Mapping Morphological Futures—Plan-Analysis and its Cultural Intersections

Plan-analysis as a technique in urban morphology owes much to the thinking and practices of one of the most influential of urban morphologists: M R G Conzen. It is an intellectual legacy that over the past sixty years or more, since the first publication in 1960 of Conzen’s seminal work on ‘plan-analysis’, has continued to exert an influence on how urban landscapes are analysed morphologically. The success of the method lies in its systematic approach, using large-scale maps and identifying ‘plan-elements’—streets, plots, and buildings—by mapping these and studying their form. Maps and mapping, then, are fundamental to plan-analysis, both in terms of underpinning the technique but also for visualising the results of the process. It is through plan-analyses that urban morphologists have explored the spatial evolution of cities, from their origins to the modern day, and turned these historical studies into guidance on contemporary urban design and conservation of historic fabric and form. Plan-analysis thus continues to be core to what urban morphologists do, as a technique it defines our subject and forges close connections across academic disciplines as well as with practitioners.