A set of models for intraurban context applications is proposed that enables: (a) the description of urban configurations, by the use of simple spatial categories and concepts of areal diferentiation; (b) the assessment of performance of urban configurations, by the application of centrality approaches that permit reliable correlations to behavioural aspects of urban spatial structure: depending on the comprehensiveness of the chosen models such an assessment could give a picture for the whole system or the performance of discrete components within the context of the system; (c) the potentiality and stability of configurational systems, from the point of view of change. The approach differs from mainstream urban systems studies in two ways: first an intraurban scale was defined to suit localized and detailed experimentation, as usually found in urban design situations; second, the focus was shifted from the activity system to the configurational system, again to suit urban design processes. The research summarized in this paper gives insights into the scaling of urban phenomena, suggesting that complexity, identified in large-scale urban systems, is also present in local ones, and that urban development occurs in simultaneous, although self-similar, scales.
