Mapping & Painting Urban form

Morphology in the Making

Martina Crapolicchio, Rossella Gugliotta, Marco Trisciuoglio

• Publisher: Accademia University Press
• Year: 2026
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9791255001058
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

The book brings together the theoretical foundations and teaching experiences of two complementary courses, Morphologies. The Form of Cities and From Painting to Understanding: An Overview on European Urban Spaces, taught by Marco Trisciuoglio and his research unit within the PhD Programme in Architecture. History and Project at Politecnico di Torino and in lectures' series at Southeast University in Nanjing. Both courses share a common ambition: to explore how cities take form, change over time, and can be interpreted through different modes of representation. The volume is articulated in two parts. Mapping examines ten cities through ten key maps, introducing major figures, methods, and questions in urban morphology, ranging from archaeological surveys to typological analyses, from perceptual approaches to contemporary interpretations of urban form. Painting shifts the focus to images, showing how paintings, engravings, photographs, comics and movies illuminate the cultural, symbolic, and experiential dimensions of urban space. Together, the two sections outline a multifaceted way of reading the city that bridges analytical rigor and visual interpretation. The contribution of the PhD candidates is crucial to the book. Their drawings, commentaries, and critical counterpoints accompany each lecture, forming a continuous dialogue between teaching and research. Designed both as an introduction and as an invitation, the book encourages readers to approach urban form with curiosity and analytical precision, learning to navigate the interplay between representation, history, and the lived experience of the city. The counterpoints between morphology and transition that close the book further underline these aspects.

Table of contents

• Preface
• Mapping Urban Morphologies
• Marco Trisciuoglio
• The rising of the Italian city. The form of Siena in 1338-1339
• The invention of the perspective. The form of Nowhere in 1484
• Life, reality and atmosphere of the European City.The form of Delft in 1660-1661
• Urban design as a drama. The form of Rome in 1748-1774
• The Rule and the Invention. The form of Venice in 1756-1759
• The perception of the modern city composition. The form of Paris in 1873
• The industrial city. The form of Milan in 1922
• Urban space into a camera. The form of Paris in 1950
• Complexity and contradictions in contemporary cities.The form of Berlin in 1987
• The dystopian city between science fiction and comics.The form of Shaft City in 1981-1988
• A conceptual map
• The language of urban rules. How regulations shape the city
• The invisible form. Four topological diagram to city design
• Bridging Morphological Studies and ParametricApproach to Design Hybrid Spaces
• The urban form of popular habitat.Reading the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area
• A Chinese post-scriptum
• Antiphrasis
• The Authors