Urban Forms and Structure

The internal structure of cities — how different land uses, social groups, and economic activities are spatially arranged — has fascinated geographers, sociologists, and urban planners for over a century. Understanding urban models is not merely an academic exercise; these frameworks shape planning policy, investment decisions, and our understanding of urban inequality.

Key Definition: Urban morphology is the study of the form, structure, and layout of cities, including the pattern and arrangement of land uses, building types, transport networks, and open spaces.

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Classical Urban Models

Three models dominate the study of urban structure. All emerged from the Chicago School of urban sociology in the early-to-mid twentieth century.

1. The Concentric Zone Model — Burgess (1925)

Ernest Burgess (1925) proposed that cities grow outward from the centre in a series of concentric rings, each with distinct land uses and social characteristics: