The genetic code for cities
is it simpler than we think?
pp. 129-152
in: Juval Portugali, Han Meyer, Egbert Stolk, Ekim Tan (eds), Complexity theories of cities have come of age, Berlin, Springer, 2012Abstract
Most recent mathematical characterisations of the city are statistical descriptions of the distribution of spatial or functional properties of cities, but in abstract statistical space rather than real space. By definition, this omits how elements with these properties connect to each other in real space, and so omits any account of the structure of the system. Here I show three things. First I show how statistical and other numerical characterisations of cities can be turned into structural characterisations. Second, I show that with this capability we can find a universal characterisation of certain deep or universal structures common to the spatial form of all cities. Third, I outline the "genetic" process that gives rise to these universal structures in two phases: a spatial process through which simple spatial laws govern the emergence of characteristically urban patterns of space from aggregations of buildings; and a functional process through which equally simple spatio-functional laws govern the way in which aggregates of buildings becomes living cities. This dual process is suggested to be akin to a "genetic" code for cities.