(Urban) form/function in Great Britain

https://urbangrammarai.xyz

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 & Function

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

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 (3)

Periphery (4)

Urban (9)

(Geographical) Coverage

94% (50%)

5% (40%)

1% (10%)

Distribution/co-occurrence

Urban hierarchy

Signature drivers

Conclusions

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

(Urban) form/function in Great Britain

https://urbangrammarai.xyz

Dani Arribas-Bel	Martin Fleischmann
[`@darribas`]	[`@martinfleis`]