Journal - Abstracts vol.13 nr.2 (2009)

H. Davis, The commercial-residential building and local urban form

Many buildings that combine commercial and residential uses share attributes of urban location and architectural organization that occur in different cultures. These similarities come about because of similar factors of local urban economics. Comparisons between commercial-residential buildings in three cities – New York, Amsterdam, and Kyoto – show that they are located on streets with connectivity to larger business districts, and in places that are suited to both commercial and residential activity. Their architectural features are also dependent on their urban location. They are narrow buildings, their residential entrances are restrained relative to their commercial frontage, and their façades display both commercial and residential functions. These common attributes combine with culturallydetermined features of style, architectural organization and construction to produce buildings that are both unique to their place and recognizable across the world.
K. Kropf, Aspects of urban form

The diversity and complexity of human settlements is reflected in the range of ways we try to understand them. The richness of subject matter presented by cities has given rise to an equal richness in methods of investigation. Even within a single field such as urban morphology, there are different approaches with different terms of reference. The challenge raised by the diversity is not how to select between the different views but how to combine and co-ordinate them. The purpose of this paper is to undertake an initial critical analysis of different approaches to urban morphology in an effort to meet that challenge. The first aim is to identify the range of different phenomena taken as the object of urban morphological enquiry. The second is to identify an aspect that is common to all the approaches and that can be used as a reference key to co-ordinate different views in a rigorous way. The ultimate goal is a composite view in which the different approaches support each other to provide a better understanding of human settlements.
A. Abarkan, The study of urban form in Sweden

Early research on urban form in Sweden was undertaken before the First World War. After the Second World War research was influenced by the major criticisms levelled at comprehensive urban renewal and suburban mass housing. These criticisms were particularly on the ground that values embodied in the traditional built environment were being ignored. Increased interest in the study of historical urban fabrics was associated with the development of methodologies reliant on the concepts of typology and morphology. These developments were dependent on the activities of individual researchers until the very recent development of wider co-ordinating research organizations.