How are Cities Organized, and How do they Function?

Key Question:

Urban Morphology

The layout of a city, its physical form an structure.

Berlin, GermanyWith wall (above)And without wall (right)

What does the urban morphology of the city tell us about the city?

Functional Zonation

The division of the city into certain regions (zones) for certain purposes (functions).

Cairo, EgyptCentral city (above)Housing projects (right)

What does the functional zonation of the city tell us about the city?

Zones of the City

• Central business district (CBD)

• Central City (the CBD + older housing zones)

• Suburb (outlying, functionally uniform zone outside of the central city)

Modeling the North American City

• Concentric zone model (Ernest Burgess)

• Sector model (Homer Hoyt)

• Multiple Nuclei Model (Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman)

Three Classical Models of Urban Structure

Concentric zone model

• A model with five zones.– Zone 1• The central business district (CBD)• Extension of trolley lines had a lot to do with this pattern)

- Zone 2• Characterized by mixed pattern of industrial and

residential land use • Often includes slums and skid rows, many ethnic ghettos

began here• Usually called the transition zone

Concentric zone model• A model with five zones.– Zone 3• The “workingmen’s quarters”• Solid blue-collar, located close to factories of zones 1

and 2• More stable than the transition zone around the CBD• Often characterized by ethnic neighborhoods — blocks

of immigrants who broke free from the ghettos• Spreading outward because of pressure from transition

zone and because blue-collar workers demanded better housing

Concentric zone model

• A model with five zones.– Zone 4• Middle class area of “better housing”• Established city dwellers, many of whom moved

outward with the first streetcar network• Commute to work in the CBD

– Zone 5• Consists of higher-income families clustered together in

older suburbs

Concentric zone model

• Theory represented the American city in a new stage of development– Before the 1870s, cities such as New York had

mixed neighborhoods where merchants’ stores and sweatshop factories were intermingled with mansions and hovels

– Rich and poor, immigrant and native-born, rubbed shoulders in the same neighborhoods

Concentric zone model

• In Chicago, Burgess’s home town, the great fire of 1871 leveled the core– The result of rebuilding was a more explicit social

patterning– Chicago became a segregated city with a

concentric pattern– This was the city Burgess used for his model– The actual map of the residential area does not

exactly match his simplified concentric zones

Concentric Zone Model

Sector model

• Maintained high-rent districts were instrumental in shaping land-use structure of the city

• Because these areas were reinforced by transportation routes, the pattern of their development was one of sectors or wedges

Sector model• As high-rent sectors develop, areas between them are filled in

– Middle-rent areas move directly next to them, drawing on their prestige

– Low-rent areas fill remaining areas– Moving away from major routes of travel, rents go from high to low

• There are distinct patterns in today’s cities that echo Hoyt’s model

• He had the advantage of writing later than Burgess — in the age of the automobile

Sector Model

Sector model

• Today, major transportation arteries are generally freeways– Surrounding areas are often low-rent districts– Contrary to Hoyt’s theory– Freeways were imposed on existing urban pattern– Often built through low-rent areas where land was

cheaper and political opposition was less

Multiple nuclei model• The CBD was not the sole generator of change • Rooted their model in four geographic principles

– Certain activities require highly specialized facilities• Accessible transportation for a factory• Large areas of open land for a housing tract

– Certain activities cluster because they profit from mutual association– Certain activities repel each other and will not be found in the same

area– Certain activities could not make a profit if they paid the high rent of

the most desirable locations

Latin American model

• More complex because of influence of local cultures on urban development

• Difficult to group cities of the developing world into one or two comprehensive models

Latin American

City (Griffin-

Ford model)

Latin American model• In contrast to today’s cities in the U.S., the CBDs of Latin

American cities are vibrant, dynamic, and increasingly specialized– A reliance on public transit that serves the central city– Existence of a large and relatively affluent population closest to CBD

• Inner-city zone of maturity– Less prestigious collection of traditional colonial

homes and upgraded self-built homes– Homes occupied by people unable to participate in

the spine/sector– Area of upward mobility

Latin American model

• Inner-city zone of maturity– Less prestigious collection of traditional colonial

homes and upgraded self-built homes– Homes occupied by people unable to participate

in the spine/sector– Area of upward mobility

Latin American model

• Zone of accretion– Diverse collection of housing types, sizes, and

quality– Transition between zone of maturity and next

zone– Area of ongoing construction and change– Some neighborhoods have city-provided utilities– Other blocks must rely on water and butane

delivery trucks for essential services

Latin American model

• Zone of peripheral squatter settlements– Where most recent migrants are found– Fringe contrasts with affluent and comfortable

suburbs that ring North American cities– Houses often built from scavenged materials– Gives the appearance of a refugee camp

Latin American model

• Zone of peripheral squatter settlements– Surrounded by landscape bare of vegetation that

was cut for fuel and building materials– Streets unpaved, open trenches carry wastes,

residents carry water from long distances, electricity is often “pirated”

– Residents who work have a long commute– Many are transformed through time into

permanent neighborhoods

Suburban downtowns, often located near key freeway intersections, often with:- office complexes- shopping centers- hotels- restaurants - entertainment facilities- sports complexes

Edge Cities

Each realm is a separate economic, social and political entity that is linked together to form a larger metro framework.

Urban Realms Model

Modeling the Cities of the Global Periphery and Semiperiphery

• Latin American City (Griffin-Ford model)

• African City (de Blij model)

• Southeast Asian City (McGee model)

Latin American

City (Griffin-

Ford model)

Disamenity sector – very poorest parts of the city eg. the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The African City

(de Blij model)

Southeast Asian City (McGee model)

Employing the concepts defined in this section of the chapter, draw a model of the city with which you are most familiar. Label each section of the city accordingly. After reading through the models described in this section, determine which model best corresponds to the model you drew and hypothesize why it is so.