Recognizing the Concept of Urban Form Using the Meta-Synthesis Method

The concept of the urban form has always been hotly debated by the urban development researchers, who mostly have addressed it adopting a physical-functional approach. However, to gain a clearer understanding of this concept, it is necessary to consider a series of factors affecting urban development.

This study aimed to examine urban form dimensions, criteria, and indicators and their relationship to supporting theories in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the urban form.

The study used the meta-synthesis method to fulfill its objectives. In Stage 1, 61 out of 30 relevant resources were screened and selected via the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP). Then, these resources were encoded and analyzed in Maxqda 2222 in terms of the research questions.

After the data analysis, 12 codes were identified, which were then classified and examined in four categories of different types of contemporary urban forms, form dimensions, intelligibility, and supporting theories.

The present study tried to provide a relatively complete understanding of the urban form by going through the resources of the recent 22 years. The analysis showed the urban form to include overt and covert dimensions. The overt dimension addresses external, tangible features, and the covert dimension addresses internal, intangible features. Over recent years, scholars and researchers have tried to address a greater number of the covert dimension features. The covert dimension needs more attention in order to attain the ideal urban form because covert dimensions and indicators drive urban development and have long-term effects on urban systems.