Far Eastern University 2nd Semester 2021-2022

Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts

WEEK 6
Location Theory: The Foundation of Planning

Module Information

Module Overview
The module introduces the student the Location Theory: The Foundation of Planning

Module Coverage
The module will be covered for a duration of 1 week with a work output to be submitted on the end of
the module (see course outline schedule). It is scheduled on the Week 6 of the semester.

Module Objectives
• The module aims to help the student to know the Location Theory: The Foundation of
Planning
• The module aims to develop an understanding between the mentor and the student and
their respective roles.

Module Learning Outcomes

At the end of the lesson, the student should be able to:
• Understand the Location Theory: The Foundation of Planning
• Evaluate every reason behind Master Architect’s works and philosophies
• Discuss the theories and concepts behind the masterpieces of famous architects.
• Interpret in graphic ideas the different planning theories and concepts.

Module Learning Materials

Under this module the students are provided with the following materials:
• Lecture Notes:
Title: Basic Planning Concepts
• PowerPoint Presentation:
The presentation provided in PDF file are the slides used for the audio-visual presentation of
the mentor.
All learning materials can be found inside the Folder of Week 6

Additional Reading Materials

Students may refer to the given lectures under this module. Nevertheless, should the student like to study beyond
the given materials, they may read the books listed below:

• Hall, P. (2011). Urban and Regional Planning 5th Edition. New York: Routledge.

Module Output-base Work

• Student participation is highly recommended.

• Formative Assessment 3- Refer to the assessment module for the instruction.

Reference
Lecture materials are excerpts from the following references:

• Ecopolis (2010) Powerpoint presentation: Spatial Planning Theories and Regional Planning
Theories.

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 Far Eastern University 2nd Semester 2021-2022
Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts
• Friedrich, C. (1929). Alfred Webber Theory of Location of Industries. Illinois: The university of
Chicago Press.
• Webber, M.J. (1985). Industrial Location. Reprint. Edited by Grant Ian Thrall. WVU Research
Repository, 2020.

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 Far Eastern University 2nd Semester 2021-2022
Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts
Week 6
Theories of Urban Growth and Urban Land Use

City Growth Theories

1. Theory of Concentric Zones - Ernest W. Burgess (1929)
Zone I, the CBD, lies at the centre of the city. Zone II is in
transition. It is the crowded, multi-occupied zone of the city first
invaded by migrants. Within this Zone are the ghetto areas (these
are not necessarily slums). In Zone III are the working men's
houses, the area of second-generation immigrants, one step up
from Zone II. Zones IV and V are residential; Zone IV for the
better-off and Zone V for the commuters. All these zones are held
to have evolved separately and without planning. They result from
the competition of different socio-economic groups for land. This
competition results in variations in the cost of land and, therefore,
causes segregation within a city. The model assumes uniformly
flat, and available, land, and ignores the importance of transport
routes, but relies on the theory that city growth results from distinct
waves of in-migrants, that is to invasion and succession. In this
last respect it is therefore more applicable to cities in the USA
than to European cities.

Figure 1 Concentric Ring Figure 2 Concentric Zone Model

Zone 1
• The central business district (CBD)
• Distinct patter of income levels out to the commuters’ zone
• Extension of trolley lines had a lot to do with this pattern
Zone 2
• Characterized by mixed pattern of industrial and residential land use.
• Rooming houses, small apartments, and tenements attract the lowest income segment.
• Often includes slums and skid rows, many ethnic ghettos began here.
• Usually called the transition zone.
Zone 3
• The “workingmen’s quarters”; Solid blue- collar, located close to factories of Zones 1 and 2
• More stable than the transition zone around the CBD
• Often characterized by ethnic neighborhoods—blocks of immigrants who broke free from the ghettos.
• Spreading outward because of pressure from transition zone and because blue- collar workers demand
better housing.
Zone 4
• Middle class area of “better housing”
• Established city dwellers, many of whom moved outward with the first streetcar network

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• Commute to work in CBD
Zone 5
• Consists of higher- income families clustered together in older suburbs
• Located either on the farthest extension of the trolley or commuter railroad lines,
• Spacious lots and large houses
• From here the rich pressed outward to avoid congestion and social heterogeneity caused by expansion
of Zone 4.

2. Sector or Radial Model (Homer Hoyt, 1939)

The view that housing areas in a city develop in sectors along the lines of communication, from the CBD
outwards. High quality areas run along roads and also reflect the incidence of higher ground. Industrial sectors
develop along canals and railways, away from high quality housing. Thus a high status residential area will
spread out along the lines of the sector by the addition of new belts of housing beyond the outer arc of the city.
Once contrasts in land use have developed in a sector near to the city, these contrasts will be perpetuated as the
city grows. This theory was advanced by H. Hoyt (1939) as an alternative to Burgess' concentric model, and was
based on residential rent patterns in the USA.

Figure 3 Sector Model

3. Multiple Nuclei Theory - Chauncy D. Harris, Edward L. Ullman (1945)

Theory with certain other factors to explain land use. A

model of town growth based on the fact that many towns
and nearly all large cities grow about many nuclei rather
than around a simple CBD. Some of these nuclei are pre-
existing settlements, others arise from urbanization and
external economies. Distinctive land-use zones develop
because some activities repel each other; high-quality
housing does not generally arise next to industrial areas,
and other activities cannot afford the high costs of the most
desirable locations. New industrial areas develop in
suburban locations since they require easy access, and
outlying business districts may develop for the same
reason. While the layout of the model is generally standard
in most reference books, the location of the various sectors
is infinitely variable, in contrast to the concentric model.
Rooted their model in four geographic principles

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 Far Eastern University 2nd Semester 2021-2022
Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts
• Certain activities require highly specialized facilities
o Retail district with need for accessibility
o Port with need for water front
o Factory with need for accessible transportation
• Certain activities cluster because they profit from mutual association
o Profitability of agglomeration (retail districts for concentration of customers, finance for ease of
communication, etc.)
• Certain activities repel each other and will not be found in the same area
o E.g. factories and high class residential, schools, and red- light districts
• Certain activities could not make a profit if they paid the high rent of the most desirable locations
o Housing tract with need for large areas of open land
Equal weight must be given to:
• An old community on city outskirts around which new suburbs clustered
• An industrial district that grew from an original waterfront location
• Low- income area that began because of some social stigma attached to site.

4. Urban Realms Theory – James E. Vance, Jr. (1964)

As a means of improving upon the multiple nuclei
model, the geographer James E. Vance, Jr.
proposed the urban-realms model in 1964. Each
realm is a separate economic, social and political
entity that is linked together to form a larger metro
framework. Now urban realms have become, so
large they even have exurbs, not just suburbs.
Exurbs are suburbs that are, so far away from a city
they really can’t be called suburbs any more. The
model works extremely well with the San Francisco
Bay area, because it is where Vance came up with
the model for it. Vance developed the urban realms
model from his observation of the San Francisco
Bay area and its sprawling metropolis. This model
includes independent suburban downtowns as their
foci, and yet they are within the sphere of influence
of the central city and its metropolitan CBD.
Each urban realm depends on four factors:
i. The overall size of the metropolitan region
ii. The amount of economic activity in each urban
realm
Figure 4 Urban Realm Model iii. The topography and major land features, which
help to identify each realm
iv. The internal accessibility of each realm for daily economic functions and travel patterns.

An urban realm is likely to become self-sufficient if:

i. The size of the overall metropolis is large
ii. There is a large amount of decentralized economic activity in the region
iii. Topography barriers isolate the suburban region
iv. Good internal accessibility for daily commercial and business travel exists (especially to airport) This model
does a good job at explaining suburban growth and how certain functions that are normally found in the CBD can
be moved to the suburbs (such as shopping malls, hospitals, schools, etc.). These functions diminish the
importance of the CBD and instead create distant realms that accomplish approximately the same thing.

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The Location of Industry (Location Theory)
• The location of industry is of particular interest and provides a useful starting point for an explanation of
the internal structures of regions.
• The location of industry has to do with the needs of production and economics.
• Production involves the use of inputs --> factors of production --> to produce outputs -- > goods and
services --> as efficient as possible
• The location of the unit of production, the firm, will obviously be determined in relation to the source of
the inputs and the market for the output.

Factors of Production:
1. Land: geographical location and availability of the necessary infrastructure
2. Labor: quality and quantity
3. Capital: money
4. Enterprise: business
5. Market factor: primary determinant of location
6. Central and local government policies
7. Behavioral factors

Two Main Approaches to the Study of These Factors of Industrial Location:

These are limited to the provision of a descriptive picture:
1. Theoretical Approach - attempts to abstract from reality, constructing an all-embracing system of “pure” rules.
2. Empirical Approach - involves the listing of factors which might be important, together with examples of
situations where they have been important, in the location of particular industries.

Considerations which make it difficult to achieve or derive “Optimum Locations” for individual firms: •
• A wide range of industry
1. Primary - agriculture, mining, lumbering, hunting, and fishing (activities that take something from
the natural environment - raw materials)
2. Secondary - manufacturing (converts raw materials into finished products for consumers)
3. Tertiary - trade and commerce (buy and selling of goods) and services (an activity which
produces no physical product)
4. Quaternary - a type of service (e.g., Research & Development)
• A wide variety of firms: each with its own input combination and market characteristics within each
industry

Theory of the Firm

• Location of Firms/Industrial Use. Location decisions used to minimize transport cost
• Aims to find the most efficient solution among several factors in the location of firms:
o Near people
o Near business
o Near supplies
o Near transport

Theoretical Approach: Three (3) Approaches to Industrial Location Theory:

1. Least Cost Approach – location in terms of minimization of factors of cost
2. Market Area Analysis – emphasis on demand on market factors
3. Profit Maximization Approach – the logical outcome of the two

1. Least Cost Approach – by Alfred Weber (1909)

•Weber‟s basic principle – A businessman would choose to locate where his costs were least.
•Weber‟s Assumptions:
o Unit of study is a single isolated country
§ Homogeneous in climate

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§ Concentration of consumers at certain centers
§ Conditions of perfect competition- access to unlimited market
o Natural Resources: water, sand, clay, etc. are widely available
o Sporadic availability of other materials such as minerals, fuels, and ores
o Labor is not ubiquitous, with several fixed labor locations and fixed labor mobility

•Factors which influences industrial location:

1. Transport cost – assume that transport cost to be directly proportional to distance moved and weight carried
2. Labor cost - can attract a firm to a location other than least transport cost if the savings in labor cost per unit of
output are greater than the extra transport cost per unit involved.
3. Agglomerative and deagglomerate factors - local factors which determine the degree of dispersion within the
general framework

Economies of Agglomeration – Economies of agglomeration are the savings in unit costs that may accrue to
individual firms when a large enough number of them locate in one city. When such savings result from the
agglomeration of firms in the same industry, they are known as “localization economies,” because they depend
on the local concentration of a particular activity. The most important savings are:
¬ the presence of highly specialized suppliers, whose operations are feasible only because agglomeration has
created a sufficient local demand
¬ The availability of a large pool of specialized, skilled labor, whose presence is similarly dependent on the high
aggregate level of local demand

Diseconomies of Agglomeration – Diseconomies of agglomeration occur when the concentration of population

of economic activity in one place either raises the real cost of production by requiring more inputs per unit of
output or reduces the real standard of living by increasing the level of physical or social disamenities.
Air pollution and crime are good examples. The presence of air pollution raises production costs for some
businesses and cleaning health costs. Yet even after these costs are paid, the physical disamenity of a polluted
atmosphere remains. Similarly, higher crime rates impose increased security and insurance costs on households
and firms, but a residual disamenity remains, since protection is never complete. Thus pollution and crime
simultaneously raise the cost and reduce the pleasure of living in cities.

•Criticisms:
o the model is very one-sided, assuming perfect competition with all firms having access to unlimited
demand.
o Too much emphasis on the input side (cost minimization) and the under emphasis of the output or
demand side, simply assuming that the firm can sell all it produces wherever it locates.

2. Market Area Analysis – A. Losch (1954)

• Losch‟s basic principle – The optimum location is the place of maximum profits, where revenue exceeds costs
by the largest amount.
o Market as a major location determinant as firms will seek to gain access to market and serve the greater
demand
• Criticisms:
o No spatial variations in the distribution of factor inputs: raw materials, labor and capital – over
homogeneous plain o Uniform population densities
o Too much emphasis on the output side (market demand)

3. Profit Maximization Approach

• W. Isard and M.L. Greenhut (1956)
• Basic principle – In practice, both costs and revenue vary with location and the optimum location is the one
which yields the greatest profit. In such a situation, the optimum, profitmaximizing location may be neither the
least cost nor the maximum revenue location.
• Problems in deriving the profit maximizing location

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o Locational interdependence: a major location determinant for an individual firm is the location and
markets of like firms. Firms maneuver to control or share competitor’s markets (“follow the crowd”). This is
very difficult to incorporate into a theory as it involves a consideration of not only what rivals have done,
but what they might do in the future.
o Difficulty in evaluating the relevant variables as:
§ Differing cost in differing locations
§ Differing market conditions
§ Policy of rival firms

•Impact of large modern corporations – with a wide variety of firms which may originally have located for reasons
independent of the present concern. They may also produce a wide variety of products.
§ Whether firms really/actually maximize profits, i.e., state-owned firms
§ Behavioral factors, i.e., businessman’s attitude towards troubled labor conditions or attitudes towards
social life.

Industrial Location in Practice

General Factors affecting the choice of a new location/industrial location:
1. Labor
a. Quality and quantity
b. Does not necessarily equate to the high degree of unemployment
c. Competition of local firms on labor supply and quality of that supply
2. Transport and communications
a. Good access to main market
b. Good access to linked producers
c. Good access by road, rail, and air
3. Site and Premises: “cut-price” rentals or “built to last”
a. Provision of ready built factories on fully-serviced sites
b. Constraints to innovation & efficiency for the occupant firms
4. Governmental aid: incentives
a. Capital cost grants
b. Subsidies to variable costs
c. Tax and depreciation allowances
d. For local aid: it will be more organizational rather than financial, i.e., housing requirements and
planning permission
5. Environmental factors:
a. Climate, landscape
b. Social infrastructure: housing, school, roads, town center, etc.
c. Agglomeration of economies – i.e., availability of ancillary industries

Location Factors in the Future:

1. The growth of light industry may result in a decline in the importance of proximity to markets and supplies.
2. Improvements in transport and communications are likely to make movement over larger distances more
acceptable, with the emphasis changing from "how far‟ to "how long‟.
3. The capital-intensive nature of new industry may also diminish the power of attraction of the labor factor.
4. With increased automation and rationalization and more space intensive processes, sites and premises are
likely to become of increasing importance. 5. For the quaternary industry and office employment freed by new
developments in telecommunications, the environmental advantages of new locations may outweigh the
environmental consequences of congested conurbations.

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