Morphology, Sustainable Evolution of Inner-urban Neighborhoods in San Francisco

Abstract

This research identifies the roles and processes of a traditional mixed-use inner-urban neighborhood, the South of Market Area district in San Francisco, in providing adaptable physical settings and flexible functional mixtures for livable urban communities. Using typo-morphological analyses, it investigates spatial types and functional attributes of elements with regard to how they form physically adaptable and functionally flexible places, and in what way they affect neighborhood evolution. The first part of the research identifies distinct spatial structures and functional patterns of the South of Market Area at an area-wide scale. The second part investigates fundamental components which form diverse neighborhood spaces through an extensive typological study. The third part analyzes evolutionary processes of neighborhoods by means of a morphological analysis for three historical periods beginning in the mid-nineteenth century and continuing into the late 1980s. The fourth part investigates mechanisms of evolutionary patterns which lead to particularly adaptable neighborhood environments. The research concludes that adaptable neighborhoods are formed based on the integration of fine-grained traditional mixed-use neighborhood spaces and individually-planned new small-scale building developments in an incremental and dispersed manner of evolution.