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Planning and urban design literature generally portrays cities and other urban areas as static end states with less regard towards their evolutionary nature. In order to overcome this limitation, a research has been undertaken to investigate the evolution of urban areas focusing upon the changing configurations in their spatial forms employing an emerging method: Space Syntax. This paper presents the developments at the initial stages of the research. Space Syntax is a method of spatial analysis premised on the percept that the level of connectivity among public spaces such as streets, access ways, squares, etc in a locality, which then decides the level of their integration into overall spatial structure of the urban area, is indicative of the thrive of those spaces in their broader urban context. Based on this premise, this study examines the changing spatial configuration of the city of Colombo at different stages of its growth, and put forward the argument that the city’s growth is a complex process of continuous transformation of the prominent expressive characteristics in multiple spatial sectors, whose periodic changes follow somewhat identical sequence of transformations. The stages of the growth are identified according to the chronological order of administrative periods, and different adjoining areas integrated into the administrative zone of Colombo at each of these periods are considered as the spatial extent of the expansion of the city. Each area that was newly included is considered as a distinguishable district and the expressive character of that in each consecutive period is attributed to the prominent, rather than the dominant, land use observed in it. The districts are included into the city at different times, and new streets and access ways are developed, changing the overall spatial configuration and thereby, the level of connectivity between different street segments. In order to investigate the effect of the spatial configuration on the transformation of different parts of the city, the connectivity of the streets at each of the stages of the growth is analyzed in Space Syntax method, and then the connectivity levels of major street segments of each sector is correlated with its prominent land use types.
Citation preview
1
Evolution of a City: a Space Syntax approach to explain the spatial dynamics of Colombo.
Aruna Bandara & Jagath Munasinghe
Department of Town & Country Planning,
University of Moratuwa
Sri Lanka
Abstract
Planning and urban design literature generally portrays cities and other urban areas as static end states
with less regard towards their evolutionary nature. In order to overcome this limitation, a research has
been undertaken to investigate the evolution of urban areas focusing upon the changing configurations in
their spatial forms employing an emerging method: Space Syntax. This paper presents the developments
at the initial stages of the research. Space Syntax is a method of spatial analysis premised on the percept
that the level of connectivity among public spaces such as streets, access ways, squares, etc in a locality,
which then decides the level of their integration into overall spatial structure of the urban area, is
indicative of the thrive of those spaces in their broader urban context. Based on this premise, this study
examines the changing spatial configuration of the city of Colombo at different stages of its growth, and
put forward the argument that the city’s growth is a complex process of continuous transformation of the
prominent expressive characteristics in multiple spatial sectors, whose periodic changes follow somewhat
identical sequence of transformations. The stages of the growth are identified according to the
chronological order of administrative periods, and different adjoining areas integrated into the
administrative zone of Colombo at each of these periods are considered as the spatial extent of the
expansion of the city. Each area that was newly included is considered as a distinguishable district and
the expressive character of that in each consecutive period is attributed to the prominent, rather than the
dominant, land use observed in it. The districts are included into the city at different times, and new
streets and access ways are developed, changing the overall spatial configuration and thereby, the level of
connectivity between different street segments. In order to investigate the effect of the spatial
configuration on the transformation of different parts of the city, the connectivity of the streets at each of
the stages of the growth is analyzed in Space Syntax method, and then the connectivity levels of major
street segments of each sector is correlated with its prominent land use types.
Key words: Spatial Configuration, Prominent Land use, Evolution
Introduction
One of the main limitations often noted in contemporary urban planning and urban design
literature, and therefore in the practice, is the understanding that the urban areas, be them
large cities or small towns, are static organizations which can be planned towards specific
end states. Although this rather conventional understanding of cities as ‘products’ was
competed from time to time by scholarly attempts, only limited attempts have been made so
far to study and conceptualize the evolutionary process of cities by employing
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comprehensive methods of analysis. In this background, this paper brings in some of the key
outcomes at the initial stages of an on-going research, which intended to model an urban area
as an evolving phenomenon with an emerging space analysis method: Space Syntax. A key
premise of the method is that the unequal configuration of public spaces (mainly the streets
and access ways) decides their level of connectivity and thus, their level of integration into
the overall spatial structure of the urban area (Hillier, 1996). Further, the levels of integration
invest varying capacities into those spaces to attract by passers and competitive urban
activities that are mutually reinforcing the establishment of each other. Based on this
premise, this study examines the spatial configuration and the changing activity patterns in
the city of Colombo at different stages of its growth, and put forward the argument that the
city’s growth is a complex process of continuous changes in prominent land use
characteristics in multiple spatial sectors, whose periodic changes follow somewhat identical
sequence of transformations.
The stages of the growth are identified according to the chronological order of administrative
periods. Different adjoining areas, integrated into the administrative zone of the city of
Colombo at each of these periods, are considered as the spatial extent of the expansion of the
city. Each newly integrated area is considered as a distinguishable district and the expressive
character of each district in each consecutive period is attributed to the prominent, rather than
the dominant, land use observed in it. When a new district is added to the city from the
periphery, it is gradually integrated into the overall spatial composition of the city along the
passage of time by means of new streets and access ways developed in and around it. These
developments changed the degree of connectivity between different street segments of all the
districts, thereby changing the overall spatial configuration of the city. In this study, the
connectivity of all streets and access ways of the city of Colombo at each consecutive stage
of growth is analyzed using Space Syntax method, and then the integration levels of major
street segments are correlated with the prominent land use characteristics observed in that
period in district, where the street is located. The changing overall configuration of the city’s
streets is suggested as a key for the transformation of different parts of the city in the process
of its evolution.
Explaining the Evolution of Urban Forms
Literature on the evolution of urban forms can be divided into several categories. The first
category of literature viewed the evolution and growth of cities through a historical
perspective, mainly as progressive decisions of space by both the rulers and the ruled.
Accordingly, the evolution is primarily a process of shaping the physical environment to fit
into the polity and the culture of inhabitants. Well known work of Morris (1979), Mumford
(1964), Kostof (1990), and Rossi(1990) can be included into this category. The evolution is
well reasoned with political and socio-cultural moves, but the logics of space and its
3
transformation, thrive and decline of different quarters, and the impact of overall space
compositions on specific spatial units are not the concerns of these studies.
The second category takes a socio-spatial approach, in which the evolution of urban areas is
explained primarily as a continuous transformation of space based either on the growing
demand for space by competing urban activities akin to preferential residential locations of
different social groups, or contesting perceptions of different inhabitant groups and their
reflections on space. The early work of this category include Burgess’s (1923) mapping of
Concentric Zones of Chicago, Homer and Hoyt’s (1939) observations on sector growth
phenomenon of US cities and Harris and Ulmann’s (1945) model of Multiple Nuclei cities.
The main limitation of these work is that their presupposition of a sector’s transformation as
an inevitable expansion of activities akin to urban growth. In the recent past the evolutionary
process of urban areas, mainly cities, was studied as a responsive dialect between the
economic forces and the social organizations. Some of the widely read literature of this
category spread the understanding that the growth of contemporary cities is a process of
inevitable invasion by modern urban functions of traditional quarters and agricultural suburbs
(eg: Freedman, 1966). Another school of scholars, inspired mainly by Lefebvre (1984)
explained the evolution as a result of contested and negotiated, propositional and
oppositional interests on space between the colonial and the colonized, rulers and the ruled,
and the foreigners and natives (eg: Yeoh, 2003, Perera, 2002, Hosagrahar,1999). Although
these works is commendable for their insightful contribution to understand the multiple
authorship and parallel processes of making and remaking urban spaces, they did not intend
to demonstrate and prescribe approaches towards progressive urban planning and design
methods.
The third category explains the growth and the evolution of cities as an increasing
agglomeration of economic activities; that is frequent transactions among human actors and
firms, engaged in producing various products and services, by locating themselves within
relatively close proximities (eg: refer Glasser,1998). These agglomerations however, are not
arbitrary. Their locations are decisions on the market ranges approximated for each of the
urban commodities. The market range, assures the thresholds or the minimum numbers
required for the sustenance of the urban activities, which is implied by the economies of
scale. Krugman (1993) cited, there could be either the ‘first nature’; that is the offspring of a
natural phenomenon such as a port or a mine, or the ‘second nature’, that is a secondary
accumulation and a growth around an activity initiated for some other purpose.
In recent years, some interests seem to emerge to deal with the urban form’s evolution
focusing mainly upon the dynamics of the spatial composition integrated with transforming
socio-economic characteristics. Among substantial number of work that can be quoted here,
the work emerging in the Space Syntax research stream, initiated by Hanson & Hillier’s
(1986) work on social logic and movement economy of space, and furthered with the
4
subsequent work of Hillier (1996, 1999), Read (1999), Pen (1998) and many others, is
gaining popularity in the area of planning and urban design. Hillier (1999) addresses the
question of the formulation of ‘live centres’ in cities, where all employment and higher order
economic activities are concentrated, and their displacement from the historic quarters
towards once an ‘edge’, as the city expands or contracts. He explained the apparent gradual
location change of the centre as a function of changing ‘spatial configuration’: the order in
which the streets and other public access ways are organized, enabling the movements
between different spatial units within the city. This approach indicates more advantages over
other approaches, more than to explain the historical evolution of an urban setting, to engage
in an exercise of envisioning future spatial scenarios for a city or any other urban area. This
is because the concept of ‘spatial configuration’ has a potential to make a conceptual
platform for the development of pro-active spatial planning and design methods.
Spatial configuration
The fundamental unit of consideration of Space Syntax method is the axial connectivity that
makes the shortest possible path from one end to another end of the public space (street,
square, alley, etc). Thus, the first step in Space Syntax analysis is to reduce the composition
of streets, alleys and all other public spaces in an urban area into a composition of axial lines
that incident either on one another or many others. The number of minimum axial line
connections (shortest possible path) that a person has to pass through to get into a space from
another space decides the level of connectivity of the first in relation to the second. In this
manner, the connectivity of a space into all other spaces in the urban area can be evaluated by
accounting for overall spatial configuration of the area. The level of connectivity is an
indication of the degree to which each space is integrated into the urban area.
The method emphasizes two levels of integration of an urban space: local and global (Hillier,
1996). Local integration is indicative of the structural composition of the public spaces at the
locality level and its analysis enables to identify the locations that are most and least
attractive within the immediate context. Hence, when an urban area is analyzed at the local
level, the local centres emerge as the most integrated spaces and more competitive land uses
are usually concentrated into them. Global integration is the indicator of the attractiveness of
different public spaces at the overall spatial configuration of the city. The competition then is
between different segments of the city, and their unequal levels of integration lead some
centres to overthrow the others. As the city grows, the pattern of spatial configuration change
and the level of integration of individual elements too change. Thus, the attractive capacities
fluctuate leading to a transformation of activity locations in the city.
5
Colombo’s Evolution:
Both the legendary and the recorded history indicate human habitation in Colombo, but the
genesis of modern city of Colombo remains at the times of Portuguese invasion of the coastal
areas of Sri Lanka after 1505 ( Refer Colombo Centanary Volume). The Portuguese
occupation in Colombo had throughout been loomed with uncertainly. Therefore, the
planning activities were minimal and the city was limited to the boundaries of the
fortification. All urban activities were administered within the Fort in a specified manner and
all streets had their ends at the fortress wall. Therefore, the natural integration of streets into
areas outside of it was not possible. The Portuguese base was later extended by Dutch into a
few more Square Kilometers, including the areas today known as Pettah, Slave Island and
Modera (Figure 01).
Dutch fortification was smaller than that of the Portuguese and yet, all administrative
activities, official residences, etc were still located inside the Fort. But the other activities
could extend outside the Fort and therefore, the gradual growth of the urban activities and
natural configuration of city space was possible. Pettah was the area of trade and commerce
and the vibrant urban centre of Dutch Colombo. Slave Island was providing residences for
working communities brought in for indecent labour. The areas around these enclaves were
mostly rural, seldom marked with residences and occupied largely by agricultural uses
(Figure 02).
Figure 01: The Portuguese Fort
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British undertook coastal areas from Dutch and subsequently acquired the ruling of the entire
island after the historic agreement between Sri Lankan Elite and the British Governor for
Ceylon in 1815. British had an entirely different approach towards colonization and their
legacy had initiated with a set of gravel roads connecting Colombo to other strategic centres
of the island. They were laid along the coast towards south (Present Galle road), on Kelani
River valley towards east (Avissawella Road), across Kelani River Ferry to the north
(Modera Road), and two lines through the marshes of south east towards Kotte (Figure 03).
Hence, from the early stages of British administration, the city activities had already started
to grow into its suburbs along main arteries that linked Colombo to other regions of the
island. All administrative activities were still inside the Fort and the trade and commerce
were largely confined to streets of Pettah. But, the colonial administrators preferred to live in
more greenly and spacious outer urban areas around Beira Lake, after the colony was well
established. The rich native business owners and the local elite found new residential quarters
towards the north of Pettah in Kotahena and Modara area, towards the south of Fort in
Kollupitiya and Bambalapitiya, and in the eastern segments such as Maradana and
Dematagoda (Marga,1978). The areas between these arteries were occupied by cinnamon
plantations ( for which the area is still known as Cinnamon Gardens), coconut lands and
marshes.
Figure 02: The Dutch Fort and the expansion of the city
7
When the sea port started to grow with associated back yard facilities, the environs within the
northern part of the Fort and Pettah were growing as the high order business district and
Colombo attracted more populations from the other parts of the country. In an attempt to
expand the urban area of Colombo, British rulers wanted to lay a network of thoroughfares
that would facilitate the growth by opening land for development, and increasing the
accessibility within different parts across the region. Hence, a new road structure within the
earmarked territory of the future City of Colombo was established with the ‘Base-line’ road
as the ‘datum’. The Baseline road was constructed from North to South, partially imposing
on the existed gravel roads, defining the eastern boundary to the city (Munasinghe, 2007). In
this newly planned city of Colombo, administrative activities were partly shifted to
Aluthkade area, towards the east of Pettah, and the colonial residences were taking the lands
towards the south east clearing cinnamon plantations. The commercial activities were
growing along the main arteries with improved paved conditions and introduction of motor
vehicles along Galle Road, Maradana Road, towards Grandpass and Modara. The elite
residences in these areas were either setting backwards along these segments or shifting to
further south, towards Wellawatta, Havelock town and Cinnamon Gardens. The areas
towards north-east of Pettah and parts of Slave Island were gathering more working class
populations (Marga,1978). By the dawn of the 20th
century, the prominent land uses of
Colombo could be seen as shown in fugure 04.
Figure 03: The British Fort and the expansion of the city
8
At the aftermath of independence, in 1950s, the increased mobility, introduction of public
transportation, and the transfer of power and business operations to local authorities have
further changed the form of the city. While the lands in Fort were clearing military and
administrative activities from them making it the high order trade and commercial district, its
activities were spilling into the adjacent sectors such as Kollupitiya, Slave Island, Maradana
and Grandpass. The high order business activities were withdrawing from the areas in
northern parts of Pettah and Fort and finding new quarters in these new areas. Elite
residences were consolidating in the areas such as Cinnamon Gardens, Bambalapitiya,
Wellawatta, and predominantly agricultural sectors such as Kirillapone and Narahenpita were
opening up for residential purposes. The lands surrounding Colombo were mainly paddy
fields, rubber estates and rural home gardens as shown in figure 05.
Towards 1980s Fort is thriving as the main trade and business sector while Kollupitiya and
Bambalapitiya were consolidating as commercial areas and its influence was extending up to
Wellawatta. Along Maradana road commercial activities were extending up to Borella, which
once was a residential area. The whole of the northern part was invaded by warehousing and
industrial activities along with residences for working populations. As shown in figure 05,
the areas out of main city limits were gaining low-order residential developments with small
commercial centres in them. Yet, the declared administrative boundaries of the city were
Figure 04: The British Fort and the expansion of the city with Baseline road
9
limited largely to British declared Colombo (figure 06). With many other events such as the
liberalizing of the economy and shifting of the administrative functions to Kotte, which has
now become the new ‘National Capital’ of Sri Lanka, Colombo has experienced a
tremendous growth and thus, a change from 1980s. Galle Road was developing as the high
order business district up to Bambalapitiya and Cinnamon Garden was giving up for
emerging commercial and administrative activities shifting elite residences into former rural
areas outside the British enclave boundaries of Colombo. Areas such as Maradana and
Grandpass were attracting more working class populations and industrial uses. The low-order
commercial centres outside Colombo has been thriving into higher order Shopping and trade
centres. The redeveloped Baseline road was attracting more commercial activities along that
and Borella, Dematagoda, Narahenpita are emerging as commercial districts of the city
(figure 07).
An important thing to note is that at each of these stages, the city has been integrating new
spatial sectors into its urban enclave, making new districts, and the districts integrated at the
previous stages have been changing their character in terms of predominant activity types
and land uses. The transformation in the districts have been following a somewhat identical
sequence, starting from agricultural uses, then convert to low order residential uses, and then
to high order residential areas, followed by general commercial uses, then into higher order
1950s 1980s
Figure 05: The growth of the city after construction of the Baseline road
10
commercial and trade activities, finally ending up with industrial and warehousing facilities.
In the transformation process, one district is transferring its prevalent prominent land use to
another, and this second district is shifting its land use into yet another. Thus, it is a series of
downward transfers to shift into one layer up. In a way, this is somewhat obvious and
commonly seen phenomenon in the urbanization process, in which lands once used for
agricultural purposes are gradually changing into a series of different uses over time,
responding to the demands caused by upcoming competitive uses. But, what is more
important is to find some logic to explain the causative factors behind this change and its
inter-sector relationship.
The patterns of land use transformation
The growth of the city has been gradual and not necessarily consecutive. Yet, for a study
purpose the developments can be observed at somewhat regular intervals throughout the
history. In order to analyze the patterns of changes at these intervals, the above section of this
paper identified the prominent expressive land use characteristics of each of the districts at
different periods. It is obvious that the expressive character is not necessarily the dominating
land use, but the general perception of a city quarter is generally associated with the
prominent character than the dominant land use. Mapping of these prominent expressive uses
Figure 06: British declared Colombo Figure 07: City expansion after 1980s
11
in a time series maps indicated a clear sequence in every district, but some districts lagging
behind the others. In other words there is an inequality of prominent uses among the
districts, where the newly added distracts as the city grows, contained more of front-end land
uses and the districts added immediately before them contained more of the uses next in
order. In this manner the oldest quarters of the city have more of back-end uses. These land
uses have a high impact on the overall property values and the perceived character of the
respective district of the city. Generally, the highest property values and the perceived
prestigious characteristics are found in the areas with higher order trade and institutional
activities, and the lowest values and character are found in low profile residential areas.
Areas with industrial and warehousing activities reflect relatively lower values than the
higher order trade and institutional uses, but their values are rather higher than that of
ordinary residential areas. In this manner, the apparent quality positions of different
expressive characters against the sequence of their change can be graphed as shown in figure
08. Accordingly, the districts seem to be gradually elevated towards a higher order uses,
starting from the lowest residential uses, come to their peak with the transformation into
trade and institutions, and then decline with their conversion to industrial and warehousing
uses.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1800 1850 1880 1920 1950 1980 2010
Pro
min
en
t ch
arac
ter
Cycle
Fort
Pettah
Slave Island
Kollupitiya
Bambalapitiya
Wellawatta
Kotahena
Grandpass
2 Low income
3 Industries
6 Commercial
7 Trade & Shopping
6 Inst/Commerce
5 Administrative
4 Elite Residential
2 Low Residential
1 Agriculture
Figure 08: The changing pattern of the expressive character
12
What is intended to investigate here is the relationship between this upward and downward
behaviour of the different districts of the city and the overall configuration of its physical
environment. Through the identification of the relationship, the transformation can be
captured into a planning and design tool so that the overall growth of the city can be
managed towards a better order.
The Changing Spatial Configuration of the City
In order to identify the effects of the overall configuration of urban public spaces in each
district at each consecutive stage of the city’s growth, the streets and other public movement
paths of Colombo were studied in Space Syntax method. Accordingly, the street maps of
Colombo were reduced to ‘axial-line’ diagrams, and these diagrams intern, were analyzed
using ‘depth map’. Depth map is the common software used for Space Syntax studies. It
analyses the integration levels of each axial line (which represent a street segment) at a given
radius of consideration. In this study, the analysis was done at two levels. The first is the
local level, which considered the connectivity of a given axial line to all other axial lines
within a radius of 3, and the second is at global level, which considered the connectivity
between all possible axial lines of the diagram. Figure 09 show the resultant spatial
integration patterns both at local and global levels. The result could be interpreted in the
following manner.
The integration of spaces was first confined to Colombo Fort, during Portuguese period.
During the Dutch occupation, the most integrated quarter within the limited street network
was the northern part of Pettah. In the next stage of British acquisition, the city’s street
network was expanding outward and Main Street of Pettah was increasing its integrity in its
overall context, but as the expansion goes on Kotahena & Aluthkade areas were gaining the
prominence of Main Street. In British Planned Colombo, in the early 20th
century, Maradana
Road and Union Place of Slave Island were dominating the northern quarter of Pettah, while
Kotahena and Galle road was increasing its integrity. By 1950s, the road network was well
spread into suburbs and the Galle Road, in the areas of Kollupitiya and Bambalapitiya, was
increasingly integrated into the spatial configuration. Borella is also integrated at a higher
level. Maradana Road, Union Place and the Nothern streets declined the level of integrity.
From the times that Colombo was extending beyond its colonial bounds into its suburbs,
Baseline road has been showing more integration. The derived pattern of changes can be
interpreted with the basic premises of Space Syntax. The most locally integrated spaces are
the ones with highest attraction at local level and therefore, occupied by competitive land
uses. They are the local urban centres with low order urban activities. The most globally
integrated spaces are the most competitive locations in the city as a whole. They are mostly
in demand due to their relatively higher level of accessibility from all parts of the city. Thus,
higher integration is also an indication of higher land values, which in turn, result in high
order activities.
13
Important to note is the apparent correlation between the levels of integration of the main
streets of the districts into the other parts of the city at each stage of growth, and the
corresponding prominent land uses of these districts. In other words, across all stages of
growth, examined here, the changing levels of integration of main streets showed a parallel
sequence of transformation in their prominent land uses. This virtual correlation can be used
to explain the logic behind the changing land use characteristics of different segments as the
city expands its boundaries. When the level of integration increases the land use
characteristics vary from lower order towards the higher order. When the integration of a
space is at its peak the most competitive uses that is the higher order trade and institutional
activities, uses that space. As the city expands its spatial extent and develop more and more
public streets and access ways, the patterns of integration change in the overall context. Thus,
the less integrated spaces become highly integrated ones and the ones with highest
integration are shifted from the peak. The overall land use pattern changes accordingly and
the competitive uses occupy more integrated locations. The declined level of integration
Figure 09: The changing pattern of the spatial integration with the evolution of the city
14
leads more competitive uses to evacuate their occupied locations and find more integrated
spaces, leaving their previous locations for less demanding uses.
The evolution of the city of Colombo then, is not a neutral extension of activities in space.
Rather it is a complex process of transforming the prominent land use characteristics of
different districts, as a function of changes occur in spatial configuration. In other words, the
changing scenario of integration and disintegration of public movement spaces in and around
the city transform the expressive character of all spatial segments, which we experience as
the evolution of the city. In a way, at its very outlook, this seems to be an already known
phenomenon and an obvious condition. Yet, the value of this understanding is not for
knowing the history of the city’s evolution, but for knowing its possible future scenarios of
evolution. For instance, a large number of road infrastructure development projects as well as
land sub divisions taking place need to be reviewed in the context of their effects on overall
spatial configuration of the city. This can be demonstrated with the proposed Baseline Road
extension and the other on going road development projects. When they are super imposed
on the existing road structure the spatial configuration changes both at local level and global
level in a subtle manner. (Figure 10) The change of configuration results in a change in the
existing levels of integration and thereby, a change in the hierarchy of attractive spaces. In
that situation ‘what will be the most thriving area of Colombo, and what will happen to the
existing land use structure of the city and its suburbs’ is the question that could be somewhat
reasonably foreseeable with this exercise.
Figure 10: The predicted changes of the spatial integration with the proposed Baseline road extension
15
Conclusion
As stated at the beginning, what is presented in this paper is only some of the preliminary
findings and a rather incomplete investigation of the evolution of Colombo’s urban space,
analyzing the effect of the configuration of its public spaces. The interesting finding here is
the gradual transformation of prominent activities of each part of the city in a sequence from
one composition into another and its relationship with the upward and downward movements
of the levels of the spatial integration of the main streets of that part. The sequential change
leads to what planners and urban designers usually termed as ‘high quality’ and declining
areas in the city at different times of the city’s expansion. The paper does not contest
preceding theories and prevalent ideologies in urban form studies; yet, this finding urge us to
rethink some of the basic premises, on which the conventional understandings of the
evolution of urban areas are based upon. The dominant understanding is based on the
premise that the growth of an urban area is a function of over spilling and extending urban
activities from existing quarters into new areas, thus leading to build more road infrastructure
and access ways enabling those activities. At the same time the prevalent understanding says
that the change of prominent land uses in different quarter of the city is due to the competing
capacities of the locations built up in a spontaneous manner. But, the finding here, suggest
somewhat opposite scenario. The activities in a given location of the city changes not only
because of its own thrive and capacity, but also as a result of the expanding road and other
public space structure of the whole city. Thus, the change of land uses, at least the prominent
ones, is not spontaneous. It is a process geared by the changes in overall spatial configuration
both at local and global levels. Even a planned road development in one part of the city could
have an effect on the overall pattern of land uses in the city, even in the parts that have no
direct links with the part where the development is taking place.
However, the argument brought forward here is incomplete and need to be strengthened with
further investigations. The study at this stage can be sited for many limitations also in its
methodology. One of the main limitations is the manner of presupposing of ‘prominent’ land
use characters. At this level they were derived upon the observable expressive qualities of the
given locations at different times, as revealed in different sources. In the forthcoming stages
of the study the detail land uses of each sector need be empirically investigated and the
internal compositions of the categories may be adjusted accordingly.
16
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