Typology and built environment

Abstract

This thesis examines and seeks to validate typology - the study and/or listing of types - in the comprehension and design of the built environment, particularly public urban space. It addresses typological thinking as a way of indexing knowledge in post -Enlightenment and post- Renaissance thought and presents a critical analysis of the application of type and typology in architecture, including rule -driven approaches to building design. The thesis demonstrates that urban space in western cities is primarily generated by systems of movement and access, and (through examination of the spatial structure of Edinburgh, Scotland and Winnipeg, Canada) that, once created, it has greater permanence than the buildings that front onto it. The thesis argues that typology, including the identification of archetypes and ideal types, remains a common approach to human comprehension of complex phenomena. The thesis notes, however, that typology has gone in- and -out of fashion in architecture - particularly as a basis for the design of buildings - but has been applied more consistently in urban design, both as a vehicle for comprehension and to inform design decisions. The study culminates with a series of quasi -experimental exercises, undertaken with design students, in categorizing space types in Edinburgh and Winnipeg on the basis of their suffix names (odonyms). This includes an examination of the denotations of the 27 space / name types common to both cities and identification of nine distinctive space / name types - gardens, square, park, bridge, promenade, avenue, path / pathway / walk, boulevard, street - that are proposed as constituents of a common vocabulary for urban designers.