Centrality and Land Use: Three Case Studies on the Configurational Hypothesis

This research is the logical continuation of several previous studies concerning the relations mutually connecting the configuration of the urban grid, the movement of activities in the urban settlement, and the location of these activities. Those studies were aimed at verifying the reliability of the hypothesis on which configurational analysisis based (Hillier, Hanson, 1984, Hillier, 1996a): the role of the urban grid (appraised in configurational terms, that is to say, with regard only to the spatial relations mutually connecting all its paths) as the primary element both in the production of movement and in the location of activities. Such an assumption, if proved, should allow the prediction of the distribution of pedestrian flows and the location of urban activities on the mere basis of the configuration of the grid, making it possible to set aside the issue of the presence and position of the located activities. In the research that has been conducted so far (Cutini, 1999a; Cutini, 1999b), we have actually proved the existence of a significant correlation between configuration and pedestrian movement, while at the same specifying its limits: the correlation, very clear within limited sub-systems of the overall grid, becomes dramatically weaker if extended over the whole grid. In this study, we have taken land use into consideration, extending the analysis to the correlation between the presence of the located activities and the distribution of configurational indexes. The research has focused on the two case studies that had been previously selected and analysed; the test on a third urban case, which was chosen as a particularly significant example, provides further confirmation of the results to date. These results make it possible to prove that the methods of configurational analysis (Hillier, 1996a) provide a reliable predictive tool for determining the capacity of each part of the urban settlement to create activities and enable them to flourish; at the same time, we have also been able to pinpoint the range of reliability of these methods. In other words, the results obtained provide a new definition of the notion of urban centrality, appraised in terms of attractiveness, setting aside the actual presence and position of the located activities. Furthermore, on the basis of these results, the location of monopolistic activities emerges as a strategic variable in town planning and management