{"id":56,"date":"2019-08-22T20:24:36","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T00:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/settlement\/chapter\/lawsofsettlements_book_lopc_5_form\/"},"modified":"2020-04-22T15:27:56","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T19:27:56","slug":"lawsofsettlements_book_lopc_5_form","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/settlement\/chapter\/lawsofsettlements_book_lopc_5_form\/","title":{"raw":"Form","rendered":"Form"},"content":{"raw":"
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<\/div>\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_55\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1000\"]\"Aerial San Francisco, US. Image courtesy of Author.[\/caption]\n\n<\/div>\n
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<\/a>40.<\/span> The main force which shapes human settlements physically is centripetal\u2014that is, the inward tendency towards a close interrelationship of all its parts.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n

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According to Doxiadis, all parts of a settlement seek to be as close to one another as possible, tending to \u201c\u2026form a circle with a centre which exercises a centripetal force\u201d (Doxiadis, <\/span>196<\/span>8, p. 309). As new pieces are added, they tend to form around the perimeter, each seeking to be as close as possible to the centre.<\/p>\n

A brief look at human settlements across history will serve to substantiate this law. From the Sumerian city-state of Ur in Ancient Mesopotamia to the contemporary ideal diagrams of transit-oriented development, Ebenezer Howard\u2019s \"Garden City\" to Christopher Alexander\u2019s \u201cEccentric Nucleus\u201d pattern, it is clear that the circular, centripetal settlement is a dominant pattern. As such, many smaller settlements tend towards a tight and cohesive shape.<\/p>\n

That said, as history also demonstrates, the circular form serves as more of an ideal model, deforming in response to outside forces (Law 11<\/span><\/a>) and natural features (Law 27 <\/span><\/a>and Law 43<\/span><\/a>). Moreover, issues related to the dimensions of smaller components that make up the texture of a settlement (Laws 38<\/a>-39<\/a><\/span>) necessarily influence the amount of concentration possible. Even in the era of vast suburban expansion, interstitial waste landscapes and \u2018in-between dross\u2019 we see this tendency, albeit at different scales than those of old settlements. Even a brief look at satellite images of the earth shows interconnected clusters of roughly circular settlements.<\/p>\n

It is worth noting that the law implies a \u2018centre\u2019\u2014that is, something to concentrate around and pull other aspects towards it. Interestingly, Doxiadis suggests that the tendency to form tightly around a nucleus is not as strong within very small settlements of \u201csay, ten or 20\u201d buildings\u00a0(Doxiadis, <\/span>1<\/span>968, p. 310). At such a scale, central functions have yet to develop.<\/p>\n

FURTHER READING (full citations found in reference list<\/a>):<\/p>\n\n