture, it is often difficult to articulate with rigour the interaction of the form and use of spaces that gives social life to cities. A layperson’s attraction towards a particular urban location offers testimony to the important role that spatial configuration plays in shaping our cities. Perhaps more important, it is how individuals’ ‘local knowledge’ create place-making within their locality. This paper proposes the general question of how the physical configuration of cities affects social life. It outlines the relationship between urban form and the activities it accommodates, arguing that a city must be addressed in its social, economic and spatial environments, in its architectural and urban design scales.
This work presents an interdisciplinary research that combines morphological and urban economic methods. Firstly, it examines competing locations of different activities, identifying places of mixed-use development. Different urban locations within a city are studied according to the urban spatial network using ‘space syntax’, a technique that informs how the urban geometry of spaces play a role in distributing activities. Secondly, the morphology of the location of mixed-use developments is addressed at a local scale –in the building, the plot and the street. The results of this work showed that competing land users searching to pay for good access for a location depends on the architectural flexibility of a building to accommodate different uses, offering different possibilities for adaptability depending on their urban location. It is also shown that fostering mixing of uses within a same location becomes a product of the knowledge and skills of individuals.
the city of Cardiff are studied in the context of their urban-architectural design scales. From an urban scale analysis, attention is given to the distribution of commercial-residential buildings in relation to spatial centrality; from an architectural perspective, it examines the way residential building adapts
commercial additions, defining how different functions associate distinctive adaptable typologies depending on the building’s urban location. By using syntactical and morphological approaches, the paper combines Depth Distance analysis with patterns of use and building form, drawing two reportable findings: The identification of corner shops
located within one turn of direction from main high streets within gridiron urban forms, while
activities combining retail or local office businesses with residential functions are located in corner
blocks along streets within radial urban morphologies. These spatial attributes of location combine the adaptability of local property markets to mixed use with advantages in accessibility to produce an urban building that can flexibly accommodate innovation that is both a reflection of new skills and knowledge contributing to a local diversity.
The study focuses on the City Centre and the Cardiff Bay Area as an initial stage. The method of Space Syntax is used to measure geometric accessibility with economic values through different price mechanisms, such as: street pricing, neighbourhood pricing, tax-band values, and rates of turnover. The outcomes of these analyses are expected to bring a more precise value of accessibility in terms of economic processes and to understand how the regulatory aspects of the city (i.e. planning policies) have an effect on the configuration of space, in which the urban grid implicates also a distributional power. Economy and political power impact on both the architectural productions and how decision-making processes are reflected on the functional and spatial performance that seek the social well-being of the city and its economic vitality.
The research project, led by Prof Howard Davis, involves an investigation of the spatial structure of the London furniture industry in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The research contributes to a larger work—leading to a new book manuscript called Industrial Urbanism: Architecture, Place and Production, and under the umbrella of the Collaborative for Inclusive Urbanism— that is intended to describe the spatial manifestations of the revival of industry in Western (UK, European and North American) cities, putting that development in historical and theoretical contexts. This work deals with issues of urban location, building type and use, with emphasis on the interactions between firms and the differences of urban morphologies and knowledge economies that took effect by the evolving furniture industry in the city of London.