Urban Grammar

Data-driven understanding (urban) form and function

Dani Arribas-Bel
Martin Fleischmann
https://urbangrammarai.xyz

(Urban) Form & Function

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”

Why Form & Function?

Encodes the past
Frames the future
  • Geography
  • History
  • Technology
  • …
  • Productivity
  • Sustainability
  • Quality of Life
  • …

Urban Grammar

Spatial Signatures

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

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

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

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

Meaningful spatial units

Enclosed tessellation

Context

[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
+

Benefits

  • Data-driven, theory-informed
  • Granular, scalable
  • Flexible, feasible

British Signatures

Characters

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

Data

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

BRITISH SIGNATURES

Countryside (3)

Periphery (4)

Urban (9)

What’s next?

Source: Sentinel-2 cloudless

Wild countryside (320x320m)

Urbanity (320x320m)

Predicted class (320x320m)

Urban Grammar

Data-driven understanding (urban) form and function

Dani Arribas-Bel
Martin Fleischmann
https://urbangrammarai.xyz

Features of British Signatures

(Geographical) Coverage

94% (50%)

5% (40%)

1% (10%)

Distribution/co-occurrence

Urban hierarchy

Signature drivers