How to identify urban design qualities through the matrix analysis of built environments

Abstract

The qualities of urban design introduced by built environments that are important for foot travels are the imaginability, legibility, enclosure, transparency, human scale, linkage, coherence, complexity and tidiness. This premise contextualizes a model that enables the reading of built environments in such a way that the qualities present in them can be described and measured. With the observation of a street, its physical and functional aspects are characterized and, with the combination of these characteristics of the built environment, it is possible to identify what qualities exist in the place. As a case study, 91 streets in the city of Lisbon were selected through eliminatory and classificatory criteria. It was possible perceive the great diversity of elements present in the same set of similar streets. These elements make the qualities present in the streets very diverse, although the selection criteria were similar. For the urban planner, this can serve as an analytical tool of aspects that influence the presence or absence that certain qualities in the channel space, being possible to proceed consciously on the qualification of spaces to turn them more suitable for pedestrians.

Keywords:  Urban design qualities; Built environment; Street; Pedestrian mobility; Lisbon