Kostof is resolutely particular and historical and cultural. But it is exactly for that reason one wants to teach from it in a class. I think the Introduction should be read by all doctoral students in our field. It is an exemplary methodological discussion. I thought it might be useful to remind ourselves of the main themes of the course so far, for they will recur again and again as we discuss more concrete urban situations the rest of the semester.
Form is related to meaning, but that relationship is both overdetermined and polysemous.
A story comes along with a form or a structure. It may be a fantasy. But, again, it is as often literally a story or a narrative. Designs are a repetition of their predecessors, although we often have to figure out which previous designs are those predecessors, and that choice is significant for the meaning. Often there are parallels within a single design, at many levels, so that we might say that the design itself is a matter of repetition.