Abstract

This thesis discusses the adaptation of landscape fragmentation analytical methods to the study of urban form. It posits that together, the natural and human-made barriers create a network that delineates the inhabitable spaces that accommodate residential and other associated urban functions, thus creating an "urban landscape mosaic" composed of threads and meshes. A taxonomy of urban barriers is proposed that distinguishes first order quasi-impermeable barriers (rivers, escarpments, railroads, highways, etc.) and second order boundaries such as thoroughfares and large parks. A case study in Montréal illustrates how first order barriers and second order boundaries together form a morphological matrix that orders the space. It sheds light on how urban landscape fragmentation analyses could reveal the existence of recognizable patterns and dimensional thresholds and allow for the empirical exploration of spatial relationships between the barriers and boundaries matrix and some of the characters of the form at the scales of the urban organism and of the urban tissue.