A Conceptualisation of Defining and Computing the Street Edge: Constitutedness | Permeability | Intervisibility

Abstract

The micro-level approach to transformations in urban morphology is the current leading area of study. It captures the significant soft grain of the street edge and its function. The pattern (edge-edge interface) is controlled by morphological analyses that are based on two primary urban elements: Plots and blocks. In addition, the street edge represents the link between two realms – the private and public - and defines their interrelationship. Three indicators (constitutedness, permeability and intervisibility) formulate the degree of interaction, whether between street edge ingredients or people and the adjacent edge. The main aims of this paper are to highlight the characteristics of the street edge and to compute and derive an equation for the three indicators. The paper adopts a morphological and analytical method in order to trace the primary purpose of the research with greater concentration on the micro-level scale. A quantitative technique is used to formulate the main equations and significant results are extracted regarding the specific morphological properties of the edge. Thus, the main contribution of this research is the development of knowledge that quantitatively determines the attributes of the street edge.