Extending the Scope of Morpho Analysis

an Iranian Exploration

Abstract

The study of urban form in Iran has been mainly focused on historical urban landscapes. Furthermore, morphological studies have mostly adopted a descriptive qualitative emphasis, many times related to ‘particular’ aspects of the object under analysis and not to ‘general’ frameworks of explanation. While acknowledging the unique urban history of the country, this paper focuses on contemporary urban forms, offering a balance between description and explanation, qualitative and quantitative analysis, and ‘particular’ and ‘general’ views. It proposes the Morpho methodology, focused on the town-plan elements – streets, street blocks, plots, and buildings – for the analysis of contemporary urban landscapes. Morpho is applied into two districts in Tehran. The application makes evident how this morphological framework can be used in the description and explanation of contemporary urban landscapes, highlighting the main strengths (high density of street blocks and plots, high coincidence between building and plot frontages) and weaknesses (low to medium permeability of streets) of the two districts.