Browsing by Subject "Urban morphology"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Open Access
Archipelago as a tool to study urban form: the case of Ankara
(2022-08) Güngör, Ezgi Nur
In the literature on urban morphology, the city and urbanization are considered two antithetical forms since urbanization as a term was coined by Cerda. There is a dichotomy between the practices of these two terms regarding the physical form of the city. This formative dichotomy covers a variety of tensions arising from architectural production processes. In the context of urban morphology, the contemporary city can be defined as a meeting of those spatial contradictions depending on architectural form. Typology is a discourse including different formative theories that could reveal those contradictions and enhance urban morphology analyses. Within those theories, autonomous form is the one that aims to create an independent abstract language of the physical form by isolating it from the other practices that influence the urban form. Under the influence of the theory of autonomous form, the literature of urban morphology contains several concepts as a result of different attempts to explore the urban form. “Archipelago” can be described as one of the radical concepts depending on the theory of autonomous form. It is a metaphor to describe architectural formations that emerge as individual forms of aggregations-resembling the islands of an archipelago- based on their typology. Since the beginning of the Turkish Republic, Ankara, as the capital city, has encountered the dichotomy between city and urbanization through different planning periods. Through the planning periods, Ankara has become a laboratory land of urban form, which has accelerated the formative contradictions in the city. Despite those contradictions, Ankara has a considerable domain of autonomous forms in terms of urban morphology. In this context, this thesis attempts to explore the autonomous forms of the city, Ankara, by conceptualizing it as an archipelago. It is also an attempt to transform the diagram of the autonomous forms into a generative matrix that could discover alternative urban form.
Open Access
Deep reinforcement learning for urban modeling: morphogenesis simulation of self-organized settlements
(2023-07) H'sain, Houssame Eddine
Self-organized modes of urban growth could result in high-quality urban space and have notable benefits such as providing affordable housing and wider access to economic opportunities within cities. Modeling this non-linear, complex, and dynamic sequential urban aggregation process requires adaptive sequential decision-making. In this study, a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approach is proposed to automatically learn these adaptive decision policies to generate self-organized settlements that maximize a certain performance objective. A framework to formulate the self-organized settlement morphogenesis problem as single-agent reinforcement learning (RL) environment is presented. This framework is then verified by developing three environments based on two cellular automata urban growth models and training RL agents using the Deep Q-learning (DQN) and Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) algorithms to learn sequential urban aggregation policies that maximize performance metrics within those environments. The agents consistently learn to sequentially grow the settlements while adapting their morphology to maximize performance, maintain right-of-way, and adapt to topographic constraints. The method proposed in this study can be used not only to model self-organized settlement growth based on preset performance objectives but also could be generalized to solve various single-agent sequential decision-making generative design problems.
Open Access
Establishing initial urban bioclimatic planning recommendations for Ankara to address existing and future urban thermophysiological risk factors
(Elsevier, 2023-05) Nouri, A. Santos; Rodriguez-Algecíras, J.; Matzarakis, A.
Focused on the case of Ankara, human thermophysiological thresholds were investigated in association with typical morphological characteristics to determine the frequency of seasonal Heat/Cold Stress. The study further developed methodical means to better understand the relationship with local radiation exposure within in-situ settings, allowing for the better understanding of seasonal thermophysiological exposure upon human biometeorology. To approach future vulnerability and frequency of thermophysiological stress, daily EURO-CORDEX data was processed to determine Representative Concentration Pathway scenario projections (for air temperature and Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET)). The study highlighted the already significant urban frequencies of heat stress (ranging up to 82.7%) due to all districts witnessing an elevated frequency of low aspect ratios. The fewer mid-range aspect ratios also revealed to be frequently in orientations with higher heat stress susceptibilities (i.e., between 105° and 150°). Bioclimatic planning recommendations were presented for Ankara. Nevertheless, given the high vulnerability for existing/future urban human health and welfare, these recommendations were further associated with the call for immediate heat action plans and heat warning/mapping systems. In these first type of projections for Ankara, even for the milder/stabilization future scenario by 2100, PET based projections revealed frequencies remaining at 100% between 35.1 °C–41.1 °C, with further values exceeding 46.1 °C.
Open Access
Pluralist production of urban form: towards a parametric development control for unity in diversity
(Routledge, 2022-04-04) Çalışkan, O.; Barut, Yavuz Baver
The contemporary city is (re)produced in fragments through numerous typological variations. However, the current practice of spatial planning has yet to suggest effective control mechanisms to steer the piecemeal (trans)formation of cities. This paper argues for parametric modelling as a method of guiding fragmentary developments towards the pluralist production of coherent urban fabrics. Following the parametric definition of the basic morphological codes, the paper discusses the computational capacity of parametric modelling to simulate multiple variations in local fabrics and their consecutive integration within a larger context. The proposed model is tested in the context of Istanbul, Turkey.