Urban landscape structure anatomy: Structure patterns and typology identification in the space-time of Setif City, Algeria

Abstract

The definition of urban form and its elements raises a wide debate in urban morphology. This study presents a proposal to understand the structuring of the urban landscape of Setif City over 170 years (1848-2018) by abstracting its main elements into permanent structure (PS_UL). It corresponds to the street network, more static to the change of the town plan, and flexible structure (FS_UL), more resilient to change and explains the superimpositions of morphological components (plot, building, and land use). This work aims to identify typological patterns of structures suggested in space-time through the inspection of the growth of the street network and the filling of morphological layers framed by the concept of urbanity. The methodology is based on syntactic (diachronic) morphogenetic analysis, with statistical analyses as unsupervised classification. Results indicate that PS_UL presents an accumulation of microincrements produced with a similar degree of coherence in different urban fabrics, which explain the local patterns of street network structuring. The typology of FS_UL patterns indicates an unbalanced growth by the arrangement between morphological elements, resulting in a variation in the degree of urbanity.

Key words： Urban landscape structure; Permanent structure; Flexible structure; Patterns