Urban Morphology and Forms of the Territory: Between Urban and Landscape Design

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between territory and urban space, discussing the joint development processes of urban and territorial morphologies. The paper argues that territorial structure is a precursor to urban design. It also discusses how landscape architecture can respond to the morphological needs of contemporary urban design as the boundaries between city and territory merge. The introduction and framework review section examines various approaches to studying the relationship between urban morphology and interstitial spaces or unbuilt geographies, which are often still considered empty spaces, physically incorporated but excluded from urban design. It also briefly discusses the role that green spaces and territorial morphologies have played, or not played, in defining urban form from antiquity to modernity. The paper then focuses on the role of hydromorphologies in shaping the urban form of Rome, Boston and Bari. These cities are analyzed as case studies to discuss 20th-century approaches to urban planning in relation to territorial layout. Finally, this study analyzes a marginal area of the metropolitan city of Bari in order to propose possible landscape morphologies of reconnection for the resulting interstitial areas.