Urban design needs urban morphology: a practitioner's viewpoint

摘要

Urban design is an inherently interdisciplinary activity. Looking into the successes and failures of the past can assist designers in shaping future built environments. Urban designers need to be keenly aware of urban morphology and indeed urban theory in other disciplines. They need to come out of their traditional professional circle and expand the scope of their knowledge. Urban design needs to learn from urban morphology how to generate new theoretical frameworks and new methodologies that provide support for its practice. The lessons of history underline the importance of active urban design in the generation and transformation of urban forms in China and Europe alike. The application of urban morphological principles can in turn contribute to the development of urban morphology.