Spatial configuration and built form

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the relationship between the form of city as a collective work of architecture and the process of land subdivision. With the exception of catastrophic change, the traditional city consists of a series of individual buildings constructed over time. Over time, these acted as a layered accumulation of architectural convention, defining a spatial and formal order recognizable as a city. All the individual acts of construction within the city had a direct formal relationship to the formation of the city as a whole. In contrast with this, the form of the modern city is often independent of individual architectural acts. It is the contention of this paper that the modern city cannot be understood as a formal entity through a reading of the layered accumulation of individual acts. Instead, the modern city is viewed as a collection of parcels formed over time through a horizontal accumulation of boundaries and streets resulting from the historical process of land subdivision. The form of the modern city is seen as a direct result of the collision of individual lots, blocks, and the architectural animation of their boundaries. Where this process is not well understood, agreed upon, regulated or otherwise adhered to, individual architectural acts may work to disrupt the formal spatial order of the city; diminishing both the individual building specifically, and the ability of architecture to inform the city as a whole.