Morphological Research in Practice

Abstract

This chapter collects some of the main issues and arguments of the book. The first part presents urban morphology as a framework to rigorously describe urban form at different scales of analysis, identifying the main agents and explaining the fundamental processes that change, or conserve, that physical form over time. The second and third parts explore the relation between the science of urban form and professional practice. Recognizing the gap between knowledge and action, the focus is on the integration of morphological approaches into action on the urban landscape and on the crucial role of the researcher-practitioner. Although the book argues for an evidence-based practice, it does not aim to produce a uniform product. On the contrary, it is expected that the diversity and richness of contexts that are acknowledged by urban morphology might, in fact, open the range of planning, urban design and architectural solutions, many times narrowed by ephemeral global trends and fashion. Finally, the specificity of planning and urban design, on the one hand, and architecture, on the other hand, is explored. While the relation between plan preparation and implementation, the multiple dimensions of planning processes and evaluation in planning are key topics of the former, the frame of references for design, the effective integration of a new object into the extant landscape, and the development of minimal approaches are fundamental themes of the latter.