Spatial Signatures

Understanding (urban) spaces
through form and function
Dani Arribas-Bel
Martin Fleischmann
[@darribas]
[@martinfleis]

“The point”

How we arrange “stuff” in cities matters…

Source: A map of every building in America (New York Times)

… it matters a lot

Form

What does it look like?
“Physical structure and appearance of cities”

Qualitative, quant. case studies, morphometrics, remotely sensed

Function

What is it used for?
“Activities that take place within an environment”

Geography, Economics, Sociology, Environmental Sciences, Tansport studies…

Form & Function

  • Richer picture
  • Topography, history, technology, cultural values…
  • More robust representations

Opportunities

We don’t have good ways of measuring form & function in cities

  • Detailed, consistent, scalable: “pick two”
  • Fragmented understanding
  • Land use/cover - ??? - Geodemographics

Spatial Signatures

A characterisation of space based on form and function designed to understand urban envionments

A characterisation of space based on form and function designed to understand urban envionments

A characterisation of space based on form and function designed to understand urban envionments

A characterisation of space based on form and function designed to understand urban envionments

[STAGE] Barriers Enclosure Morph. Tess. Encl. Tess. Characters Clusters Signatures
Enclosed Tessellation
Embedding form & function
Spatial Signatures
+

[STAGE] Barriers Enclosure Morph. Tess. Encl. Tess. Characters Clusters Signatures
Enclosed Tessellation
Embedding form & function
Spatial Signatures
+

Characters

Form
  • Building
  • ET cell
  • Street segment
  • Cell context
Function
  • Land use/cover
  • Access to uses
  • Activity densities

    • Benefits

    • Data-driven & (multidiscipline) theory-informed
    • Granular & scalable
    • Flexible deployment

    Illustration

    The Setup

    Five different cities

    • Historical environments
    • Geography & culture
    • Data landscapes

    The Cities

    Barcelona
    Dar es Salaam
    Houston
    Medellin
    Singapore
    Spain
    Tanzania
    USA
    Colombia
    Singapore

    The Data

    Form
    • Local open data
    • OpenStreetMap
    • Satellite-derived
    Function
  • Local open data
  • Land use/cover
  • Global grids
  • Nightlights

    • Clustered with K-Means + clustergram

    The Signatures

    Barcelona

    Dar es Salaam

    Houston

    Medellin

    Singapore

    Barcelona

    Houston | Medellin

    Singapore | Dar es Salaam

    To take away

    1. Urban form and function matters
    2. Spatial Signatures: F&F for cities, in detail, at scale
    3. Good measurement → better understanding

    Spatial Signatures

    Understanding (urban) spaces
    through form and function
    Dani Arribas-Bel
    Martin Fleischmann
    [@darribas]
    [@martinfleis]