ABSTRACT

As discussed in chapter 1, urban morphology has become increasingly complex over time, particularly throughout the latter half of the twentieth century. High rates of urbanisation, accompanied by rapid suburbanisation, have transformed the monocentric city, which has been the dominant urban form for several millennia, into one that is polycentric. The continuous decentralisation of population and employment from the core to the periphery of cities is well documented in the literature under the labels of counterurbanisation and exurbanisation. This phenomenon, articulated differently by Garreau (1991), refers to the development of edge cities, meaning urban centres at the outer limits of metropolitan areas.