Fabrique urbaine : a new concept in urban history and morphology

Fabrique urbaine : a new concept in urban history and morphology

[SHS:HISPHILSO] Humanities and Social Sciences/History, Philosophy and Sociology of Sciences

[SHS:ARCHI] Humanities and Social Sciences/Architecture, space management

[SDE:ES] Environmental Sciences/Environmental and Society

[SHS:GEO] Humanities and Social Sciences/Geography

urban form

French towns

disciplinary links

The concept of fabrique urbaine can be described as a socio-spatial process of development of ordinary towns and cities. Practices and representations of the residents and other users of urban areas must be first analysed as a series of historical moments, called social temporalities. Then the spatial structure of the town, especially its plots, the aggregation of plots into street blocks, and the street system can be precisely described, but with its own temporalities, and only as the final result of the history of the inhabitants. The link between the social history and the urban morphology can not be direct : the social temporalities are not the conscious steps of the process of the development of the urban fabric. Nevertheless, there is a dialectical interaction between these two orders of facts. This method of articulating the historical development of urban areas is illustrated by studies of French cities.

Noizet, Hélène

Urban Morphology

2009

ENG

article in peer-reviewed journal

http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00419700

http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/41/97/00/PDF/Noizet_UrbanMorphology.pdf