Tipomorphic taxonomy: a method for classifying urban morphological diversity

Abstract

This academic essay aims to demonstrate a mathematical and algorithmic method to study the city under the premises of complexity, identifying morphological patterns through numerical taxonomy, which, similarly in the Biology, is used to classify species by their similarities, defining groups and hierarchical relationships. The study uses as a clipping, for methodological application, the district of Vila Mariana in the São Paulo city, which has more than 1/3 of its area destined to Axes of Structuring and Urban Transformation. Preliminary results of the classification, in the scale of the built lot, show that a few groups with very similarity end up concentrating the great majority of the types of the studied area, making possible a grouping by the numerical taxonomy, here qualified as typomorphic. A relevant finding evidenced by the results is the lack of isonomy that lots with street edge smaller than 10m, have in relation to larger lots. However, small adjustments in the urbanistic indices can restore the balance and contribute to a greater diversity of the buildings form.