Paris/New York 1215-1811-2015. Eight centuries of hierarchies of scale in urban land lots

Abstract

The development of inner-city Paris (100 km2) and the grid of the Commissioners’ Plan of Manhattan (66 km2) were recorded on scales of different ages: two millennia for Paris and two centuries for Manhattan. Despite being very different in appearance, with competing feudal powers in a compartmentalised society and competing markets in an open society, land lot hierarchies marked by hierarchies of scale have emerged that are surprisingly similar, as if there were a form of universality at work.

Keywords

• Paris
• New York
• Fractals
• Urban multifractals
• Emergence
• Platting