Towards Unpacking the Material Stock–Urban Morphology Nexus: Empirical and Exploratory Insights for Sustainable Urban Development

Licentiatavhandling, 2026

The continued expansion of the built environment has resulted in a rapid accumulation of material stocks in buildings and infrastructure, with substantial environmental consequences, including intensive resource extraction and carbon emissions. Urban form is frequently cited as a factor influencing material accumulation, yet the mechanisms linking urban morphology to material stock remain insufficiently explored. 
This thesis takes an initial step towards unpacking the material stock–urban morphology nexus by combining explanatory and exploratory modelling. It examines how urban form shapes material accumulation and its associated environmental consequences, with the aim of developing an initial understanding of this relationship and generating insights for more sustainable urban development. To address this aim, the thesis is structured around two complementary studies. The first study examines the existing residential building stock in Gothenburg to identify how morphological features—such as building height, geometry, and density-related indicators (e.g., building density and network density)—are associated with structural types. Building on these relationships, a building structure prediction model is developed to predict missing structural information in building inventories, thereby enabling more reliable material stock estimation. The second study develops an urban morphology simulation model to generate alternative neighbourhood configurations characterized by different morphological features. It integrates multiple analytical components, including the structure prediction model from the first study, material stock accounting, and embodied carbon estimation, to evaluate how variations in urban forms influence neighbourhood-level resource demand and environmental impacts. The results provide a comparative assessment of the material and environmental implications of alternative urban design scenarios.
Together, the thesis links empirical analysis of existing buildings with exploratory modelling of alternative urban configurations, laying the foundations to start exploring the influence of urban form on material accumulation and linked environmental consequences. The findings demonstrate that building structural types can be reliably inferred from morphological features, providing a practical approach for integrating structural information into large-scale urban material stock assessments. Furthermore, the simulation results show that variations in urban morphological configurations can lead to substantial differences in neighbourhood-level material stocks and their associated environmental impacts. Higher urban density is associated with lower per capita embodied carbon, while building form and geometry further influence material demand. Taken together, these findings highlight the critical role of urban form in shaping the long-term material use and environmental impacts of the built environment.