An outline of a theory of spatial capital–how spatial form structures and creates value in urban processes

Journal article, 2026

Cities increasingly form the habitat of humans and are thereby key to solutions to current human-induced sustainability challenges. In response, we here present a model of spatial urban form linked to human behaviour by cognitive geometry, and, in aggregation, urban processes of social, economic and ecological kinds, such as social networks, local markets and urban ecosystems. It aims to demonstrate how spatial form can influence and direct such processes and thereby constitute a capital in the sense of embodied labour, here called spatial capital, that not only can improve the use value of such processes but also increase the monetary value of urban land.