The structure of urban landscapes: strengthening research and practice

Methods of articulating the historico-geographical structure of urban landscapes are fundamental to urban morphology and have considerable, but insufficiently recognized, potential in planning. M. R. G. Conzen made a major contribution to their development, notably between the late 1950s and the late 1980s. He demonstrated in traditional British towns and cities how the way in which the urban landscape is historically stratified, reflecting the distinctive residues of past periods, gives rise to a hierarchy of morphological regions or urban landscape units. In the past 20 years, there have been applications and adaptations of Conzen’s methods, and demonstrations of their potential in conservation and heritage planning, in other types of urban areas and other parts of the world, including the Far East. However, it is essential that urban morphological regionalization is grounded in sensitivity to the dynamics of the urban landscape and, especially in comparisons of different urban areas, that there is awareness of the level of resolution at which urban landscape units are delimited. Carefully applied, this method can make an important contribution to meeting a major challenge facing urban morphology today: the provision of sound bases for comparative research and its application in planning practice.