Analysis of Urban Morphology in Core Towns’ Neighborhoods of Mexico: Santa Barbara’s Neighborhood as a Case Study

Abstract

Cities' urban morphology is the result of historic, cultural, political and social processes. The historical cores in Mexican cities have high cultural diversity, which also intermingle pre-Hispanic cultures with colonial forms, as well with modernity and post-modernity irruption. The case study is Santa Barbara's neighborhood in Toluca City, which was founded in 1524, and the case study was the first neighborhood in Toluca's historical core. At present time, this neighborhood is considered as one of the most dangerous places in the city's historical core, therefore, it has been abandoned. This paper will display the changes in urban morphology of the neighborhood through the years from 1877 to 2010. For site evaluation, the methodologies of Ashihara (1982) and Lynch's (1961) were used in order to analyze positive and negative spaces, as well as main street visual features, street and avenue directions, street circulation and street circulation path configuration. The results show that the focal nodes are a key factor for economic and social reactivation, with which, through urban activation of vacant lots and the traditional use of the streets as public space, is possible to generate centripetal development to restructure the neighborhood.