Shaping ideal cities

The graph representation of the urban utopia

Bibliographic Data

ID21247263
AuthorsRoberto D’Autilia (0000-0002-8338-8578, Roma Tre University, corresponding author), Marco Spada (0000-0002-6737-0941, University of Liverpool)
Year2019
Volume46
Issue3
Pages423-444
Publication date2019-03-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning B Urban Analytics and City Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2399-8083 • E-ISSN: 2399-8091
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/2399808317716163
OpenAlexW2964119308
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited18

The ideal Renaissance city is designed as a star-shaped fortress, where the streets and squares are organized to speed the movement of people and soldiers. Symmetry and accessibility represent the key features for the organization of the urban space. The resulting city is hierarchized and does not always guarantee an optimal degree of connectivity. Starting from the space syntax definition, we suggest a method to compute urban graphs from the Euclidean representation, the corresponding line graph and the contraction of nodes with the same urban function. We analyze the urban graphs of five historic cities and compare the analysis with the corresponding results from space syntax. Analysis of the spectral gap and the relative asymmetry distribution show a similar structure for these cities. The irregular or reticular housing structure seems to ensure connectivity and accessibility more than the regular grids. However, connectivity is ensured by the most peripheral streets, which in the space syntax representation play a marginal role

Geography · Space syntax · Computer Science · Land Use and Ecosystem Services · Mathematics · Urban Design and Spatial Analysis · Urban Green Space and Health · Theoretical Computer Science

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