Vítor Oliveira 
Urban Morphology [PDF ebook] 
An Introduction to the Study of the Physical Form of Cities

This is a book about cities or, more precisely, about the physical form of cities. It starts presenting the main elements of urban form – streets, urban blocks, plots and buildings – structuring our cities and the fundamental actors and processes of transformation shaping these elements. It then applies this analytical framework to describe the evolution of cities over history as well as to explain the functioning of contemporary cities. After the initial focus on the ‘object’ (cities) the book describes how different researchers and different schools of thought have been dealing with this object since the emergence of Urban Morphology, as the science of urban form, in the turning to the twentieth century. Finally, the book tries to identify what are the most important (and specific) contributions that Urban Morphology has to offer to contemporary cities, societies and economies.

Table of Content

Introduction.- Motivation.- Object of study.- Structure of the book.- The elements of urban form.- The concept of urban tissue.- The natural context.- The street system.- The plot system.- The building system.- Other elements.- The actors and processes of urban transformation.- Actors responsible for urban transformation.- Processes of urban transformation.- The city in history.- The Greek City.- The Roman city.- The Medieval city.- The Renaissance city.- The Baroque city.- The nineteenth century city.- The cities of the twentieth century.- The contemporary city.- New York.- Rome.- Sana’a.- The study of urban form: different approaches.- Classics in urban morphology.- Different morphological approaches.- Comparative studies of urban form.- From theory to practice.- Urban morphology and planning.- Urban morphology, building typology and architecture.- Relationships with other fields of knowledge.- Urban morphology and society.- Urban morphology and economy.- Urban form and energy.- Conclusions.

About the author

Vítor Oliveira is Professor of Urban Morphology and Urban Planning at Lusofona University of Porto, Portugal, and Senior Researcher at the Research Centre for Territory Transports and Environment at University of Porto, Portugal. He is an architect and has a MSc in Planning and Design of the Built Environment and a Ph D in Planning and Civil Engineering. He is a member of the Scientific Council of the Portuguese-language Network of Urban Morphology (PNUM) and of the International Seminar on Urban Form (ISUF). He is editor of the journal “Revista de Morfologia Urbana” and a member of the editorial board of the journal “Urban Morphology”.