CGP Urban Forms

• Urban Form

  The physical characteristics that make up a city, including its size and shape, population density and how the city is arranged in land-use patterns in different areas
• Factors affecting urban form

  • Physical factors: Topography, Water, Natural resources, Land type
  • Human factors: Planning, Infrastructure, Land value
• Cities in developed countries tend to have a Central Business District (CBD) - a central zone of shops and businesses
• The CBD is surrounded by housing, with land value decreasing with distance from the centre
• Inner city areas have high land value, so housing is typically high density, with low wages and high proportion of ethnic minorities
• Rural and semi-rural areas have lower land value, so housing is less dense with more open space, and residents are generally wealthier with a lower proportion of ethnic minorities
• Science parks and large shopping centres are often constructed in semi-rural areas close to urban centres due to the availability of cheap land
• Cities in the developing world also have CBDs, with high-cost housing around the centre and low-cost/informal housing on the outskirts
• Industrial areas are often located along transport links in developing world cities
• Recent changes in urban areas in developed countries

  • Town Centre Mixed Developments, Edge Cities, Fortress Developments, Gentrified Areas, Cultural and Heritage Quarters
• Post-modern western cities

  Have multiple centres with different purposes, focus on tertiary and quaternary industry, less uniform architecture, planning prioritises aesthetics over practical use, higher social and economic inequality
• Many cities have elements of post-modernism, such as in London with buildings like the Cheesegrater
• Urban form is the physical characteristics that make up a city
• Two characteristics of post-modern western cities are multiple centres with different purposes and a focus on tertiary and quaternary industry