Spatial Signatures

(Urban) Form & Function in Great Britain
Dani Arribas-Bel
Martin Fleischmann
[@martinfleis]
[@darribas]

“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”

Function

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

Spatial Signatures

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

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

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

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

Building Spatial Signatures

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

Building Spatial Signatures

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

Great Britain

Characters

Form
  • Dimension
  • Shape
  • Intensity
  • Connectivity
  • Diversity
Function
  • Population
  • Employment
  • Industry
  • Land use/cover
  • Amenity access
N ≈ 300

Context

Data

Form
  • OS OpenMap
  • OS OpenRoads
Function
  • (Business) Census
  • OpenStreetMap
  • Geolytix
  • Listed buildings
  • CDRC
  • CORINE / Sentinel 2
  • VIIRS

British Signatures

BRITISH SIGNATURES

Countryside

Urban Areas

  • Periphery
  • Suburbs
  • Cities

Hierarchy of Urbanity

Spatial Signatures Vs Land Use

Spatial Signatures Vs Geodemographics

Conclusions

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

Spatial Signatures

(Urban) Form & Function in Great Britain
Dani Arribas-Bel
Martin Fleischmann
[@martinfleis]
[@darribas]