The qualitative structure of built environments

This paper provides an ontological analysis of built environments. It shows that boundaries are ontologically salient features of built environments and that there are different kinds of boundaries that need to be considered. It discusses in particular the important role of fiat boundaries. At the level of objects built environments are formed by partition forming objects and populated by non-partition forming objects. The underlying partition structure is the main organizational structure of a built environment. Non-partition forming objects are potentially movable and their movement is constrained by the barrier properties of the boundaries of other objects forming or populating the environment. This paper argues that the qualitative formalization of built environments needs to take into account: (1) the fundamental role of boundaries, (2) the distinction between bona-fide and fiat boundaries and objects, (3) the different character of constraints on relations between these different kinds of boundaries and objects, (4) the distinction between partition forming and non-partition forming objects, and (5) the fundamental organizational structure of regional partitions. It discusses the notion of object-boundary sensitive rough location and shows that a formalization based on this notion takes these points into account.