Aspects of urban form

The diversity and complexity of human settlements is reflected in the range of ways we try to understand them. The richness of subject matter presented by cities has given rise to an equal richness in methods of investigation. Even within a single field such as urban morphology, there are different approaches with different terms of reference. The challenge raised by the diversity is not how to select between the different views but how to combine and co-ordinate them. The purpose of this paper is to undertake an initial critical analysis of different approaches to urban morphology in an effort to meet that challenge. The first aim is to identify the range of different phenomena taken as the object of urban morphological enquiry. The second is to identify an aspect that is common to all the approaches and that can be used as a reference key to co-ordinate different views in a rigorous way. The ultimate goal is a composite view in which the different approaches support each other to provide a better understanding of human settlements.