Urban form
Wheeler - Built Landscapes of Metropolitan Regions
Steve Wheeler is a Professor in the Landscape Architecture Program of the Department of Human Ecology at U.C. Davis. Prof. Wheeler teaches courses related to urban and regional planning, urban design, and sustainable development. He is interested in how many different planning and design strategies can work together to produce more sustainable communities. His research focuses on 1) theory and practice of sustainable development; 2) climate change planning; and 3) urban morphology and the evolution of built landscapes in metropolitan regions. - from faculty page.
"The “collage city” of the postmodern metropolitan region is made up of many different types of built landscapes—neighborhood-scale patterns of streets, blocks, parcels, buildings, and infrastructure—each of which have implications for livability, sustainability, and equity. This project under the guidance of Prof. Stephen M. Wheeler has developed a global typology of 27 built landscape types and has mapped those in GIS for 24 urban regions. "The analysis (summarized in the JAPA article below and a forthcoming book) shows that 27 basic types of built landscape make up metropolitan regions worldwide, of which 9 are very common. Traditional urban types now make up a small fraction of most metro areas worldwide, while suburban and exurban forms comprise the vast majority of the land area. Wheeler, Stephen M. "Built Landscapes of Metropolitan Regions: An International Typology." Journal of the American Planning Association.
https://regionalchange.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk986/files/inline-files/copy2_of_WheelerBuiltLandscapesofMetropolitanRegionsJAPA2015ReducedSize.pdf.
References
- Badger, Emily M. "The 27 patterns that make up the world’s cities and suburbs." [on Stephen Wheeler's work]. The Atlantic, October 8, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/10/08/the-27-patterns-that-make-up-the-worlds-cities-and-suburbs/.
- Wheeler, Stephen M. "Built Landscapes of Metropolitan Regions: An International Typology." Journal of the American Planning Association.
https://regionalchange.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk986/files/inline-files/copy2_of_WheelerBuiltLandscapesofMetropolitanRegionsJAPA2015ReducedSize.pdf.