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New paper published! Venues and segregation: A revised Schelling model
lineGenerative models of urban form It goes without saying that most of our lives are spent in buildings. Less obvious are the implications of this obvious fact. Consider a two-dimensional map. It presents a smooth surface, but the reality it represents is warped. Certain points on it support more interaction than others: the ones with…
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Public/Private Thresholds
line Population formetics and the circulation of urban forms This research project looks deeper into the evolution of threshold spaces in the built environment to help us understand the forces that contribute to their adaptation and reproduction in cities. Fueled by the current resurgence in both cultural value and range of activities afforded by them,…
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Dynamic models of urban segregation
Teaser Description Thomas Schelling’s classic paper is a key reference point for agent-based models of segregation. It is often taken as providing fundamental insight into the micro-processes that produce the segregated macro-structures that characterize urban settlement patterns. In this research tradition, however, urban form plays a very limited role, despite the fact that Schelling himself introduced…
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The urban ecology of popular music
Teaser Description Cities are breeding grounds of distinct modes of cultural activity. In this study, we examine how popular musicians define themselves differently depending on their location. In particular, we examine the relationship between bands’ degree of conventionality and unconventionality and their popularity. We show that this relationship in general exhibits a non-linear, inverted U pattern:…
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Political order of the city
Teaser Description While cities as a whole can be viewed as distinct ecological environments, they also have their own internal ecological order made up of a variety of local niches. These niches are not independent of one another, but interact to produce and reproduce a characteristic order that persists through time, even as individuals move…
