ABSTRACT
The concept of assemblage comes from philosophy. It was introduced by Deleuze and Guattari (1987), for whom assemblage designates one of the two main ways in which the real is formed. Its conceptual companion is the stratum. Strata define layers or levels of reality constituted by homogeneous types of elements, structures and codes. They distinguish three fundamental strata: the inorganic stratum, the organic stratum and the alloplastic stratum, which includes anthropomorphic forms, both technological and linguistic. Strata thus have a clear unity of composition. They enter into relations of mutual support and collision, but each stratum retains its own forms and substances. Strata are empirically observable, but certainly insufficient to understand how things take shape, how cities and urban phenomena are structured.
