ABSTRACT
The concept of type and study of typology has been long developed in architectural history and theory. By tracking the trajectory of the development of this concept, this chapter reveals how different architects and architectural theorists act on type with their own ideologies, experiences and personal interpretations. Morphology, derived in the discipline of geography, is also a long-established body of knowledge in reading the man-made environment. Its full potential in the creation and reshaping of the built environment cannot be fully explored unless it is married to the concept of typology and this has not until now been fully explored because they have been evolving in discrete disciplinary fields. The chapter explains how these two theories are reciprocally related and how typomorphology, as a fusion of the two, is relevant to cultural identity. It lays out a common ground for the union of typology and morphology to transfer the significant potential of this approach into Chinese urban design.
