Retail landscape of the network structure: A comparative analysis of the suburban regions of Helsinki and Ankara

2024-09-16
The persistent decentralization of contemporary cities generates different network structures and various subcentres in the periphery of the towns. These central nodes primarily arise from the concentration of retail businesses, which are supported by transportation infrastructure. The relationship between land use and movement has long been discussed in the literature, with theoretical approaches like the node-place model. However, there is a lack of morphological research focusing on how the compositional and configurational features of urban form influence the spatial characteristics and formation of retail landscapes within different transportation infrastructures. Therefore, this study aims to examine how morphologically distinct and functionally diverse retail clusters emerge with different network structures at the urban periphery. In this sense, the suburban retail landscapes of Helsinki (Finland) and Ankara (Türkiye) were compared by measuring the spatial capacities of plots (n= 124,801) for retail density, agglomeration, and diversity. By conducting computational plot characterization for retail spatiality, three distinctive plot types with different capacities for retail centrality were revealed. The spatiality of the categorized plots demonstrates that in Helsinki, suburban centers feature compact formation with retail businesses around neighborhood railway/metro stations, while in Ankara's suburban region, retail businesses mostly generate linear strip formation along car-oriented main boulevards. Two distinct types of centrality formations in the suburban regions were then compared by quantifying morphological parameters based on plot, building, and street as the units of analysis. In this way, the research results would indicate the essential role of the morphology of retail landscape and spatial pattern of transportation network in enhancing socially and spatially sustainable urban growth in urban peripheries.
XXXI Conference of the International Seminar on Urban Form – ISUF 2024
Citation Formats
H. E. Efeoğlu, “Retail landscape of the network structure: A comparative analysis of the suburban regions of Helsinki and Ankara,” presented at the XXXI Conference of the International Seminar on Urban Form – ISUF 2024, Sao-Paulo, Brezilya, 2024, Accessed: 00, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/111884.