THE ROLE OF TYPOMORPHOLOGICAL STUDIES

IN ENYIRONMENTAL DESIGN RESEARCH

Anne Vernez Moudon
University of Washington
ABSTRACT
Typomorphological studies describe the physical form of cities and production ?f
human habitats. The human habitat is the smallest element of the urbanlzatlon process. In lts
physical manifestation, it represents the culmination of design. and ?evelopment
activities. It expresses both needs and resources. Typomorphologlcal explaln how the
built environment is produced by claSSifying systematically the elements WhlCh structure the.
physical form of cities over time. to include open spaces. buildings. and streets. These studles
are helpful to environmental design research because they provide a conceptual framework for
understanding the dynamics of our built world.
THE LITTLE-KNOWN BUT LONG HISTORY OF
TypOMORPHOLOGICAL STUDIES
Examples of typomorphological studies
available in English are few: they are
geographer M.R.G. Conzen's work on
English towns (Conzen 1960. Whitehand
1981). my research on San Francisco
(Moudon 1986). and George Baird's
studies of Toronto (Baird 1980)
(figures 1 and 2).
Yet systematic studies of city form
were first attempted by German
geographers at the end of the
nineteenth century (Whitehand 1981).
Deemed too descriptive and devoid of
theoretical contents. these studies
did not become an important branch of
geography. and only a few researchers
have pursued this avenue to date
(Conzen 1986). In the 1 ate 1940s.
however. Saverio Muratori. an Italian
architect condemning the destructive
effects of modern architecture on the
city. began detailed historical
studi es of urban forms (Muratori 1959.
Muratori et al., 1963). Hi s goal was
to unravel the secrets of what he
considered good city making. He also
made urban morphological analysis an
essential element of his design
studios at the University of Venice.
Muratori inspired an entire school of
architects and theorists in Italy.
whose work eventually influenced
French architects in the 1960s (Moudon
1987a). The role of urban
morphological studies in planning and
design continues to be debated in
Europe today. where such studies are
often referred to as "urban analyses
(Caniggia 1979.1985. Panerai et a7.
1980) .
Interestingly. the essence of these
urban form studies has remained
41
remarquably unchanged over the hundred
years or so that these works have been
developed. It has been only marginally
influenced by either disciplinary or
cultural boundaries. or by
geographical conditions. All
researchers claim to identify the
essential characteristics of the
dynamics of the built environment.
They explicate the tangible. visible
evidence of people's actions in and on
their environment. and capture a
city's genesis and changing building
traditions. Although no explicit
theoretical claims are made regarding
the process of making cities.
recurrent elements permeate all of
these analytical studies. to include
streets and street networks. building
types. and parcels of ownership. The
consideration of parcels of ownership
is these studi es I trademark .
stressing the built environment as a
dynamic entity in the hands of
landowners. (This characteristic is
overlooked in studies of urban form
inspired from art history. where
special "events." such as the building
of cathedrals. the formation of
plazas. the layout of streets. and so
on. are highlighted in isolation from
specifics of their host fabric.)
Streets. buildings. and parcels are
classified as they change over the
life of a settlement. Together. these
elements define not only the anatomy
of a city. but also the processes by
which it is formed and reformed over
the course of history.
The term typomorphology was first
coined by Italian architect Carlo
Aymonino in the 1960s to reflect on
the dialectic between building
typologies and urban morphology noted
by these urban analyses (Aymonino et
a7. 1966).
Scales
Four
and
Five
Scale
Three
Scale
Two
Physical Elements
Peninsula. Roads. and Streets
Rooms
Fjgure 1: Two generations of building
and parcel types and their impact on
the formation and transformation of
the urban fabric in San Francisco.
Note the different scales reflected in
the urban environment from the room to
the street network. L Physi ca 1 .
structure of urban space in the
nineteenth century, ~ Typology of
house forms and lots in the nineteenth
century, . Physical structure of
urban space in the 1920s, and ~
Typology of apartments buildings and
lots, 1890s to 1930s (from Moudon
1986: 90,61,124,104, respectively).
CONTRIBUTIONS TO DESIGN AND
ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN RESEARCH
Because they posit principles
according to which environments are
produced, typomorphological studies
make several direct contributions to
design in general. Most obvious is the
provision of a detailed historical
context to facilitate design within
the confines of a given city or
region. Such studies have been the
precursors to several preservation
efforts in England, Italy, and North
Africa. They have also been used to
Rules
42
f:
i
. /
~ ~ j
~ ~ l L J
Two grid directions
Two block sizes
Grid superimposed on hills
Natu ral water edge
Publ ic. private land
Lots locate houses within
blocks
Houses perpendicu lar to
street
Lot width affects house type
detached. semi-detached.
row
Lot length affects number of
rooms in plan
Side yards, recesses affect
number of rooms in plan
Building height affects
image and possible number
of dwellings
Decorated facades
Built and land bases
Two types of internal
circulation affect room
arrangement
devise "contextual" zoning codes in
such cities as Bologna and San
Francisco (Cervellati et a7. 1977,
Moudon 1986). In spite of these
applications, however, the normative
potential of typomorphological
studies, or the extent to which they
can inform and guide design, has been
the subject of a long controversy in
Italy. While most architects agree
that these studies add to the
knowledge base of design, they
continue to argue whether historical
building traditions should be
continued or departed from in the
actual act of design.
The most convincing contributions of
typomorphological studies are
substantive rather than normative in
nature(terms defined in Lang 1987).
They therefore add to the intellectual
framework of research for and about
desjan. Most challenging are their
critical descriptions of building
traditions. In the words of
Gianfranco Caniggia, typomorphological
studies present a "dynamic picture of
the built world, whose production is
the result of a dialectic [or active
relationship] between human action and
'environmental reaction' ... " (Caniggia
1983 ).
Wide and Narrow Single Lots
Detached Sem i-detached
ltJitl
f
- -. -
J
".' .. '

.
'..
, .
I

Typical Ground Floor Plans (single- or double-loaded corridor}
Two-story Bourgeois Houses
Single and Double Lots
Rows of Flats
one flat per floor, single- or
dou ble-en try porch
Typical Ground Floor Plans
In effect, the typomorphological
approach reverses the picture
presented by people-environment
studies: it produces environment-
peop7e studies, where the
characteristics of the physical
environment stand out as the result of
people's actions. People-environment
studies have been criticized as
"strong on people and weak in
environments," a characteristic which
is mentioned often as the primary
reason for the field's weakened
stature in design circles (see
by Canter, Groat,
Rapoport, Si me and others). In
typomorphological studies, the reverse
is true: people are kept implicit
while the "behavior" of the physical
environment dominates. Could the
information that both
typomorphological and people-
environment studies provide be
combined to serve design research and
design itself better? The social
ItlRll1
Single-story Artisan Cottages
two flats per floor. apartment building or
single porch rooming house, central
access and stairs
43
sciences have offered us several
disciplines from which people's
interaction with the environment can
be understood and analyzed. In the
absence of design sciences, can the
typomorphological approach provide a
conceptual model of the physical
environment that the various
disciplines offered by the social
sciences could use to complete their
explanation of the people-environment
interaction? These questions cannot be
answered fully before
typomorphological studies become
better known.
But why haven't typomorphological
studies been more prominent in design
so far? Impediments to the development
of such studies can be found in all of
the design professions. First of all,
urban planning's and geography's move
into quantitative research in the
1960s successfully discouraged
research in the physical dimension of
Scales
Five
and
Six
Physical Elements
Peninsula. Roads. and Streets
City Blocks
Scale rr! a lIJ E
Four moi Iiclllllill iSUI:
1lI:.."'I m ta I!I!I =
!:"Jall:=
Apartment Buildings
Scale / j

the urban environment in these
disciplines. Further. in architecture.
interest in the characteristics of the
urban fabric and specifically in
vernacular buildings emerged only in
the late 1960s. At that time. urban
form studies had lost already their
appeal in geography. and in any case.
disciplinarian boundaries have
prevented geographers' early studies
of urban form to influence the
architectural world. Finally. cultural
and linguistic barriers have
constrained communication with
Italian and French morphologists:
debates on typomorphology in these
countries have been poorly transferred
to English-speaking audiences
(although Rossi's well-known lbk
Architecture of the City refers to
some such studies. it is a quest for
good architecture rather than a bona
fide critical study of urban form. see
Moudon 1987b). Only the notion of
building typologies has transpired
from these debates with limited
results (Vidler 1976,1977). In
England and North America, building
types stress the individual building,
separate from the context of the
settlement (see for example Pevsner
1976. Hull 1982). This is in
Rules
Topography. Water Edges. and Grids
Same as nineteenth century
Landfills straighten out
water edges
Same as nineteenth century
New development occurs
as infill within multiples
of the small lots that
served the first generation of
of houses
Apartment buildings
Collective House/Lot Design
perpendicular to street
I'li'l
C:i-o
GEl

'-. The use of double and

.
1- triple lots affects building
types
t- .. t- Buildings cover most of
their lots
Apartment Design
Some decorated facades
Built bases
rnEtHil
Alternating clusters of
apartments and light wells
strung along a private
but communal corridor
44
Clusters of rooms as
apartments
opposition to the typomorphological
approach where building types are
considered integrally with their
parcel or ownership and surrounding
open spaces. Hence most building types
in English-speaking countries are
reduced to functional and iconic
representations. and unrelated to
building traditions or culture
(8andini 1984). If such building
typologies may have become models for
design. they have little to do with
explaining the actual environment and
the city-building process. They mainly
serve as normative tools. and there
have been few serious discussions yet
of the descriptive capability of
building typologies in English-
speaking countries (see Robinson in
this volume).
Several researchers in the field of
people-environment studies have used
building typologies as an organizing
framework for their work: Clare
Cooper-Marcus. Oscar Newman. and
Roderick Lawrence. among others. These
authors' works has been well-received
by designers at least in part because
of their clear reference to the built
environment. However. these works
limit the explanation of the built
Wide and Narrow Single Lots
o
o
lL
"0
c:
o
u
'" en
Type One
:. '-+---1
, I
_:jj!
u.. "J
"0 --I:;
5 '.....-.'_:;]., o ,_
(5
iN':
J --
Separate
entries entry
Type Two
el':1
r3
err --I.'" T!. ,J [,
Pfi :
n ....... E'3 .... L jI"'....
Separate Central
entries entry
Adaptations of Victorian Houses, Edwardian Buildings
Double and Corner Lots
Central entry. stairs removed
from street

_ ..-1- A .r-"'-.
[Flf]
o l' ["9
d J C:J ..
C' ,'il; r:;2F:]'
t? . .;1', - - ; d L_:l led r ,- -i :- -;-
.... n -- J .... - L
Central entry. stairs removed from street
Alternating Modules of Apartments and Light Wells
environment to building projects and
to isolated building types. They show
too little concern for the urban
environment as the progressive
aggregation of projects and building
types.
CONCLUSION
Although not a panacea to design
research. typomorphological approaches
provide a conceptual framework
explaining the built environment as a
dynamic entity in the hands of its
45
inhabitants. For design research, the
strength of typomorphological
approaches lies in the fact that (1)
they focus on vernacular rather than
"pedigreed or high-style" environments
(Kostof 1986, Rapoport 1977). and
hence provide an explanation for
traditional human habitats. Also (2)
they address the interrelation between
Qll scales of the environment
(interior space. building. segment of
settlement. as well as the entire
settlement). and hence do not separate
falsely buildings from their ancillary
Options Available
within Traditions
~
~
Number of Rooms
[I
Settlers' Decisions Regarding the
Design of the Victorian House
1. Where is the lot located?
If not at the corner of a
block. then
2. Is the lot wide Or narrow?
If narrow, then
3. Should there be a side yard?
4. Should the circulation inside
the house be a single- or
dou ble-Ioaded corridor?
If the side yard is not selected,
and if the corridor is
single-loaded, then
5. How many rooms should there be
on each floor? 1
6. What kind and where should the
recesses be ? I
7. How many stories should the
house have? 1
8. How many dwellings should the
house have? 1
9. How many public facades should
there be 7
Number of Dwellings and Number of Stories
What styles should be used?
FiGure 2: Sequence of decisions and
options in house design, how settlers
worked with building traditions (from
Moudon 1986: 72).
open spaces, from their streets, and
so on. And (3) they recognize the
temporal continuities and
discontinuities in the environment.
This recognition is paramount since,
unfortunately, envi ronmental desi gn
research has paid little attention so
far to the fact that the built
environment is highly modifiable and
indeed invariably modified over time!
The typomorphological approach also
breaks the artificial boundaries
separating the design professions: by
revealing past and present building
practi ces, it pi aces urban
historiography in the midst of
contemporary design practice, and by
considering all scales within the
environment, it links architecture,
landscape architecture, and urban
design and planning concerns together.
Typomorphological approaches provide a
systematic way to classify the
10. What kind of built base should be
used?
11. Should there be a land base? If
so, what kind should be used?
land and Built Bases
I k ~ ~ { 1 D'"
O
W;ll!1 , , , ~
12. How far should the house be
set back from the street 7
2
13. How deep shOUld the
backyard be ?l
1 Need to be worked out together,
order is interchangeable
46
l{i:til
Depth of Yards
2 Need to be worked out together.
order is interchangeable
environment which could structure the
findings of people-environment
stUdies. But with their focus on the
object of design, the physical
environment, these studies respond
better to the needs of desian than
people-environment studies.
References and Further Readings
Aymonino, C., M. Brusatin, G. Fabbri,
M. Lena, P. Loverro, S. Lucianetti,
and A. Rossi. La Ci tta di Padova.
saggi 0 di anal i si urbana. Rome:
Officina edizoni, 1966.
Aymonino, Carlo. Il sjgnificato della
citta. Bari: Laterza, 1976.
Bandi ni, Mi cha. "Typology as a Form
of Convention," AA Files 6, (May
1984) .
Caniggia, Gianfranco. Strutture dello
soazjo antropjco. Florence: Ed.
Alinea, 1985 [1976].
Caniggia, Gianfranco and Gian Luigi
Maffei. Composizjone architettonica e
tipologia edilizia. 1. Lettura
de)]'ediljzja dj base. Venice:
Marsi 1 i 0 Editori, 1979.
Caniggia, Gianfranco. "Dialettica tra
ti po e tessuto nei rapporti
preesistenza-attualita, formaziona-
mutazione, sincronia-diacronia."
Studi e documentj dj architettura 11,
(June 1983).
Castex, Jean, Jean-Charles Depaule,
and Philippe Panerai. Formes
urbajnes: de l',lot a la barre.
Pari s: Dunod, 1977.
Cervell ati, Pi er Lui gi, Roberto
Scannavi ni, and Carlo de Angel is . .La
nuova cultura dell a citU. La
sal vaguardi a dei centri stori ci, 1 a
riappropriazione sociale degli
organismi urbani e l'analisi dello
sviluppo territoriale nell' esperienza
di Bologna. Milan: Mondadori, 1977.
Conzen, Michael P. "Analytical
Approaches to the Urban Landscape," in
Djmensjons of Human Geography. Karl
W. Butzer, Ed. The University of
Chicago Department of Geography,
Research Paper 186, Chapter 8, 1978:
128-165.
Conzen, Michael R. G. "Alnwick,
Northumberland: A Study in Town-Plan
Analysis." publicatjon No. 27.
Institute of British Geographers,
London, 1960.
Cooper-Marcus, Clare, and Wendy
Sarkissian. Housing as if People
Mattered: Site Design Gujdeljnes for
Medjum-Density Famjly Housing.
Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1986
Hi 11 i er, Bi 11 and Jul i enne Hanson.
The Social Logic of Space. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1984.
Hillier, Bill. " Urban Morphology: The
UK Experience, A personal View," in A
propos de la morphologie urbaine.
Choay and Pierre Merlin,
Eds. Noisy Le Grand: Ecole Nationale
des Ponts et Chaussees, March 1986.
Howell, Sandra C. "Programmi ng for
47
Research in Design and Behavior Within
the Building Sciences." National
Science Foundation. NTIS PB 80-140676.
Washington, D.C., 1980.
Hull, Steven. Al phabet Cj ty , New York:
Pamphlet Architecture, 1982.
Lang, Jon. Creating Architectural
Theory. The Role of the Behavioral
Sci ences j n Enyj ronmental Desj an. New
York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1987.
Lawrence, Roderi ck J. Le seui 1
franchi ... Logement popul ai re and vi e
quotjdienne en Suisse romande 1860-
1960. Geneva: Georg, 1986
Moudon, Anne Vernez. Built for Change:
Neighborhood Archjtecture in San
Francjsco. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,
1986.
Moudon, Anne Vernez.
Typology/Morphology: A Report on
Research jn England. Italy. and
France. Urban Design Program,
University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
November 1987a.
Moudon, Anne Vernez. "The Research
Component of Typomorphological
Studies." proceedings of the AIA/ACSA
Research Conference. Boston, 1987b.
Muratori, Saveri o. Studi per una
operante storja urbana dj Venezia.
Rome: Istituto Poligraphico dello
Stato, 1959.
Muratori, Saveri 0, Renato and Sergi 0
Boll ati, and Gui do Mari nucci.
per una operante storja urbana di
Roma. Rome: Consiglio nazionale delle
ri cerche, 1963.
Newman, Oscar. Community of Interest.
Garden City, NY: Anchor
Press/Doubleday, 1980.
Noberg-Schulz, Christian. Genius Locj.
Toward a phenomenology of
Architecture. London: Academic
Editions, 1980.
Noberg-Schulz, Christian. The Concept
of Dwelling, New York: Rizzoli
International Publishing Inc., 1985
Panerai, Philippe, Jean-Charles
Depaule, Marcelle Demorgon, and Michel
Veyrenche. Elements d'analyse
urbajne, Brussels: Editions Archives
d'Architecture Moderne, 1980.
Pevsner,Nickolaus, Sir. A History of
Building Types. London: Thames and
Hudson, 1976.
Rapoport, Amos. Human Aspects of
Urban Form. Towards a Man-enyironment
Approach to Form and Design. Oxford:
Pergamon Press. 1977.
Rapoport. Amos. The Meaning of the
Built Enyironment. A Nonverbal
Communication Approach. Beverley
Hills. CA: Sage Publications. 1982.
Rossi. Aldo. A Scientific
Autobiography. Cambridge. MA: MIT
Press. 1981.
Rossi. Aldo. The Architecture of the
City. Cambri dge. MA: MIT Press. 1982
[First Italian edition. 1966].
Vidler. Anthony. "The Third
Typology." Oppositions 7. 1976.
Vidler. Anthony. "The Idea of Type:
The Transformation of the Academic
Ideal. 1750-1830." Oppositions 8.
(Spring 1977): 93-113.
Villeco. Margo. and Michael Brill.
Environmental Design Research:
Concepts. Methods and Values.
Washington. D.C.: National Endowment
for the Arts. 1981.
Whitehand. J.W.R .. Ed. "The Urban
Landscape: Historical Development and
Management. Papers by M.R.G. Conzen, "
Institute of British Geographers.
Special Publication No. 13. New York:
Academic Press. 1981.
48