University of Utah E Publications

Fourth annual issue of Undergraduate Journal on Contemporary Issues and&nbsp;Medi

Morrow, Anne

UJCIM Vol. 4

Oliveira, Vítor

ISUF 2020: CITIES IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY  
 
21ST CENTURY CITIES 
Vítor Oliveira, Universidade do Porto, Portugal 
ABSTRACT 
21st century cities are objects of extreme complexity. Each city – old or new, from Latin America 
to Eastern Asia – has its specific strengths and weaknesses. Similarly, each part of each city – from 
the historical kernel to the peripheral areas – has its particular opportunities and threats. As it 
always been in the past, urban form is one of the main dimensions of 21st century cities. The 
importance of urban form lies not only in itself but also on the fact that it can impact on other 
fundamental dimensions of life in cities. Morpho is a methodology for describing urban form. It 
offers a first ‘layer’ for addressing the physical form of cities based on ‘town plan’ elements and 
characteristics: the spatial accessibility of streets, the density of street-blocks and plots, and the 
coincidence between building and plot frontages. Current research on the methodology explores 
its ability to deal with some crucial challenges of morphological analysis: different scales, different 
landscapes, different periods of formation, the relation between the physical form of cities and 
urban life, and, finally, the relation between scientific research and professional practice. This 
paper explores the first of these, the topic of scale.  
INTRODUCTION  
Morphological theories, concepts and methods have been criticized for their ‘ability to do 
something in particular, and the inability to do it in a different situation’. Critics have addressed, for 
instance, the capacity of a morphological tool to effectively address a small town and its incapacity 
to grasp a whole metropolitan area; the skills to understand a ‘planned’ landscape and the 
incapability to deal with a settlement whose form results of many individual actions; and, also, the 
ability to capture the physical characteristics of an historical kernel and the inability to 
morphologically characterize a 21st century area. In addition, these theories, concepts and 
methods have been many times presented as having an exclusively physical focus, with no 
apparent utility for everyday life, and as being too complex to be of any use to planning 
practitioners. 
This paper fits into a wider research on the development of the Morpho methodology in an attempt 
to address these major analytical challenges; in particular, it addresses the topic of scale (the 
paper is a reduced version of Oliveira, 2020). After this brief introduction, the methodology and 
the case study are presented; the paper then moves to the application of Morpho in three territorial 
scales, metropolitan, city and neighbourhood. 
MORPHO METHODOLOGY 
Morpho has been originally proposed as a methodology to address the physical form of cities and 
first applied at the street scale in the city of New York (Oliveira, 2013). It has been subsequently 
developed and applied at the city scale (Oliveira and Medeiros, 2016) and later in the 
comparison of a large number of cities (Oliveira et al., 2020).  
The ability of the methodology to address different scales will be illustrated in Porto Metropolitan 
Area (PMA). The focus is on the nine original municipalities and not on the seventeen municipalities 
of the area, as the former offers a more accurate picture of the extant relations between 
municipalities. The nine municipalities are: Póvoa de Varzim, Vila do Conde, Matosinhos, Maia 
and Valongo at north, Porto in the centre, and Gondomar, Vila Nova de Gaia and Espinho at 
2 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
south (Figure 1). Porto is the second most important city of Portugal and the centre of its 
metropolitan area. According to the last national census (2011), the city has about 237.000 
people, while the metropolitan area has around 1.3 million people.  
 
Figure 1. Porto Metropolitan Area (nine municipalities), with the identification of three scales of analysis 
METROPOLITAN SCALE  
What should be the most important urban form elements and characteristics to address at the 
metropolitan scale? When analyzing the metropolis, as a whole, the focus should be on its main 
stocks (the places for living, working and leisure) and flows (the movement of people, goods and 
resources). Accordingly, plots or buildings (and not dwellings), and streets and should constitute 
the elements of inquiry for this first layer of analysis. Furthermore, it is argued that the main 
variations of the physical form of the metropolitan territory would be justified by variations in the 
density of plots (or buildings) per street-block and in the density of streets (or more specifically of 
nodes and segments) – Table 1a. The former gives a potential of the diversity of urban actors and 
strategies and the later gives a potential of flows interaction. The analysis of the density of nodes 
(with a focus on 4-ways nodes) and segments can progress into an inquiry of the spatial 
accessibility of the street system.  
Let’s take Porto Metropolitan Area to illustrate these statements. Figure 2a is the segment map of 
PMA, and represents integration at radius 25,000 (see also Table 1b). Integration measures the 
distance from each segment of origin to all others in a given radius, highlighting the most important 
centralities. Figure 2b is the density of buildings (as data on plots is not available for the PMA) per 
street-block, per hectare. Both maps make evident, with considerable detail, the central role of the 
city of Porto in the metropolitan area, and within the city, its central part limited by the inner ring 
road. Both maps highlight a number of axes (made of streets and buildings) leading to north, east 
and south. While in the segment map this is made of traditional and new streets (usually 
motorways), the map of buildings density reveals mainly the traditional structure, closer to what 
would be a map of integration calculated for a lower radius. Matosinhos, as a whole, and Gaia, in 
the northern part of the municipality have high values for both criteria (see also Figure 1 for the 
location of cities). On the contrary, Vila do Conde (except for its central parish) has low values for 
3 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
both streets and buildings. The map of buildings density – but not the segment map at this scale, 
only at a lower scale – highlights the values of the central parishes (with the municipalities names) 
of Póvoa de Varzim, Vila do Conde and Espinho. The results of this morphological analysis, 
focused on the main stocks and flows, match the main characteristics of the housing prices and of 
the employment catchment areas of the PMA. 
 
 
Figure 2. Porto Metropolitan Area: segment map, integration at radius 25,000 (the colour range goes from red - highest 
values - to orange, yellow, green, blue and dark blue - lowest values) and map of density of buildings, per plot per hectare 
(the colour range goes from black - highest values - to grey and to white - lowest values). Source: the segment map has 
been kindly given by Miguel Serra; it has been published in Serra and Pinho (2013). 
 
Table 1. The town-plan and the different scales of analysis 
 Town-plan Building fabric Land 
utilization 
 Streets Street-blocks Plots  
(or buildings) 
Block-plans of 
buildings 
  
Metropolitan  
 
Accessibility of 
streets, density 
of nodes  
- Density of plots 
(or buildings) 
- - - 
City 
 
Accessibility of 
streets, density 
of nodes 
Density of 
street-blocks 
Density of plots 
(or buildings) 
Coincidence plot 
/ building 
frontages 
(density) 
- - 
Neighbourhood Accessibility of 
streets, density 
of nodes 
Density of 
street-blocks  
Density of plots 
(or buildings), 
width of plot 
frontages 
Coincidence plot 
/ building 
frontages 
(density) 
Relation 
building 
height / street 
width 
Land and 
building 
utilization 
 
  
4 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
 
 Integration of 
streets (r25,000) 
Size of 
street-blocks (%) 
Density of 
Buildings (%) 
Coincidence 
building/plot front. 
Max Ave Min Sma Med Lar Hig Med Low C+MC NC+MNC 
Porto metropolitan area 8135.8 4136.6 172.5 31,1 21,4 47,5 20,0 22,8 57,2 - - 
Porto city 8135,8 6235.2 3858.
5 
47,8 23,5 28,7 38,1 24,7 37,2 48,3 51,7 
Caxinas neighbourhood 2386.2 2096.9 1715.
9 
55,3 36,8 7,9 81,6 7,9 10,5 73,7 26,3 
Accessibility of streets: Max – Maximum, Ave – Average, Min – Minimum  
Size of street-blocks: Sma – Small, Med – Medium, Lar – Large 
Density of buildings: Hig – High, Med – Medium 
Coincidence between building and plot frontages: C – Coincident, MC – Mostly Coincident, MNC – Mostly Non-
Coincident, NC – Non-Coincident. 
 
CITY SCALE  
Moving from the metropolitan to the city scale implies the additional consideration of street-blocks 
size and of the relation between building and plot frontages (Table 1a). As such, density continues 
to be the main characteristic under inquiry, in a direct or indirect way. Firstly, Morpho measures 
the accessibility of the street system, using again the method of angular segment analysis and the 
measure of integration. Secondly, Morpho addresses the density of street-blocks. It considers six 
classes of size: under 5,000 m², 5,000-10,000 m² (these two fall under Siksna, 1997, classification 
of ‘small’), 10,000-20,000 m² (‘medium’), 20,000-50,000 m², 50,000-100,000 m², and over 
100,000 m² (‘large’). Thirdly, Morpho focuses on the density of buildings, considering its number 
per street-block and dividing it by the area of the street-block (measured in hectares). Six classes 
are defined: fewer than 1, 1-5, 5-10 (low density), 10-20 (medium density), 20-50, and more than 
50 (high density) buildings per hectare in each street block. Finally, the coincidence between 
building and plot frontages is addressed. In particular, in each street block, Morpho measures the 
number of plots where building and plot frontage is coincident and expresses it as a percentage. 
Four classes are considered: Coincident / C, Mostly Coincident / MC (coincidence in more than 
50% of plots in a street block), mostly non-coincident / MNC (less than 50%) and Non-Coincident 
/ NC. In terms of measurement procedure, one building within one plot is considered aligned if 
more than 50% of the building frontage coincides with the plot frontage. 
The application of Morpho to the city of Porto reveals that the integration core (considering the 
metropolitan area for calculation of a 3,000m radius) is made of a dense central area organised 
around two east-west axes (Constituição and Boavista) and a number of north-south axes (Figure 
3). Both the western and (particularly) the eastern parts of the city have lower values of 
integration. There is a dominance of ‘small’ street-blocks – almost half of the total number of street-
blocks (Table 1b). Density of buildings is more balanced. Yet, almost 2/3 of the street-blocks has a 
high or medium density of buildings. Finally, considering the street-blocks that are mainly or 
exclusively residential, it can be said that the street-blocks with non-coincident or MNC is slightly 
higher than the street-blocks with coincident or MC building and plot frontages. Previous 
investigation (Oliveira et al., 2020) shows that, against the background of the 20 main Portuguese 
cities, Porto holds, together with Lisbon and Beja (located in the Alentejo region) the highest results 
for these four criteria taken together. 
Both analysis, at metropolitan and city scales, focus on structural elements of urban form. Inquiry at 
city scale extends the analytical framework of the metropolitan scale, detailing it through the 
consideration of two new, but related, criteria – the size of street-blocks and the coincidence 
between building and plot frontages. For instance, while the analysis at metropolitan scale has 
revealed a difference between two fundamental areas of Porto – one ‘within’, the other ‘outside’ 
the internal ring-road of the city – the analysis at city scale makes it more explicit. It is not only the 
5 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
accessibility (topological) of the streets that is different, it is also the size of the elements of the 
street system and the size of street blocks. Similarly, it is not only the density of buildings that is 
different in these two parts; in general, buildings located ‘outside’ the inner ring-road (contrarily to 
those in the other part of the city) step-back from the street, creating a rather different urban 
landscape.  
 
 
 
Figure 3. Porto: segment map, integration at radius 3,000; map of density of buildings, per plot per hectare. Source: the 
segment map has been kindly given by Miguel Serra; it has been published in Serra and Pinho (2013). 
NEIGHBOURHOOD SCALE  
At the neighbourhood scale, the analysis of the town-plan is complemented with an inquiry to the 
main elements of building fabric and of land and building utilisation. To illustrate this scale of 
analysis, the paper focuses, not on a small part of Porto but for the sake of diversity, on Caxinas, a 
fishing settlement with a long urban history and a strong identity and character, located in the 
northwest part of the Vila do Conde parish, in the municipality with that same name (figures 1 and 
4). It is one of the places with the highest building density as illustrated in Figure 2b.  
The relief of this settlement has no significant variations. The spatial accessibility of Caxinas is very 
high, not only when considering it at a neighbourhood scale of analysis, such as a 500m radius, 
but also when considering it at an urban scale, such as a 3,000m radius. The area has 53 street 
intersections; 24 of these are 4-ways nodes, which reveals a certain balance between accessibility 
and privacy. The area is made of 38 street-blocks. More than half of these is ‘small’ and only three 
are ‘large’ street-blocks (Table 1b). 4/5 of these street-blocks has a high density of plots; only four 
have a low density of plots. In many occasions plot width is less than 5m. Building and plot 
frontages are coincident, or mostly coincident, in ¾ of the street-blocks. 
6 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
Most of the 1,500 buildings that make this area have one or two-storeys. ¼ has three or four 
storeys, and only a small minority has five or more storeys. Most streets have between 7,5 and 
15m width. While 85% of the buildings have exclusively a residential use, only six of the 38 street-
blocks are exclusively residential and two street-blocks remain empty. 
The two most vibrant streets of Caxinas are the seafront and the first parallel street – Dr. Carlos 
Pinto Ferreira. The latter is 1,000m long. The west and the east sides of the street are made of, 
respectively, 108 and 130 buildings, opening their doors directly into the street – including single-
family houses, multi-family houses, restaurants and coffee shops, supermarkets and fruit shops, 
hairdressers, banks, to name the most important. This means that on average, and one each side of 
the street, there is one new building each 8m (as mentioned before many buildings have less than 
5m width, with a two ‘bays’ façade – two doors or one door and one window in the ground floor, 
and two windows in the upper floors). 
Table 1b captures the main numbers of the three scales of analysis. In addition to the central area 
of Porto (‘within’ the ring-road), the fishing settlement of Caxinas, holds one of the highest building 
densities (Figure 2b and Table 1b) and accessibility levels (at 3,000 and 5,000 radius) of the 
metropolitan area. As in the former section, this overall description of stocks and flows can be 
further detailed. Indeed, it can be said that Caxinas is made of high accessibility of streets, high 
density of street-blocks and buildings, and high coincidence between building and plot frontages. 
This makes it closer to other parts of the PMA – notably nineteenth-century tissues of Porto – and 
different from others parts of its city and of the metropolitan area. The analysis has also revealed a 
number of aspects of its building fabric and land and building utilization, not only of Caxinas as 
whole, but also of its most vibrant places. 
 
Figure 4. Caxinas aerial view (source: Google Earth). 
7 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
CONCLUSIONS 
The paper addressed a fundamental issue of morphological analysis, the differences of scale. 
Morpho proposes a focus on the town-plan elements in the analysis of three different scales 
(illustrated in the Porto case): metropolitan, city and neighbourhood. It is argued that the inquiry to 
the physical form of the metropolitan scale should focus on streets (flows) and plots/blocks (stocks) 
and that the main differences in the metropolis are related to variation of density of these two 
elements (that can be then related to spatial accessibility, in the case of streets). The analysis of the 
city scale enlarges the emphasis to the density of street-blocks and, most important, to the 
coincidence between the building and plot frontages along each street of the city. Finally, when 
describing the neighbourhood scale, Morpho uses not only these four elements of the town plan 
but also the building fabric and of land and building utilization. 
REFERENCES 
 
Oliveira, V. (2013) ‘Morpho, a methodology for assessing urban form’, Urban Morphology 17, 149-161.  
Oliveira, V. (2020) ‘The ground plan as a unifying concept’, Journal of Urban Research and Development 1. 
Oliveira, V. and Medeiros, V. (2016) ‘Morpho: combining morphological measures’, Environment and Planning 
B: Planning and Design 43, 805-825.  
Oliveira, V., Medeiros, V. and Corgo, J. (2020) ‘The urban form of Portuguese cities’, Urban Morphology 24. 
Serra, M. and Pinho, P. (2013) ‘Tackling the structure of very large spatial systems - Space syntax and the 
analysis of metropolitan form’, Journal of Space Syntax 4, 179-196. 
Siksna, A. (1997) ‘The effects of block size and form in North American and Australian city centres’, Urban 
Morphology 1, 19-33. 
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR 
Vítor Oliveira, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Rua Roberto Frias s/n, 4200-465 Porto 
Portugal. vitorm@fe.up.pt  https://vitoroliveira.fe.up.pt/ 


English

21st Century cities

Zhao, Liang

Li, Wenzhu

Urban repair morphology of landscape transition area in the urban center: Tianma Group in Changsha, China

Zhao, Qin

ISUF 2020: CITIES IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY  
 
HOW GEOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS OF BLOCKS MAKE SENSE: A 
GENERAL SURVEY IN BEIJING, CHINA 
Qin ZHAO, Architect, China Architecture Design & Research Group, China 
ABSTRACT 
This paper demonstrates a general block survey in the light of Conzenian tradition and a recent 
study in similar methods, aiming to identify urban form characteristics of mega city like Beijing, 
especially the geometric indicators. The study makes a thorough investigation of blocks within urban 
area in Beijing, and examines the distribution of blocks according to geometric characteristics (shape, 
size, Shape Index and angle), thus building up a systematic cognition of urban fabric in Beijing. 
Further, the paper preliminarily explores the relevance between these characteristics and road 
system and urban planning. 
The central argument of the study is to construct a block database for further research and ultimately 
find out the existing problems and challenges of urban form of Chinese mega city at the scale of 
block, thus revising classic theories of urban morphology in China. This paper verifies that blocks 
are important agents of urban form to some extent, and leads to a simple summary of designing 
rules for blocks which are valuable for urban design reference. 
BACKGROUND  
The Conzenian school founded by M.R.G. Conzen has developed town plan analysis comprising 
three distinct ‘plan elements’: streets, plots and block plans of buildings. How do streets have 
relationship with plot? The answer is definitely ‘block’, which is a significant element defining urban 
fabric. The settlements following modern urban planning basically result in street system at first, 
then plots as further division of urban area are arranged within blocks. It is block that makes sense 
in identifying different modern cities.  
Chinese cities have seen dramatic changes of urban form with the process of urbanization in past 
three decades, tight intertwining of traditional urban fabric and modern urban planning is widely 
concerned. Morphologic studies of Chinese cities have been conducted for a few years, however 
basic properties of shapes, angle and distribution of Chinese city blocks are not well investigated 
and documented due to lack of open planning data. The situation is improved in recent years and 
related studies are increasing gradually. A fundamental morphological analysis of Chinese city 
block is essential to describe the great regeneration of urban form, thus clarifying the problems and 
challenges during modern urban planning. 
LITERATURE REVIEW  
The plan analysis following Cozenian tradition has been identified as a fruitful approach. Evolution 
of blocks has influence on city development (Baird, 1978) and it is proved to some extent through 
a case study of city centre (Moudon, 1986). A quantified investigation of 12 city centres’ block 
sizes and forms leads to an excellent comparative study in both historical and contemporary urban 
fabric and reveals that certain block forms and size perform better than others and have different 
effect on the process of subsequent development (Siksna, 1990, 1997). Furthermore, kinds of 
indicators of city blocks are raised to quantify urban fabric, such as compactness, shape index, 
fractal dimension (Mc Garigal & Marks, 1995, Bogaert, Rousseau, Hecke, & Impens, 2000) etc. 
2 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
Above all, relative research at block level in China has been conducted more and more. How 
Chinese urbanization is influence by block size and boundary has been demonstrated initially 
(Cao, Jiang, 2007). Long et al. make great efforts to build up an open city data source-Beijing City 
Lab, and carries on studies of urban form at different levels, such as plot direction study (Long et al, 
2010), investigation to find out whether all cities are of similar forms or not(Long et al, 2018) etc. 
However, there is still lack of a systematic exploration of blocks’ geometric characteristics of 
Chinese modern cities. This paper accordingly makes an attempt to focus on city blocks, describing 
their morphological characteristics, thus exploring the problems and challenges of Chinese urban 
form. 
MORPHOLOGICAL STUDY OF BLOCKS 
Street networks and city blocks are 
interdependent for their topological 
relation of spatial structure. Especially in 
modern cities, blocks’ characteristics are 
basically recognized by street networks, 
hence ‘block’ is defined as land 
surrounded by either city main roads, 
secondary roads or their branches. 
Provided by Beijing City Lab (Long, 
2019), 4594 city blocks, including 477 
blocks of old town centre and 4117 ones 
of main urban area in Beijing (Figure 1.), 
make up a sound basis of the study. 
Based on mass data of these blocks, GIS 
and statistics are effective tools to build 
up appropriate classification and 
contribute to focus on further analysis.  
Shape, shape index, area and angle are main geometrical characteristics of blocks, which are 
worthy of discussing their features, distribution and evolution.  
Block Shape  
All the shapes of blocks are sorted into 6 categories after carefully examining and reasonably 
simplifying: triangle, square, rectangle, L-shape, trapezoid and polygon (Figure 2.). Then it’s found 
that square and rectangular blocks as regular shapes together are the most common types, 
counting for 42 percent, while triangular blocks are quite rare. The proportion is quite similar in a 
former morphologic study of plots in Nanjing, revealing that for urban planning, regular shape is 
relatively adaptive and favored in the long term. Surprisingly, there are 1702 trapezoid blocks 
(37%) distributing uniformly all over the city, which indicates that oblique roads are quite common 
(Figure 3.). The distribution of different shapes in old town centre and main urban area implies how 
old town grows in subsequent development and how new urban area is planned consciously.  
 
Triangle    Square    Rectangle    Trapezoid    L-shape    Polygon 
Figure 1. Blocks defined by city street networks in old town 
centre(shaded) and main urban area. 
3 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
Figure 2. Categories of block shapes. 
 
Figure 3. Distribution of block shapes. 
Block size and shape-index (SI) 
Block size has a significant effect on the nature of urban development (Siksna, 1999). Area is a 
basic attribute of block, while block form can be described by Shape Index (SI), which is a ratio of 
original shape perimeter and the one of square with same area. The higher the ratio is, the greater 
the degree of block fragmentation is. It is a useful indicator to reflect the process of urbanization, 
for the way of land use has been changed since 20th century. 
The statistics of block area shows that size of most blocks are under 19000m², making up nearly 
66% of all blocks, and it is obviously seen that size of block is increasing radially from old town 
centre to suburbs, blocks in new urban area are quite larger than those in old town centre by 
contrast(Fig.3). Urban renewal of old town’s blocks are always based on street networks defined 
before modern urbanization, whose scale is quite small relatively. Meanwhile, new urban area is 
planned in new century following popular urban theory, economic benefit and policies, thus 
forming many blocks at large scale to accommodate increasing population.  
In terms of Shape Index (SI), values of SI are mainly around 1.0, which shows that most blocks’ 
boundary is not that fragmentized or it has not been changed too much by subsequent urban 
development. 
4 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
 
Figure 4. Distribution of block areas. 
 
Figure 5. Definition of shape index (SI) and distribution of block SI. 
Block Angle 
Long et al. put forward the term of ‘parcel direction’ to analyze spatial characteristics of urban 
form quantitatively at plot level and take the city of Beijing as an example (2010). Blocks are 
divided by roads of different levels, and made up of several plots within, thus block angle can be 
identified by ‘parcel direction’ indirectly. From their findings, it is demonstrated in the case of 
5 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
Beijing that the urban form in terms of the parcel direction can be divided into four types, including 
normal, slanting, mixed and ecological types; the direction is not correlated with the perimeter, 
area, or compactness indictor of parcels; the parcel direction is explicitly spatial heterogeneous, 
and the probability density function of the parcel direction can be adopted to examine the urban 
form. And finally the parcel direction can be used to evaluate to what extent the planned form 
inherits the historical form via comparing the parcel direction index of the two forms. Long’s 
investigation offers an effective method to clarify the similar properties of city blocks in the future. 
GENERAL RULES OF BLOCK MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS 
Block shape/angle and urban planning 
It’s well-known that there is an obvious hierarchical structure in ancient Beijing city at different 
levels and the road network is a regular grid. The study above reveals that in old town centre, the 
original planning structure is mostly kept, which results in more regular block shapes and north-
south block directions. In other main urban areas planned following modern planning theories to 
accommodate increasing population, the road orientation varies instead of a vertical and 
horizontal network, thus forming more trapezoid block shape and various block angles. Since 
block shape is related with road planning and division, it’s recommended that city block is divided 
into regular shape like square and rectangle. In another Chinese case, the city of Dalian started 
new town planning after occupation of Tsarist Russia at the beginning of 20th century, when radial 
pattern of road was popular, thus forming some irregular block shapes like trapezoid, pentagon 
etc. During the following processing of urban development, these irregular block shapes were still 
kept while the inner plots were divided into regular shapes as much as possible for equal 
distribution of land and commercial deal. Block shapes basically remain unchanged for they are 
mainly defined by city main roads, while plots vary more in subsequent urban development. 
Block angle is mainly influenced by urban planning, in other words, the road system makes sense. 
But why the ancient town centres in Beijing, Dalian etc. keep a traditional and regular block system 
while in other main urban area the distribution of block shape looks like more disorderly? Diverse 
road systems lead to various block shapes and angles, which is not easy to restrict the plots pattern 
within, thus creating an obvious contrast of urban fabric between blocks and inner plots. 
Block area/shape-index and urban renovation 
Statistics of block area shows that super-blocks are quite common in new urban area of Beijing. It’s 
demonstrated in Siksna’s study that large blocks’ accessibility is compromised and they have all 
developed finer circulation meshes during the late development. The density of road network is 
quite intensive in old town and keeps a relatively stable state, the scale of blocks is consequently 
smaller and easier to remain unchanged than those in new urban area. From main road system to 
these branches within large blocks, once they are not planned after fine designing, it easily brings 
out a disorder urban fabric. Block shape indicates topological block form as a whole, while shape 
index is defined to assess the detail of how block shape varies subsequently during urbanization. 
Same as above reasons, oversize blocks eventually are divided into smaller ones with spontaneous 
and irregular road system for better land use. 
For the influence of block area/shape-index above, it’s essential to control block scale or area 
reasonably in urban planning. Considering block angle together, oversize blocks have an effect on 
road system in the city, which will make a difference in plot pattern in turn. Siksna suggests that 80-
6 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
110 meters road interval will benefit the development of downtown area for it is easy to keep the 
initial form with urbanization. Therefore, control of shape and shape index is of great necessity to 
inherit the initial urban spatial characteristics and more effective use, leading to a more sustainable 
urbanization system. 
CONCLUSIONS 
The paper pays attention to block level in the light of Conzenian morphological study. By 
investigating 4594 blocks in Beijing main urban area as mass database, geometrical characteristics 
of blocks and their influence have been examined. GIS and statistics provide effective ways for 
processing data to articulate the classification in typological analysis.  
Studies above investigate urban form of Beijing city preliminarily to reveal the overall distribution 
of block shapes, angles and areas, which can be seemed as an opposite process of urban design. 
All these achievements verify that blocks make great sense in urbanization following Conzenian 
tradition in Chinese modern mega cities and lead to a simple summary of designing rules of urban 
planning at block level, which are valuable for urban design reference. 
REFERENCES 
Beijing City Lab, 2019, Data 39, Redefined Cities, http://www.beijingcitylab.com 
Cao, S. and Jiang, J T. (2007) Block scale and block border’s influence on urban form. Annual 
national planning conference 
Conzen, M.R.G (1969) Alanwick, Northumberland: a study in town-plan analysis. London: Institute 
of British Geographers 
Lin, X. Y. (2015) Study on the morphological differences between districts based on block 
attribute-take Nanjing as examples. Master degree, Nanjing University 
Liu, Q. and Li, S F. (2008) Property division characteristics and its illumination in modern urban 
planning in Dalian. Planners, 24 (6): 75-78 
Long, Y. and Shen, Z J. and Mao, Q Z. (2010). Parcel direction: a new index of measuring urban 
form. Planners, 26(4): 25-29 
McGarigal, K. and Marks, B. J. (1995) FRAGSTATS: Spatial pattern analysis program for 
quantifying landscape structure. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report PNW-351, 
Corvallis  
Siksna, A. (1997) The effects of block size and form in North American and Australian city centers. 
Urban Morphology, 1: 19-33 
Song, H. and Liang, J. (2005) Significance of blocks. Annual national planning conference 
Zhao, Q. (2016) Study and discovery on morphological characteristics of residential plots based 
on a general Survey in Nanjing, China. 11th International Symposium on Architectural 
Interchanges in Asia (ISAIA 2016), Sendai, Japan 
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR 
7 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
Qin ZHAO, Architect, China Architecture Design & Research Group, Chegongzhuang Road 19, Xicheng 
District, Beijing, P. R. China. zhaoqinwyx@gmail.com  


How geometric characteristics of blocks make sense: a general survey in Beijing, China

Deng, Handuo

Zhang, Keer

Wang, Chenyue

Fringe belt alienation and new kernels of Chinese megacities: a case study of Qingdao

Zhang, Gong

ISUF 2020: CITIES IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY  
 
COMPARISON STUDY OF TYPOLOGY TRANSFORMATION IN 
WATERFRONT INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT: ARSENAL IN VENICE AND 
YANGPU RIVERSIDE IN SHANGHAI 
Gong Zhang, master of College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, China 
ABSTRACT 
Nowadays, human and water are becoming more and more connected in waterfront cities. This 
paper makes a comparison between Yangpu riverside in Shanghai and Arsenal in Venice. Both 
them were the most important waterfront industrial area in history, undergone  , rebirth because 
of water and typology transformation. 
Arsenal in Venice was developed for navy and shipping. After World War II, Industrial migration 
caused the Arsenal losing its production capacity. Until 1980, the first Venice Architecture 
Biennale, the Arsenal began to be reused as an exhibition place, still facing the conflict between 
lagoon and its defense. Yangpu riverside is the birthplace of Shanghai's modern industry. With the 
industrial migration, shipyards and textile mills declined one after another. Until 2013, public 
cultural activities such as SUSAS brought new vitality to the region. 
Through a diachronic study, the typo-morphology study of waterfront industrial area can be 
presented in several diagrams. The article makes a comparative and graphical analysis focusing 
on the four times typology transformation, water rearing, industrial migration, Industrial 
Wasteland, cultural intervention, and climate changing threaten.  Based on the typological 
reading, the article also analyses the influence of ecological foundation, social and economic 
factors on morphology of industrial area, and how to deal with the relationship between human 
and water. 
Finally, the author summarizes the significance of typology transformation facing crisis in two area, 
aiming to provide guidance reference for the development of waterfront cities.  
INTRODUCTION  
In 21 century, the relationship between human and water are becoming more and more 
connected in waterfront cities. 
The research focus on waterfront industrial district crisis. The industrial revolution and the 
development of the shipping industry led to the emergence of many important port cities around 
the world, such as Hamburg, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Rotterdam, Cape Town and New York. The 
development of ports has led to the flourishing of waterfront industrial zones, which are built on 
water and offer efficient production, transport and sales. With the advent of the post-industrial era, 
each port city is faced with the ecological and socio-economic crisis caused by the relocation and 
transformation of industrial areas and the abandonment of industrial sites.  
This paper makes a comparison between Yangpu riverside in Shanghai and Arsenal in Venice. 
Both them were the most important waterfront industrial area in history, undergone, rebirth 
because of water and typology transformation. Through the analysis of two typical cases, the 
opportunities and problems of the historical changes in the industrial heritage, are summarized, as 
well as the different solutions of the two cities, thus providing a significant reference. 
2 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
METHODOLOGY  
This paper adopts a combination of literature review and case analysis. Firstly, the existing 
theoretical studies on the waterfront and industrial heritage will be reviewed, and the development 
process, the relationship between the waterfront and urban space will be summarized, providing 
theoretical support for the renovation and protection of Arsenal in Venice and the Yangpu 
Riverside. At the same time, collect typical examples of the development of the two areas in four 
historical periods, and summarize their urban form, functional substitution and planning ideas.  
1.Industrial production period, water raring 
The first construction of the Arsenal in Venice began in 1104. As the military production base of the 
Venetian Republic, it developed into the largest industrial complex in Europe. At the same time, the 
Arsenal produced most of the merchant ships used in Venice's trade, bringing wealth and power to 
the city. During nearly 1000 years, Arsenal of Venice's typological transformation. has developed 
step by step. The arsenal was enclosed by a 2-mile wall, from the original castle, to the expanding 
shipyards, to the gradually developing northeastern part of the site. 
 
Figure 1 typology transformation of Arsenal in Venice (13 century, 16 century,  18 century, 19 century) 
Yangpu riverside is located in the northeast of Shanghai. It is the birthplace of modern Chinese 
industry and has a hundred-year history of Yangpu industrial civilization.Yangpu Riverside 
industrial zone is probably the largest in Shanghai, accounting for 70% of the total amount. 
Yangpu's municipal facilities such as water, electricity and coal were built early and in large scale. 
It was once the energy supply center of Shanghai, a metropolis in the Far East. In the south section 
of Yangpu Riverside where a large number of industrial heritages are gathered, a total of 24 
historical buildings with 66 buildings are planned to be preserved. In addition, a large number of 
distinctive industrial relics are also preserved. 
3 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
 
Figure 2 Yangp Riverside industrial heritage 
2.Industrial migration 
Both of the cities faced the Industrial decline crisis. As for Venice, After World War II, Industrial 
migration caused the Arsenal losing its production capacity. The industry on the main island of 
Venice changed from the traditional shipbuilding to a more complex industrial complex, and the 
location was moved to the Magra region. Arsenal of Venice lost its industry production, absence 
of good use for a long time. 
The Yangpu Riverfront is the city's main energy supplier. Until the 1990s, Shanghai gradually 
entered the post-industrial era, the city was faced with industrial restructuring and upgrading, and 
traditional industries were forced to shut down and relocate, leaving behind a depressing scene. 
The Yang Shupu Water Plant, China's first tap water plant, is still in operation. The Yang Shupu 
Power Plant has been relocated due to its high level of pollution. 
 
Figure 3 Yangpu Riverside and the Central City of Shanghai 
 
4 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
3. Cultural Intervention 
The third part is the functional Transformation, expecially cultural intervention.  
Until 1980, the first Venice Architecture Biennale, the Arsenal began to be reused as an exhibition 
place, undertaking world-class cultural and artistic events including the Venice Biennale of Movie, 
Architecture, Art and Music. The success of Venice's transformation from a decaying city of trade 
and commerce to a city of culture and art. 
As for Shanghai, until 2013, public cultural activities such as SUSAS brought new vitality to 
Yangpu Riverside. At the same time, new urban design gives Yangpu riverside vitality, highlighting 
the combination of cultural experience, ecology and science and technology. Yangpu riverside 
changed from industrial port to living port and smart port, open to the public. After the 
transformation, the industrial zone not only retains the characteristics of historical buildings, but 
also puts in cultural functions.  
4. Climate changing threaten 
In recent years, Venice has often been affected by floods, with warming of the climate leading to 
a 60-year flood in 2019. The Arsenal is being used again for the Venice MOSE Project, a flood 
protection system that protects the tides of the Venetian lagoon. And thanks to the lagoon, 
Venice's waterfront is obviously more friendly and close to people. 
Shanghai's biggest climate challenge, however, is also flood control. In order to combat the once-
in-a-century flooding, 2 to 3 meter high embankments have been built along the Huangpu River. In 
2015, Shanghai launched a three-year project to connect the spaces along the Huangpu River. 
This initiative, along with extensive landscape and architectural renewal, creates a continuous 
open public space for the public. In order to prevent flood in Yangpu River, high dams prevent 
people from connecting with water 
FINDINGS  
 
Figure 4 Comparison between Arenal in Venice and Yangpu Riverside in Shanghai 
I summarizes the significance of typology transformation facing crisis in two area, aiming to 
provide guidance reference for the development of waterfront cities.  
5 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
First of all, the two cities have something in common, the two waterfront industrial areas have a 
long history, and after abandonment, have become a historical heritage. Both are far from the 
central city, and with the expansion of the city, they have become sub-centres, facing urban 
renewal. As a well protected historical city, Venice retains the existing buildings to the maximum 
extent and provides Shanghai with a lot of development experience in the process of renewal. As 
a city with rapid urbanization process, adopting renewal strategy in the process of renewal is also 
an attempt and breakthrough. Here are some of the solutions taken by the two cities. 
 
Figure 5 Real photos of Arsenal in Venice and Yangpu Riverside in Shanghai taken by the author. 
1. Typo-mophology transformation on urban form level 
Spatial form as the dominant factor, the morphological structure of the waterfront orientation can 
fundamentally drive the non-material and micro-adjustment. Public space along the waterfront, 
strengthen the relationship between land and water, increase waterfront trails, public squares and 
public buildings, and increase the public space along the waterfront. At the same time, the 
construction of new roads to reach the waterfront will enhance the accessibility of the waterfront. 
Traffic flow integrated with a public tour line increased walkability. 
2. Functional transformation 
Cultural intervention, industrial transformation, such as the transformation of large industrial 
buildings into art spaces, the organization of large-scale art season activities; as an opportunity to 
adopt a top-down approach to gradually drive the micro-level renewal, such as the introduction of 
outdoor public activities, jogging, hiking, outdoor singing, roller skating, play space. Making the 
waterfront area become a place of daily life for the public, at the same time, can attract tourists to 
sightseeing, participate in special activities, enhance the flow of people. Finally, the differentiated 
use of historic buildings to renovate industrial. Some industry buildings can be converted into large 
6 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
museums, some can be converted into restaurants and tea rooms, some can be converted into art 
activity centers, loft office space and so on. 
3. Micro-improve the quality of space 
The original space suitable for industrialized large scale, rough style, and lack of humanization is 
gradually shifting to the direction of sectional scale, refinement, and humanization while restoring 
the cultural memory of industrial heritage through the spatial operation. For example, as for the 
Yangpu Riverside,  boat piles were transformed into seats and steel pipes into street light, realizing 
the transformation from industrial scale to human scale. The giant cranes preserved in Arsenal in 
Venice waterfront and Yangpu Riverfront have become the monuments of the riverfront area, 
evoking memories and further shaping the industrial heritage culture. 
4. Build the ecological foundation and the quality of greenery and landscape 
In the face of increasingly severe climate change and the increasing demand for quality waterfront 
landscapes, the emphasis is on green sustainability. First of all, the most important thing for 
waterfront areas is to prevent flooding and to deal with the relationship with water, we can use 
multi-level levees to reduce the height of flood control to a pleasant scale. At the same time, 
improve the quality of the waterfront landscape and the greening rate. Gradually change the 
dependence and fear of people on the water to the harmonious coexistence of people and water. 
CONCLUSIONS 
In conclusion, through the comparative case study of the Arsenal in Venice and the Shanghai 
Yangpu Riverside, we summarized the waterfront industrial zone in the face of the water crisis, the 
solution taken, from the type of morphological adjustment, functional transformation, space quality 
enhancement, ecological infrastructure construction several aspects, summarized the waterfront 
industrial renewal strategy. Finally, the paper summarizes the significance of typology 
transformation facing the crisis in two areas, aiming to provide guidance reference for the 
development of waterfront cities. 
REFERENCES 
Zhu Haiming, Wang Haolin. Research on the creation of urban waterfront space landscape in 
Yangpu, Shanghai[A]. Proceedings of the Academic Exchange Conference on Industrial 
Architecture, 2020 (middle volume)[C]. Zhongye Architecture Research Institute Limited:Industrial 
Architecture Magazine,2020:4. 
Yao Mingguang. Thinking about the Enhancement of Tourism Function and Service Level of the 
South Section of Yangpu Riverfront, Shanghai[J]. Shanghai Art Review,2020(04):8-10. 
Liu Kexin. Research on Landscape Renewal Design of Old Waterfront Industrial Zone Based on the 
Concept of Sustainability: An Example of Yangpu Riverfront Park, Shanghai[J]. 
Garden,2020(08):74-80. 
Liu Kexin. Research on Landscape Renewal Design of Old Waterfront Industrial Area Based on 
Sustainable Concept: An Example of Yangpu Riverfront Park, Shanghai[J]. Garden,2020(08):74-
80. 
7 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
The New Bright Spot of Yangpu Riverside with High Quality Party Building[J]. Shanghai Party 
History and Party Construction,2020(08):66. 
Wang Shuo. Opening the free space - side note of the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale[J]. World 
Architecture,2018(08):116-119. 
Yin Dan. Theatricalization and didacticism: from the two adjacent national pavilions of the Venice 
Armory[J]. Pictorial,2017(10):61-64. 
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR 
Gong Zhang, postgraduate of College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, 1239 Siping 
Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, SH, 200092, China, tongjizg@gmail.com  
 
 


Comparison study of typology transformation in waterfront industrial district: Arsenal in Venice and Yangpu riverside in Shanghai

Peng, Yixuan

Bruyns, Gerhard

Qu, Lei

Nel, Darren

ISUF 2020: CITIES IN THE TWENTY -FIRST CENTURY  
 
NEW ‘WORLD’ MORPHOLOGY: OUTLINING THE CHINESE MEGABLOCK 
URBANISM (CMU) BLOCK MORPHOLOGY AND PHYSICAL 
CHARACTERISTICS  
Yixuan Peng, Ph.D. Candidate, The School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR 
China 
Gerhard Bruyns, Associate Professor, The School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 
SAR China 
Lei Qu, Assistant Professor, Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment,  
Netherland 
Darren Nel, Ph.D. Candidate, The School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR 
China 
ABSTRACT 
If we reexamine the question of scale, the “mega” remains a significant concept to our understanding 
of the contemporary territory. In the past forty years, China, has experienced an unprecedented scale 
of rapid urbanization within human history, urbanizing from 17.9% to 58.5% in this time (NBSC, 2018). 
In order to achieve this rate of urbanization, new tools and scales were indispensable. As such, mega 
planning has been become a key concern at both the national and local scales of Chinese spatial 
planning (Yin, 2010). As evidence, this has resulted in mega projects becoming a dominant form for 
all types of urban habitats or spatial typologies.  
Existing urban morphological studies of China have yet to provide a clear perspective of the mega-
scale project under the background of rapid urbanization. In this paper, the focus is on mega-
development at the urban block scale, which can be termed the ‘Chinese Megablock Urbanism’ 
(CMU) phenomenon.  
In this light, we question if the CMU has become the new tool to sustain rapid urbanization? 
Moreover, how can the study of megablocks contribute to the understanding of Chinese morphology 
and its spatial conditions? The cases shown will act as comparative analysis, discussing the 
specificities of configurations, spatial distributions and FAR conditions to outline the complexities of 
the ‘mega’ form. It will conclude on the possible revisions of morphological parameters, and fully 
comprehend this new tool to assess Chinese urban form within a sustainable paradigm.  
Keywords: Chinese megablock, rapid urbanization, block morphology 
INTRODUCTION  
There is no denying the significance of understanding “scale” in urban studies in China (Miao, 2003). 
In either daily life or theoretical analysis, the ‘mega’ scale has become part of the Chinese context 
intuitively observed by researchers, citizens or even outsiders as a key and foundational role in all 
dimensions and formats of urban issues. But indeed, if one traces history of this country, China has 
been united with its vast territory and large population since the first feudal dynasty: Qin, at 246 B.C. 
Huang Renyu (2001) pointed out that since ancient time, China prematurely formed a centralized 
state of centralization, but also because of this factor of scale, all aspects have encountered arduous 
challenges. This allowed ambitious projects such as connecting walls along the northern border, 
eventually developing into the Great Wall of China. On the basis of Huang Renyu, Zhou Xueguang 
(2016) pointed out that the traditional Chinese governance system is subject to the super large scale 
and the scale load it brings, so it has to rely on the relationship between the political system and the 
non-political system, and between the name and the real of the central government. Until nowadays, 
we often hear the expression of "big country thinking" (see for example Hao, 2015; Wang, 2015). 
However, if we compare to the ancient Greek philosophy, Plato had a thorough discussion about the 
size of the polis which has been regarded as one of the most classical and influential theoretical 
2 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
frameworks in understanding Western cities. It emphasis on the size of a city or country should be 
controlled to a reasonable scale, which has longstanding impacts on western countries’ governance. 
As a result, one should be aware of this cultural difference of how different countries and their people 
look upon the concept of urban “scale”. 
The broader framework of this research starts touching upon the question of Chinese ‘mega’ scale as 
a discernible scale paradigm. Focusing on its radicalness of speed and scale, this paper specifically 
aims to investigate the formative and material definitions of Chinese mega-development at the urban 
block scale. Cases are highlighted with their morphological characteristics, of what is defined as 
Chinese megablock urbanism (CMU). Such so, CMU has become instrumental, as a tool of limitless 
urbanization, that is yet remaining undefined.  
NEW ‘WORLD ’  MORPHOLOGY: CHINESE MEGABLOCK URBANISM (CMU) 
To understand the mega urban development in China, the existing urbanism theory should be review 
through a critical perspective. Apart from building up the theoretical background for CMU, the review 
of urbanisms is also aiming to collect comparative cases from precedent urbanisms theory, to test the 
hypothesis that CMU is an unprecedented urbanism. In addition, to find factors with variables in 
urbanism theories that are related to CMU. The review of literatures in urbanism theories is intended 
to provide related background knowledges of how modernism thinking that gradually shaped urban 
planning discipline, during their periods and with their characteristics, into what we see today. Their 
influences of CMU are both distinguishable and durable. 
Hall (2014) believed that the modern cities planning differed from traditional strategies which only 
focus on urban forms in a way that it represented an integrated approach to balance social and 
economic concerns. The ‘Garden city movement’, firstly initiated in 1898 Ebenezer Howard who was 
firstly inspired by planned communities by charities along industrial sites, forms the initial model of 
modern urban planning theory, by advocating to improve living environments of workers and call for 
social reformation. Utopian and garden city planning are worth to be further reviewed as they are 
relevant to Chinese mega development: with a socialism and utopian program as planning model. 
In the socialist points of view, megablocks appear to be one of most ideal development of human 
community where people work and live collectively in a harmonized environment as pointed out by 
Shane (2016). Moreover, Haar & Marshall, (2012) referred that the megablock pattern is preferred in 
China due to the historical sense of possession in ancient time. Studies by Xie & Costa (1993) have 
illustrated that modern socialism pioneers in China have been using urban planning to address 
various issues in the society, including urban environment, traffic, social contradiction, in an integrated 
manner.  
Evenson (1970) summarized that the modern urban planning theory by Le Corbusier regarded 
residence as the most important element of the cities. In other word, the scale of the residential units 
in cities would determine the scale of urban blocks. Fishman (1982) further explained that the 
megablocks development mode is preferred by many distinguished figures during modernism period 
because megablocks was referred as way to re-organize social lives, and address social issues, such 
as traffic problems. In addition, Neighbourhood unit, originally raised by American architect Perry 
(1929), together with Radburn planning by Clarence Stein (1933) integrated residential units with 
lawns, public facilities with pedestrian and automobile system in a megablock scale, activating the 
local community with little interference from external traffic. Le Corbusier proposed the concept of 
“City of Tomorrow” in 1929 and with megablocks ideas to drive urban planning which he further 
developed in the plan for Chandigarh, providing local residents with vast of green land and activities 
space. 
Under the socialism context, Sxelenyi (1996) believed that a number of urban planner preferred 
megablocks which are intended to create more integrated, safe and joint ownership community, 
demonstrating the advantages of the socialism urban planning pattern, the “micro-district” model in 
Soviet Union can be the best example. Most importantly, Tang (2000) thought that it appears that the 
3 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
megablock pattern of urban planning would be only applied extensive in a socialism society. When 
the concepts of huge blocks were first raised, especially prevailing neighborhood unit at its time. 
Silver (1985) believed that many western countries attempted to adapt the megablock residential 
pattern but most of the experiments did not went far due to political and social constrains, thus the 
idea was not widely accepted. Mumford (1954) further explained that due to the private ownership of 
most of the land in western countries who operates in capitalist system, land ownership is clearly 
defined and independent. Plots of land were divided into small fractions for each landowner to form 
the traditional pattern of small scale of blocks in western countries. In contrary, Sxelenyi (1996) 
argued that many socialism or semi-socialism countries with public land ownership schemes, such as 
Soviet Union, China and Netherland, have the conditions to promote the megablock urbanization 
pattern in a widely spread area (see figure 1). 
 
Figure 1. Arial photos of Moscow, Beijing and Amsterdam in the same scale. 
Accordingly, to Shane (2016) with the support of public land ownership system in China, residents are 
freely to enjoy the common area of green land, social space and public facilities within the gated 
community or megablock, realizing the advantage of the socialism system and making the dream of 
urban planning pioneers. In China, Oakes (2016) considered urban planning policies as public 
administrative policies that affect every single individual in the country. For the above reasons and 
context, megablock has become an effective and practicable development model in China, which can 
be regarded as a “socialism with Chinese characteristics” urbanization practice. 
RESEARCH SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY 
Since the nature of this study, which is defining and morphological analysis of the CMU phenomenon, 
there are key elements that needed to be extracted from the process of critical literature review, which 
is one of the main research methods in this paper. To be more specific, two main aspects are 
regarded as outputs from the literature review: 1) Exemplary cases that will be analyzed later for the 
comparison of urban form, the “urban form collector”, which are shown in the form of figure-ground 
maps 2) Factors and variables that can represent valuable characteristics of CMU, and also need to 
be further selected by criteria of CMU framework. 
The research also applies spatial analysis of massive case study, aims to provide a well-informed 
basis for the development of a block morphological framework from CMU perspective. This purpose 
will be achieved by detailed examination and layering of the physical structure of urban forms. The 
disciplines of architecture, urban design and urban planning will become highly integrated within 
urban morphology, when the complementary relationships between small-scale changes and macro-
scale variants are understood and interpreted in the research framework.  
URBAN MORPHOLOGICAL STUDY 
After scanning of related urbanism models world widely, representative cases are selected to 
compare their urban morphology with the CMU. In order to understand spatial properties of CMU, the 
first part of this section is studying the urban form in term of the relationship between road and block. 
4 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
As they mutually shape each other, the most effective method to understand this morphology is by 
analyzing the figure-ground map, which have been named as “urban form collector” (see figure 2), 
which can intuitively visualize features like size of block and street, density of road, total length of 
road, total number of joint and density. In order to get the massive cases maps, coding and 
programing tools are applied to assist the study becomes more efficient and prepare files for further 
analysis on other platforms such as ArcGIS. The research worked with Python on JupyterLab with 
OSMnx package.  
Figure 2. “Urban form Collector”, with CMU cases highlighted. 
In addition, for each of these cases, other spatial properties have also been investigated such as 
building plot (figure 3-b), centrality (3-c), routing of 2km /30 minutes’ walk (3-d) and node analysis (3-
ef). To give an example, if we zoom in the case study number four of Guangzhou University Town 
(figure 3), a set of urban morphological tests have been conducted. Horizontal comparison between 
megablock urbanism and other types has been incorporated by the broader part of this study, aiming 
to provide detail morphological attributes of CMU model. 
 
Figure 3. Spatial analysis of case NO.4: the Guangzhou University Town 
From the comparison of cases, there are three main aspects that this paper wants to point out: 
5 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
1. Density of road network. We can discover from the figure-ground maps, CMU cases has 
larger block size and wider road width comparing to other urbanism models. CMU cases 
appear distinguish characteristic of “wide road, sparse network” structure. The total length of 
road is inadequate, meanwhile, the 8-10 car lane arterial roads has taken substantial 
amount of urban surface, both lead to a low level of road density. The insufficiencies of low 
density of road network has been noticed by Chinese planners, therefore changes are being 
made. For instance, from the latest Technical Standards for Detailed Controlled Planning in 
Shanghai, network density of residential zones is increased to 2-4 km/km2 for both major 
and sub roads, and 8-12 km/km2 for minor roads.  
2. Connectivity. From the centrality test (see for example figure 3-c), the CMU communities 
have high dependency on boundary and arterial roads. Meanwhile, quantity of road 
junctions and access of megablocks are insufficient and limited compares to smaller block 
system. These spatial configurations directly affect the connectivity between megablocks, as 
well as their accessibility to the larger urban network. In February 2016, the State Council 
and the Communist Party's Central Committee—the nation's highest authorities—adopted 
new guidelines that call for compacter cities with denser networks of streets, more 
pedestrian and cycling lanes, better public transport, mixed-use zoning, and more green 
space. New open residential communities will be joined with public roads, and the old gated 
residential communities will gradually open to the public (Normile, 2016). 
3. Influence on everyday life. Megablock morphology directly impacts on residents’ commute 
and quotidian life. From the routing (see for example figure 3-d) analysis, we can see that 
within 30 minutes’ walk, the reachable area is limited to a few blocks which indicate a low 
walkability in terms of opportunity to reach different functions. As a result, CMU model is 
highly dependent on vehicle, which aggrandizes pressure to the urban road network and 
results in traffic congestion at peak hours. In many existing CMU cases, their actual 
modalities are gated communities, walls and gates have separated compounds from each 
other, form urban enclaves from its structure. In addition, the overscale morphology also 
affects the interface between megablock and street. As the block size does not encourage 
inhabitants to walk on these neighborhoods, the vitality of street life has been reduced. 
Therefore, the regeneration of CMU cannot be simplified as demolishment of walls, but a 
reformation of road network and urban morphology. 
CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION 
The results from above study show that Chinese rapid urbanization took place at an exceptional scale, 
which reveals a peculiar morphology. Accompanying with context of the largest growing urban 
population in the world, and its socialism background, development models and tools differ from foreign 
countries, especially in terms of scale and density thus has been generated to achieve this radical urban 
growth. Through the study of its background and cases, CMU reveals intriguing spatial characteristics 
and qualities that worth to be further investigated. The study has investigated into western urbanism 
theories and cases of planning and scale, as well as reviewed Chinese conditions of various aspects. 
The coinitial findings reveals that this research cannot be only related to FAR or morphology, it might 
be a scale-density-morphology hybrid description that it has to be further formulated, as a part of the 
CMU model. 
Moreover, adaptations and interventions of analysis tools for the CMU are essential for the future study. 
This research is an attempt to open up a discussion of CMU, which has abundant limitations as it 
positions at an on-going research. However, lessons that we could learn from the Chinese rapid 
urbanization has not raised enough attention from neither the western nor Chinese scholars, especially 
under the nation’s strategies of “The Belt and Road” and “Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank” context. 
How can we regenerate the existing megablock, and how can this development model be gradually 
shaped into a more sustainable direction, remain crucial for the future application. 
REFERENCES 
6 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
Evenson, N. (1970). Le Corbusier: the machine and the grand design. George Braziller. 
Fishman, R. (1982). Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, 
and Le Corbusier. MIT Press 
Haar, S., & Marshall, V. (2012). Mega urban ecologies. Urban design ecologies. Wiley, London, 146-
161. 
Hall, P. (2014). Cities of tomorrow: an intellectual history of urban planning and design since 1880. 
John Wiley & Sons. 
Hao, D. (2015). Philosophy Thinking and Big Country Strategy. Jianghai Press.  2015(04):45-49. 
Miao, P. (2003). Gated Communities: Cancer of Urban Life –Problems and Solutions. Journal of 
Urban Design, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2003, pp. 45-66. 
Mumford, L. (1954). The neighborhood and the neighborhood unit. Town Planning Review, 24(4), 
256. 
National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2018). Statistical communique of the People's Republic of 
China on the 2017 national economic and social development.  
Normile D (2016) China rethinks cities. Science 352(6288): 916–918 
Perry, C. A. (1929). City planning for neighborhood life. Soc. F., 8, 98. 
Shane, D. G. (2016). Notes on villages as a Global Condition. Architectural Design, 86(4), 48-57 
Silver, C. (1985). Neighborhood planning in historical perspective. Journal of the American Planning 
Association, 51(2), 161-174. 
Sxelenyi, I. (1996). Cities under socialism—and after. Cities after socialism: urban and regional 
change and conflict in post‐socialist societies, 286-317. 
Tang, W. S. (2000). Chinese urban planning at fifty: an assessment of the planning theory 
literature. Journal of Planning Literature, 14(3), 347-366. 
Xie, Y., & Costa, F. J. (1993). Urban planning in socialist China: Theory and practice. Cities, 10(2), 
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Yin, G. (2010). The Great Leap Forward of City. Huazhong University of Science and Technology. 
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR 
Yixuan Peng, Ph.D. Candidate, The School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR 
China, evelyne.peng@connect.polyu.hk  


New 'world' morphology: Outlining the Chinese megablock urbanism (CMU) block morphology and physical characteristics

Scheer, Brenda Case

Bazughayfan, Khalid A.

Managing design issues in the planning systems of Saudi Arabia

PhD candidate, Politecnico di Torino, Ital

Tulumen, Zeynep

ISUF 2020: CITIES IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY  
 
UNFOLDING ISTANBUL’S CHANGE THROUGH ITS INNER-CITY 
NEIHBORHOODS  
Zeynep Tulumen, PhD candidate, Politecnico di Torino, Italy 
ABSTRACT 
Istanbul is unique for being an amalgamation of different urban forms as an outcome of divergent 
regimes since its twenty-seven century-long life. The city, was founded under Pagan rules as a small 
Greek settlement, it later became Constantinople; a Christian-Byzantine capital. Afterwards, it 
turned into Istanbul; an Islamic-Ottoman capital and finally transformed into a Turkish republican 
megapolis. Today, it reached the 21st century as a global megalopolis, Istanbul’s enduring 
transformation hasn’t stopped yet. On the contrary, its inner-city fabrics are mutating under 
pressure of the latest global driving forces such as tourism and finance. Thus, this giant urban 
territory is adapting itself to the new consumption patterns of 21st century where contemporary 
stratifications are starting to be formed. This paper wants to show through three case studies, at a 
neighborhood scale, how nowadays the urban pattern of Istanbul is experiencing transition 
processes due to new emerging lifestyles. Fikirtepe, Karakoy, Bomonti want to be emblematic 
examples to explain, within a global extent, the present morphological transitions in the different 
parts of the contemporary city. The research will demonstrate the results of diachronic comparative 
analysis through maps that are created based on municipal plans and field surveys.  
Keywords: transitional morphologies, Istanbul, 21st century, urban land 
INTRODUCTION  
The city of the 21st century is being shaped by the economic changes that started to take place in 
the late 20. Century. Its transformation has been exacerbated due to the flow of globalization 
movement, structural shifts in the economy, and new technologies (Friedmann, 1986). The transition 
from a productive city to a global city, where the service sector is dominant, has detectably 
determined the new circumstances for cities' urban fabric. All of a sudden, previously abandoned 
inner-city areas became attractive for new service sectors (such as culture, recreation, tourism, 
finance, etc.) consumers and producers. This stimulated the development of new centralities and 
reshaped the spatial configuration in a dissimilar scale.   
Istanbul is no exception to that. It has been transformed from a settlement with a population of 2.8 
million 50 years ago to a metropolitan city with 15.5 million residents today; a result of intensive 
internal migration and rapid urbanization controlled under neoliberal policies that led to a 
significant spatial change, particularly in the last decades. The latest masterplan 2009 highlights the 
importance of the transiting sectors in national development. To provide a competitive advantage 
in the global platform to Istanbul; the current sectoral structure is targeted to be transformed 
predominantly into top-level services. In this direction, the employment structure, 32% of which 
used to be industry, 60% of services, and 8% of agriculture, is projected to alternate toward 70% 
service 25% industry and 5% agriculture. In the long run, it is pride that these values projected as 
75%, 20%, and 5%, respectively (IMM, 2009). 
Until 1980, Istanbul’s core was positioned in the historical peninsula and the city had a single CBD, 
in Eminonu and Beyoglu districts, where it's main business and commercial activities was located. 
(Enlil, 2011). The organized industry was present mainly in the historical peninsula in Kazlicesme, 
2 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
Eyup, Halic near Golden Horn and was extending until Kagithane and Bomonti (Arslan, 1974). 
Within the structural shift that started to occur starting from the late 20th century, the traditional 
CBD could no more respond to the requirements of the upcoming demand due to the diseconomies 
of agglomeration. The increasing population and changing industries required adequate 
transportation, accessibility, parking, and larger working spaces. Consequently, the CBD moved 
gradually from the historical center where it was present in mono-centric form toward the northern 
part, Zincirlikuyu – Levent - Maslak ax in Besiktas and Sisli districts, in axial-linear form. The 
development of infrastructure, for example, the construction of Bosphorous Bridge in 1973 and the 
provision of peripheral highways, enabled substantially the dispersion of these new centralities 
(Dökmeci & Berköz, 1994). As well as, the organized industry shifted toward the outskirts of the 
city scattering between west and east of the territory. This was partially due to health and safeness 
issues but more importantly due to low land prices in peripheral areas where economies of 
agglomeration were applied.  
The transformation that started by the 80s was accelerated at the beginning of the 21st century 
with impressive economic growth. Starting from the 2000s growing transportation infrastructures, 
construction projects on vacant land, and transformation of the existing built environment have 
become the physical reflections of this growth (Islam 2010). Tourism and international flows were 
introduced predominately in the urban agenda. As a result, the overall spatial configuration of the 
city started to undergo noticeable transition and particular portions of the urban land were 
exposed to high demand thanks to their conceivable economic opportunity. Such socio-economic 
transitions within the city are reflected visibly in its urban space as well as in its form. The urban 
fabric, hence, becomes at the same time a condition in shaping economic forces and an outcome of 
the corresponding trends. This study, in particular, wants to reveal the transformation of the built – 
space which is exposed to high-demand in contemporary Istanbul.  
METHODOLOGY  
Accordingly, the study will use three selected case studies, at a neighborhood scale, to explore in 
which way the urban pattern of the city is experiencing transition processes due to new emerging 
lifestyles. Istanbul is the macro laboratory and Fikirtepe, Karakoy, Bomonti neighborhoods want to 
be emblematic examples that serve as microcosms to discover undergoing change in different parts 
of the city. Fikirtepe is situated in Kadikoy district, on the Asian side of Istanbul, and is famous for 
being one of the earliest squatter areas. Karakoy is an important historical commercial 
neighborhood located on the east of the historical peninsula in the European waterfront section.  
Bomonti is a former industrial site in Sisli district close to the main CBD of the city, characterized by 
old manufacture and vacant land. They are representative samples respectively from the informal, 
historical, and industrial legacies of the territory. A diachronic comparative analysis for each area 
is conducted through maps that are created based on municipal plans and field surveys between 
2006 and 2019, for almost a decennial period, to explore the type of transmutation within the 
selected samples. 
FIRST SAMPLE 
Fikirtepe neighborhood is famous for being one of the earliest squatter areas, situated in Kadikoy 
district on the Asian side of Istanbul. The area was started to be shaped since the 1950s by the 
immigrants who worked in the surrounding factories and who moved here by making their slums on 
the lands they bought. It is situated between one of the main highways passing inside the city (D-
3 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
100) and Bağdat Street which is the most important commercial street of the Anatolian Istanbul. 
The area can be recognized through its informal morphological pattern. It consists of large narrow 
plots occupied by small to medium-sized buildings and shelters organized around a narrow street 
network with a high building density. The architecture in the area is consist of gecekondu and 
apartmentkondu typology, which was born as a result of rural to urban migration (Duyar-Kienast, 
2005). These are poorly constructed one to three floors houses that are usually made of briket 
without any carrying elements. As the city continued to cultivate and grow, this area became closer 
to the CBD of Kadikoy and affluent neighborhoods over time. Being adjacent to a prestigious street 
and close to highway exits towards the Bosphorus Bridge, Fikirtepe had an opportune location for 
auspicious growth. Moreover, the insertion of important infrastructure projects such as Marmaray, 
Kadikoy-Kartal metro line, Metrobus line strengthen the accessibility of the area, and the creation 
of a new financial center nearby in Atasehir by 2008 brought a new consumer profile that could 
potentially exploit the neighborhood. Accordingly, in 2010 the transformation of the area was 
announced to the public and in 2012 the first plot clearance took place. The redevelopment of the 
area is being led by private architectural firms and construction companies who dedicate close 
attention due to the profitability of the urban land.  
Through the comparative maps, it can be noticed that the transformation, in this case, takes on a 
large scale. The demolitions are realized at a plot scale and the existing low-rise dense urban 
forms are being replaced by high-rise urban form. The street pattern remains the same, spindly 
plots are unified forming larger square plots with more open space. Newly constructed skyscraper 
typologies are laid out as detached urban elements in different shapes on the map. Projects like 
Concord Istanbul, Brooklyn Park, Elit Concept, Mandarin Acibadem are some examples of the 
luxury towers that put together residential, office, and commercial functions together. These are 
destined to medium to high-income consumers of the 21st century that has different consumer 
preferences respect to former residents 
SECOND SAMPLE 
Karakoy is well-known for being the oldest trade center for centuries and an important harbor of 
the city, located on the European consolidated side of Istanbul, on the east of the historical 
peninsula. The neighborhood consists of compact urban blocks formed mainly by row houses, 
detached monumental architecture, and warehouses organized along the axes and the shore. Most 
of the buildings are examples of late 19. and early 20. Century Western style from the Ottoman 
Figure 1. Transition of the building fabric in Fikirtepe. Source: Original production 
4 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
period and late 20. Century modern structures. Karakoy’s charm, which was vanished by the late 
20th century due to its inadequate capacity to host developing port function, started to regrow 
dramatically in the eye of the investors during the last two decades. This was thanks to the strength 
of its location, and the capacity to become an important point that could accommodate service 
functions for the expected tourist load in the city. 
Through the comparative maps between 2006 and 2019, minor typological changes can be 
observed within the built fabric. In all the revealed points, the smaller attached units are unified in 
order to create a bigger unit. Surely, the traditional typologies present in the area are no more 
adequate to host new services neither qualitatively nor quantitatively. This is the case for example 
of hotel facilities that need larger surfaces to run their function. While local cafes and boutiques 
can be more handily adaptable on the previous narrow ground floor plan with some minor 
changes in the interior organization. Furthermore, if we examine the owner of the enlarged 
typologies, it is noticed abounding dominance of important international and national players such 
as; Starbucks, Novohotel, Marriot, HSBC, Nabu, and so on. These are powerful hotel chains, 
coffee chains, banks, or holdings recognized nation/worldwide. Within these analyses, it seems 
that typological transformations are occurring in the form of unification and densification only with 
the presence of strong international or national mechanisms. Finally, in the area, it is observed that 
general urban layout remains the same, nevertheless, single buildings are being demolished, 
modified, and unified in order to create larger typologies. A striking change in the overall structure 
of the urban tissue is not observed, while a remarkable change in the use of space can be laid out. 
THIRD SAMPLE 
Bomonti neighborhood is well-known for being the first industrial establishment in the region, 
located within the boundaries of Şişli district. With the establishment of the first brewery in the 
country in 1890, Bomonti, which was established in a city edge where the land price was low, has 
become an official urban industrial zone by the mid 20th century. In the neighborhood, slums, 
industrial establishments, and residences coexisted, and in this sense, it was a different industrial 
zone than other organized industrial areas of Istanbul. Bomonti is situated close to one of the main 
arteries that connect two continents and proximate to the main CBD of the city, Levent-Maslak axes.  
The historical factory, which has been actively operating for a long time, was stopped in 1991 and 
other dismissions of industrial activities persecuted that. The area was declared as a tourism center 
Figure 2. Transition of the building fabric in Karakoy. Source: Original production 
5 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
at the beginning of the 21st century, later, a central business area in 2005, and received intensive 
zoning rights to encourage private developers. This decision potentially was shaped due to the 
existing lands whose construction permissions were increased. Accordingly, large capital groups 
started to deposit their capital in the area and turned this place into a profitable investment 
occasion by purifying the manufacturing identity to host business activities together with residential, 
hotel, and entertainment functions.  
Through the comparative map analysis, it can be observed that industrial tissue including barracks 
and open spaces are turned transformed into detached high-rise urban forms. The plot pattern 
remains almost untouched, still, some streets are added. The biggest transformation is represented 
in the building pattern. Besides the old brewery factory whose forms remained identical, new 
emerging architectural forms are creating high-density spaces with low land coverage hosting 
luxury residence, hotel and office functions. Projects like Anthill Residence, Rixos Residences, 
Elysium Fantastic, Hilton are big players that are settled in the area under these forms. Moreover, 
further transmutations can be observed in the surroundings of the former industrial island. The street 
in the north-west of the island has been enlarged and existing informal tissue has disappeared. 
Traces of evictions and clearance of existing organic tissue can be noticed. This fabric has been 
replaced by regular blocks which are recognized as apartment typology. Certain voids present 
within the formal fabric are completed and some units are unified to create bigger ones.  
CONCLUSION 
From the mapping analysis which shows the evolution of the urban tissue within the last ten years 
for the selected case studies, certain findings emerge. In the following, brief considerations at a 
microscopic scale on specific cases are done to arrive at macroscopic observations about Istanbul. 
First, Fikirtepe’s transformation seems to be associated with improved accessibility in the area. The 
development and refinement of transportation means seem to enable the exploitation of a 
favorable location. The mutation of urban layout occurs on a large scale, applied in building and 
plot patterns under the form of forced/planned demolition and diffusion. Second, Karakoy’s 
transformation seems to be catalyzed from its proximity to the traditional historical center, the 
availableness of the existing building stock, and favorableness of the authentic urban tissue to host 
expected tourist flows in the area. The mutation of urban layout occurs on a small scale, exclusive 
Figure 3. Transition of the building fabric in Bomonti. Source: Original production 
6 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
to building units under the form of densification and unification with a sporadic behavior. Last, 
Bomonti’s transformation would seem to occur thanks to its available vacant land stock, its affinity 
with the main CBD, and busy urban arteries of the city. In this case, the mutation of urban layout 
appears on a medium – large scale, mainly applied to building patterns under the form of planned 
demolition and expansion.  
The location, meaning the relation with the outlying urban system, would seem like a crucial 
condition to trigger an interest that could affect in different ways the local spatial configuration. By 
the time, enclave circumstances have been constituted in all three cases which later, by exposing to 
series of spatial and social events, gave birth to sharp transitions. Consequently, urban forms have 
mutated under the form of densification, unification, diffusion, expansion. This observation brings 
out a trend in the creation of spacious, unbroken elements that are achieved through the 
enlargement and homogenization of urban components. This might go against the organic and rich 
urban fabric of the existing city. Moreover, new players such as multi-national chains and national 
enterprises, are dominantly appearing in those neighborhoods as the main agents of the current 
change. Within their presence, although the permeability of the ground floor could rise, the flow of 
consumer type chops round radically. While low–middle class disappears, medium-high class 
proliferate abundantly.  
The study through three samples wanted to demonstrate concretely, how the city of the 21st 
century, contemporary Istanbul is transforming under emerging non-spatial dynamics. The built 
environment served as an encoder to understand the nature of transition and agents involved. The 
reasons that initiate the interest and the resulting morphologies, by all means, are differentiating 
slightly for all cases, still, they allow to reveal common socio-spatial impacts on a larger territory. 
REFERENCES 
Arslan, R. (1974). ‘Istanbul kentlesme surecinde yapisal degisme’, Istanbul Journal of Socialogical 
Studies 2 (2011), 101-124. 
Dökmeci, V. and Berköz, L. (1994). ‘Transformation of Istanbul from a monocentric to a polycentric 
city’, European Planning Studies 2 (2), 189-20. 
Duyar-Kienast, U. (2005). The formation of gecekondu settelements in Turkey: The case of Ankara. 
(LIT Verlag, Munster). 
Enlil, Z. M. (2011). ‘The Neoliberal Agenda and the Changing Urban Form of Istanbul’, 
International Planning Studies 16 (1), 5-25.  
Friedmann, J. (1986). ‘The world city hypothesis’, Development and Change 17 (1), 69-83. 
Islam, T. (2010). ‘Current urban discourse, urban transformation and gentrification in Istanbul’, 
Architectural Design 80 (1), 58-63. 
Larkham, P. J. and Conzen M. P. (2014). Shapers of urban form. Explorations in morphological 
agency. (Routledge, New York). 
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR 
Zeynep Tulumen, PhD Candidate, Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino, Italy. 
zeynep.tulumen@polito.it 


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