A tale of two cities - A comparative study of historical urban cores

This research explores urban patterns in historic settlements inside fortification walls by comparing two European cities. Similarities in their historical development raised the question of whether they share urban morphotypes at the block level. To address this question, we conducted an urban matrix analysis using k-means clustering, applied to a database of morphological attributes from two different urban elements – buildings and urban blocks – with buildings considered as parts of blocks. Data revealed common patterns and unique features of each city and helped assess the degree of similarity among them. Results suggest that the two cities have different development outcomes. Six block types were identified, four of which were found in both cities but with a different distribution of prevailing building types. Moreover, two of them were found to be unique to each city. We offer potential explanations of the observed differences and discuss them.