Morphology (architecture and engineering)

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Morphology in architecture is the study of the evolution of form within the built environment. Often used in reference to a particular vernacular language of building, this concept describes changes in the formal syntax of buildings and cities as their relationship to people evolves and changes. Often morphology describes processes, such as in the evolution of a design concept from first conception to production, but can also be understood as the categorical study in the change of buildings and their use from a historical perspective. Similar to genres of music, morphology concertizes 'movements' and arrives at definitions of architectural 'styles' or typologies. Paradoxically morphology can also be understood to be the qualities of a built space which are style-less or irreducible in quality.

Some ideological influences on morphology which are usually cultural or philosophical in origin include: Indigenous architecture, Classical architecture, Baroque architecture, Modernism, Postmodernism, Deconstructionism, Brutalism, and Futurism. Recent contemporary advances in analytic and cross platform tools such as 3d printing, virtual reality, and building information modeling make the current contemporary typology formally difficult to pinpoint into one holistic definition. Advances in the study of Architectural (formal) morphology have the potential to influence or foster new fields of study in the realms of the arts, cognitive science, psychology, behavioral science, neurology, mapping, linguistics, and other as yet unknown cultural spatial practices or studies based upon social and environmental knowledge games.^[1] Often architectural morphologies are reflexive or indicative of political influences of their time and perhaps more importantly, place. Other influences on the morphological form of the urban environment include architects, builders, developers, and the social demographic of the particular location^[2]

Urban morphology provides an understanding of the form, establishment and reshaping processes, spatial structure and character of human settlements through an analysis of historical development processes and the constituent parts that compose settlements. Urban morphology is used as a method of determining transformation processes of urban fabrics by which buildings (both residential and commercial), architects, streets and monuments act as elements of a multidimensional form in a dynamic relationship where built structures shape and are shaped by the open space around them.^{[citation needed]} Urban places act as evolutionary open systems that are continually shaped and transformed by social and political events and by the market forces.^[3]