Ombretta Romice

Alterations in scale: Patterns of change in main street networks across time and space

This paper presents a morphological study of 100 main street networks from urban areas around the world. An expansion in the scale of main street networks was revealed using a unique heuristic visual method for identifying and measuring the lengths of main street segments from each of the study areas. Case studies were selected and grouped according to corresponding urban design paradigms, ranging from antiquity to present day. This research shows that the average lengths of main street segments from networks of historic (i.e. ancient, medieval, renaissance, baroque and industrial) and informal case studies are much smaller relative to those from networks of more contemporary case studies (i.e. Garden City, Radiant City and New Urbanism). This study provides empirical evidence in support of prior, observational claims suggesting a consistent pattern in the smaller scale of main street networks from traditional urban areas, termed the ‘400-metre rule’. Additionally, it makes the case for further empirical research into similarly recursive spatial patterns within other elements of urban form (i.e. plots, blocks, etc.) that, if discovered, could aid in future urban design efforts to help provide the framework for more ‘human-scale’ urban environments.

The “neighborhood unit” on trial: a case study in the impacts of urban morphology

The organization of modern city planning into “neighborhood units” – most commonly associated with the Clarence Perry proposal of 1929 – has been enormously influential in the evolution of modern city form, and at the same time has also been the subject of intense controversy and debate that continues to the present day. New issues under debate include social and economic diversity, maintenance of viable pedestrian and public transit modes, viability of internalized community service hubs, and efficient use of energy and natural resources, including greenhouse gas emissions. We trace the history of this controversy up to the present day, and we discuss new developments that may point the way to needed reforms of best practice.

New developments and final reflections on the use of visual literacy and environmental evaluation for the participation of community groups in design

Involving community groups in the design processes concerning their city or neighbourhood, can play a role in creating responsive environments and achieving a high level of satisfaction for communities.Interaction between clients and professionals is essential to encourage the resolution of disputes at the design stage rather than once actions have been taken, since their different roles and expertise could enrich the process of interaction.This study supports the idea of a form of participation based on research in environmental experience. Visual literacy is trained, and a combination of environmental assessment techniques and informative activities are linked to encourage community groups and professionals to work together on the generation and development of observational and analytical skills.The aim is to generate a structure for the involvement of local communities in urban renewal actions as an informed, organised and effective activity and then, to apply this approach in praxis.

Form and urban change: an urban morphometric study of five gentrified neighbourhoods in London

Research in Urban Morphology has long been exploring the form of cities and their changes over time, especially by establishing links with the parallel dynamics of these cities’ social, economic and political environments. The capacity of an adaptable and resilient urban form to provide a fertile environment for economic prosperity and social cohesion is at the forefront of discussion. Gentrification has emerged in the past few decades as an important topic of research in urban sociology, geography and economy, addressing the social impact of some forms of urban evolution. To some extent, these studies emphasize the form of the environment in which gentrification takes place. However, a systematic and quantitative method for a detailed characterization of this type of urban form is still far from being achieved. With this article, we make a first step towards the establishment of an approach based on ‘urban morphometrics’. To this end, we measure and compare key morphological features of five London neighbourhoods that have undergone a process of piecemeal gentrification. Findings suggest that these five case studies display similar and recognizable morphological patterns in terms of their built form, geographical location of main and local roads and physical relationships between street fronts and street types. These initial results, while not implying any causal or universal relationship between morphological and social dynamics, nevertheless contribute to (a) highlight the benefits of a rigorous quantitative approach towards interpreting urban form beyond the disciplinary boundaries of Urban Morphology and (b) define the statistical recurrence of a few, specific morphological features amongst the five cases of gentrified areas in London.

Urban Design and Quality of Life

This chapter deals with those aspects of the design of cities that have been shown to affect quality of life. Whilst direct causal relationships between physical space and well-being are often difficult to establish, physical space certainly does play a significant part in shaping the way we engage with it, informing the individual and collective sense of attachment to our own environment. This will become increasingly important, with the urbanization process predicted to grow, a significant part of which in conditions of informality. The aim of this chapter is to gather relevant and recent research that highlights advances in the study of the reciprocal effect between urban form and urban life and use this to compile an agenda for future thinking, research and practice in the field of socially sustainable urban design.

Conhecimento, interdisciplinaridade e Psicologia Ambiental

The author answers the questions: How should the methods of environmental psychology be discussed in an interdisciplinary framework?; Does environmental psychology require some special methodological approach?; How is environmental intervention determined by interdisciplinarity?; What are these disciplines and how do they relate to one another? - based on her professional experience as a consultant and as the supervisor of a project involving community, popular housing and social exclusion in many countries of Europe. She concludes that the approaches used by the different professions are very isolated, and that having common goals is not enough: joint training and identity of values are also necessary.

Assessing the multi-sensory qualities of urban space

Abstract Urban spaces are an experience for all the senses, but all too often, academics and designers are interested in only the visual or aural aspects of place. What are the implications of a more holistic approach to the role of the senses in our experience of urban space? This paper investigates ways of assessing the multi-sensory quality of urban spaces. One important task is to find ways of recording sensory experience, as individualistic and variable as it can be. The paper describes a notational system depicting the relative importance, corroboration, and qualities, of six perceptual systems in the tradition of James J. Gibsons (1966) groundbreaking work. The notational system is demonstrated with a series of notations of spaces in Rome. Such a notational system can be used as an individualistic exercise akin to sketching, but has a number of wider uses as well, such as the diagnosis of sensory deficits across a site or route. This research draws on a wide literature, from the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty (1962) through Ingolds anthropology of the environment (2000, 2007a). The work of James J. Gibson on the contextual nature of perception (1966) is central to the research, enlarged by more literary approaches from Georges Perec (1974), Michel deCerteau, Gaston Bachelard and Henri Lefebvres Rhythmanalysis. This research puts these more open, subjective theories of environmental perception into practice by embedding them in a set of inscriptive practices, allowing them to become part of the design process.

Evaluación de las cualidades multisensoriales del espacio urbano: un enfoque metodológico y sistema de notación para el registro y diseño de la experiencia multisensorial en el espacio urbano

Resumen Los espacios urbanos son una experiencia para todos los sentidos, pero con demasiada frecuencia el interés de académicos y diseñadores se centra únicamente en los aspectos visuales o auditivos de los lugares. ¿Quéimplica adoptar un enfoque más holístico del papel de los sentidos en nuestra experiencia del espacio urbano? Este artículo investiga distintas formas de evaluar la cualidad multisensorial de los espacios urbanos. Una tarea importante es encontrar maneras de registrar la experiencia sensorial, teniendo en cuenta su alta variabilidad e individualidad. Se describe aquí un sistema de notación de la importancia relativa, corroboración y cualidades de seis sistemas preceptuales, siguiendo la tradición del trabajo pionero de James J. Gibson (1966). Se ofrece como ejemplo de este sistema una serie de notaciones tomadas en varios espacios de Roma. Un sistema de estas características puede emplearse como ejercicio puntual, a la manera de un bosquejo, pero también tiene otras aplicaciones más amplias, como el diagnóstico de déficits sensoriales en un lugar o ruta. Esta investigación se basa en una extensa literatura, desde la fenomenología de Merleau-Ponty (1962) a la antropología ambiental de Ingold (2000, 2007a). El trabajo de James J. Gibson sobre la naturaleza contextual de la percepción (1966) es central para esta investigación, y se amplía con enfoques más literarios como los de Georges Perec (1974), Michel de Certeau, Gaston Bachelard y el ritmanálisis de Henri Lefebvre. En este estudio se ponen en práctica estas teorías más abiertas y subjetivas de la percepción ambiental, incorporándolas a un conjunto de prácticas de registro y permitiendo así que formen parte del proceso de diseño.

On the origin of spaces : morphometric foundations of urban form evolution

The modern discipline of urban morphology gives us a ground for the comparative analysis of cities, which increasingly includes specific quantitative elements. In this paper, we make a further step forward towards the definition of a general method for the classification of urban form. We draw from morphometrics and taxonomy in life sciences to propose such method, which we name ‘urban morphometrics’. We then test it on a unit of the urban landscape named ‘Sanctuary Area’ (SA), explored in 45 cities whose origins span four historic time periods: Historic (medieval), Industrial (19th century), New Towns (post-WWII, high-rise) and Sprawl (post-WWII, low-rise). We describe each SA through 207 physical dimensions and then use these to discover features that discriminate them among the four temporal groups. Nine dimensions emerge as sufficient to correctly classify 90% of the urban settings by their historic origins. These nine attributes largely identify an areas ‘visible identity’ as reflected by three characteristics: (1) block perimeterness, or the way buildings define the street-edge; (2) building coverage, or the way buildings cover the land and (3) regular plot coverage, or the extent to which blocks are made of plots that have main access from a street. Hierarchical cluster analysis utilising only the nine key variables nearly perfectly clusters each SA according to its historic origin; moreover, the resulting dendrogram shows, just after WWII, the first ‘bifurcation’ of urban history, with the emergence of the modern city as a new ‘species’ of urban form. With ‘urban morphometrics’ we hope to extend urban morphological research and contribute to understanding the way cities evolve.

The timeless way of educating architects : a new master in "Building Beauty" in Naples, Italy

Christopher Alexander showed us that beauty can be investigated in nature, in things that are made and built, and in our collective and individual selves, in a way that leads us to understand and enhance wholeness. All of this he pursued on the basis of objective physical evidence. Also, Alexander showed that the unfolding geometry of beauty can be sought with practical means that demonstrate its connections with all of life.A new Master program in “Building Beauty: Experience of Ecologic Design and Construction Process” is now assembling at the University Suor Orsola Benincasa in Naples, Italy, with the mission of pursuing beauty through a new model of architectural education inspired by Alexander, with colleagues of the Center for Environmental Structure (CES), the organization Alexander established for his professional and educational work.In this paper we introduce the context of “radical” traditions of architectural education and culture from the 1960s and the current debate in the United Kingdom and the US; we then present the program’s general vision, that merges a truly holistic practice of building with nature and the community, with a research/evidence based approach to knowledge; finally we focus on pedagogic principles aimed to align with, and support, such vision; the proposed pedagogy covers both teaching and assessment, by introducing a constructionist approach implemented through an original Project-Based Learning model updated with latest fundamentals of Agile Project Management.