Reading the change in local urban forms under global processes. Towards the definition of a hybrid lens.

Within the cities in transition, the local forms and realities are being shaped progressively by global trends: the social and technological changes that have characterized our recent decades. Plus, in certain contexts where economic and political circumstances are unstable, market forces are causing more smoothly sharp and controversial transformations. These are portions of urban land where rent gaps are formed as a result of a discrepancy between the supply and demand curve. The change in urban form can be a hint for the closing rent gap, nevertheless alone itself is not sufficient for accurate diagnoses. In other words, a holistic understanding of such realities requires an inquiry of the interplay between non-material and physical features of the urban tissues. In this context, in a broader framework, this study aims to contribute in methodological terms, to the challenge of understanding complex city systems by exploiting the instrumentality of urban morphology for a sophisticated reading of transformation processes. The selected neighborhood of Istanbul, parcel that has experienced gentrification process serves as a sample to argue what should be a trans-disciplinary way of reading and representing contemporary transformation processes. Through a microscopic reading of the fabric, the goal of this paper is to demonstrate how to put in relation systematically both tangible and intangible data of the built environment. For tangible data, morphological information, the plot system, is indented and for intangible data, land values are connoted. Finally, urban morphology as a discipline, if integrated with the urban economy field, could empower its potential to comprehend complex urban realities.