Context-rich Urban Analysis Using Machine Learning

This paper reports on the analytical potential of machine learning methods for urban analysis. It documents a new method for data-driven urban analysis based on diagrammatic images describing each building in a city in relation to its immediate urban context. By statistically analyzing architectural and contextual features in this new dataset, the method can identify clusters of similar urban conditions and produce a detailed picture of a city's morphological structure. Remapping the clusters from data to 2D space, our method enables a new kind of urban plan that displays gradients of urban similarity. Taking Pittsburgh as a case study we demonstrate this method, and propose ``morphological types'' as a new category of urban analysis describing a given city's specific set of distinct morphological conditions. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of this method and its limitations, as well as its potentials for architecture, urban studies, and computation.