Space syntax
Encyclopedia
The term space syntax encompasses a set of theories and techniques for the analysis of spatial configurations. Originally it was conceived by Bill Hillier, Julienne Hanson and colleagues at The Bartlett
, University College London
in the late 1970s to early 1980s as a tool to help architects simulate the likely social effects of their designs.
The three most popular Space Syntax analysis methods of a street network are Integration, Choice and Depth Distance.
is a significant issue. Space syntax has also been applied to predict the correlation between spatial layouts and social effects such as crime, traffic flow, sales per unit area
, and so on.
, urban design
, planning, transport
and interior design
. In general, the analysis uses one of many software programs
that allow researchers to analyse graphs of one (or more) of the primary spatial components.
Over the past decade, space syntax techniques have also been used for research in fields as diverse as archaeology
, information technology
, urban and human geography
, and anthropology
. Since 1997, the space syntax community has held a series of biennial conferences, and many journal papers have been published on the subject, chiefly in Environment and Planning B.
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, in a passionate academic exchange with Bill Hiller and Alan Penn . There have also been moves to return to combine space syntax with more traditional transport engineering
models, using intersections as nodes and constructing visibility graph
s to link them by various researchers, including Bin Jiang
, Valerio Cutini and Mike Batty. Recently there has also been research development that combines space syntax with geographic accessibility analysis in GIS
, such as the place syntax
-models developed by the research group Spatial Analysis
and Design at the Royal Institute of Technology
in Stockholm
, Sweden
.
The Bartlett
The Bartlett is the Faculty of the Built Environment at University College London. University College London created the first chair of architecture in 1841, and the school is named after the original benefactor, Sir Herbert Bartlett.-External links:*...
, University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
in the late 1970s to early 1980s as a tool to help architects simulate the likely social effects of their designs.
Thesis
The general idea is that spaces can be broken down into components, analyzed as networks of choices, then represented as maps and graphs that describe the relative connectivity and integration of those spaces. It rests on three basic conceptions of space:- an isovistIsovistA single isovist is the volume of space visible from a given point in space, together with a specification of the location of that point. Isovists are naturally three-dimensional, but they may also be studied in two dimensions: either in horizontal section or in other vertical sections through...
(popularised by Michael BenediktMichael BenediktMichael Benedikt is the 2004 ACSA Distinguished Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Hal Box Chair in Urbanism. Benedikt directs the Center for American Architecture and Design.His works include:...
at University of Texas), or viewshed or visibility polygon, the field of view from any particular point - axial space (idea popularized by Bill Hillier at UCL), a straight sight-line and possible path, and
- convex space (popularized by John Peponis and his collaborators at Georgia Tech), an occupiable void where, if imagined as a wireframe diagram, no line between two of its points goes outside its perimeter, in other words, all points within the polygon are visible to all other points within the polygon.
The three most popular Space Syntax analysis methods of a street network are Integration, Choice and Depth Distance.
- Integration measures how many turns one has to make from a street segment to reach all other street segments in the network, using shortest paths. If the amount of turns required for reaching all segments in the graph is analyzed, then the analysis is said to measure integration at radius 'n'. The first intersecting segment requires only one turn, the second two turns and so on. The street segments that require the least amount of turns to reach all other streets are called 'most integrate' and are usually represented with hotter colors, such as red or yellow. Integration can also be analyzed in local scale, instead of the scale of the whole network. In case of radius 4, for instance, only four turns are counted departing from each street segment. Theoretically, the integration measure shows the cognitive complexity of reaching a street, and is often argued to 'predict' the pedestrian use of a street. It is argued that the easier it is to reach a street, the more popularly it should be used. While there is some evidence of this being true, the method is also biased towards long, straight streets that intersect with lots of other streets. Such streets, as Oxford street in London, come out as especially strongly integrated. However, a slightly curvy street of the same length would typically not be counted as a single line, but instead be segmented into individual straight segments, which makes curvy streets appear less integrated in the analysis.
- Choice measure is easiest to understand as a 'water-flow' in the street network. Imagine that each street segment is given an initial load of one unit of water, which then starts pouring out of the starting street segment onto all the other segments that successively connect to it. Each time an intersection appears, the remaining value of flow is divided equally amongst the splitting streets, until all the other street segments in the graph are reached. For instance, at the first intersection with a single other street, the initial value of one is split into two remaining values of one half, and allocated to the two intersecting street segments.Moving further down, the remaining one half value is again split among the intersecting streets and so on. When the same procedure has been conducted using each segment as a starting point for the initial value of one, then a graph of final values appears. The streets with the highest total values of accumulated flow are said to have the highest choice values. Like Integration, Choice analysis too can be restricted to limited local radii, for instance 400m, 800m, 1600m etc. Interpreting Choice analysis is trickier than Integration. Space Syntax argues that these values often predict the car traffic flow of streets. However, strictly speaking, Choice analysis can also be thought to represent the number of intersections that need to be crossed to reach a street. However, since flow values are divided, not subtracted at each intersection, the output shows an exponential distribution. It is considered best to take a log of base two of the final values in order to get a more accurate picture.
- Depth Distance is the most intuitive of the three analysis methods, it explains the linear distance from the center point of each street segment to the center points of all the other segments. If every segment is successively chosen as a starting point, then a graph of accumulative final values is achieved. The streets with lowest Depth Distance values are said to be nearest to all the other streets. Again, the search radius can be limited to any distance.
Applications
From these components it is thought to be possible to quantify and describe how easily navigable any space is, useful for the design of museums, airports, hospitals, and other settings where wayfindingWayfinding
Wayfinding encompasses all of the ways in which people and animals orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place.-Historical:...
is a significant issue. Space syntax has also been applied to predict the correlation between spatial layouts and social effects such as crime, traffic flow, sales per unit area
Sales per unit area
In retail, sales per unit area is a standard and usually the primary measurement of store success. The unit of area is usually square metres in the metric system or square feet in U.S. customary units...
, and so on.
History
It has since grown to become a tool used around the world in a variety of research and areas and design applications in the fields of architectureArchitecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
, urban design
Urban design
Urban design concerns the arrangement, appearance and functionality of towns and cities, and in particular the shaping and uses of urban public space. It has traditionally been regarded as a disciplinary subset of urban planning, landscape architecture, or architecture and in more recent times has...
, planning, transport
Transport
Transport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...
and interior design
Interior design
Interior design describes a group of various yet related projects that involve turning an interior space into an effective setting for the range of human activities are to take place there. An interior designer is someone who conducts such projects...
. In general, the analysis uses one of many software programs
Spatial network analysis software
Spatial network analysis software are computer tools used to prepare various graph-based analysis of spatial networks. They stem from the research field of space syntax in the domain of architecture, although they can now be used to analyse road networks over an entire continent.As the domain of...
that allow researchers to analyse graphs of one (or more) of the primary spatial components.
Over the past decade, space syntax techniques have also been used for research in fields as diverse as archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
, information technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
, urban and human geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, and anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
. Since 1997, the space syntax community has held a series of biennial conferences, and many journal papers have been published on the subject, chiefly in Environment and Planning B.
Criticism
Space syntax's mathematical reliability has recently come under scrutiny because of a number of paradoxes that arise under certain geometric configurations. These paradoxes have been highlighted by Carlo RattiCarlo Ratti
Carlo F. Ratti is an Italian architect and engineer who practices in Torino, Italy, and he is the Associate Professor of Practice and Senior Fulbright Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, where he directs the MIT Senseable City Lab...
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, in a passionate academic exchange with Bill Hiller and Alan Penn . There have also been moves to return to combine space syntax with more traditional transport engineering
Transport engineering
Transportation engineering is the application of technology and scientific principles to the planning, functional design, operation and management of facilities for any mode of transportation in order to provide for the safe, rapid, comfortable, convenient, economical, and environmentally...
models, using intersections as nodes and constructing visibility graph
Visibility graph
In computational geometry and robot motion planning, a visibility graph is a graph of intervisible locations, typically for a set of points and obstacles in the Euclidean plane. Each node in the graph represents a point location, and each edge represents a visible connection between them...
s to link them by various researchers, including Bin Jiang
Bin Jiang
Bin Jiang is Professor in geographic information science, geographic information systems or geoinformatics at the University of Gävle, Sweden. He is affiliated to the Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm through the KTH Research School at Gävle...
, Valerio Cutini and Mike Batty. Recently there has also been research development that combines space syntax with geographic accessibility analysis in GIS
Geographic Information System
A geographic information system, geographical information science, or geospatial information studies is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographically referenced data...
, such as the place syntax
Place syntax
Place syntax is a term in spatial analysis.There is potential in combining geographically oriented accessibility research and geometrically oriented research in architecture, such as space syntax, as stated by for example, Ståhle et al.- External links :...
-models developed by the research group Spatial Analysis
Spatial analysis
Spatial analysis or spatial statistics includes any of the formal techniques which study entities using their topological, geometric, or geographic properties...
and Design at the Royal Institute of Technology
Royal Institute of Technology
The Royal Institute of Technology is a university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH was founded in 1827 as Sweden's first polytechnic and is one of Scandinavia's largest institutions of higher education in technology. KTH accounts for one-third of Sweden’s technical research and engineering education...
in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
.
See also
- Permeability (spatial and transport planning)Permeability (spatial and transport planning)Permeability or connectivity describes the extent to which urban forms permit movement of people or vehicles in different directions. The terms are often used interchangeably, although differentiated definitions also exist...
- Spatial networkSpatial networkA spatial network is a network of spatial elements. In physical space spatial networks are derived from maps of open space within the urban context or building. One might think of the 'space map' as being the negative image of the standard map, with the open space cut out of the background...
- Spatial network analysis softwareSpatial network analysis softwareSpatial network analysis software are computer tools used to prepare various graph-based analysis of spatial networks. They stem from the research field of space syntax in the domain of architecture, although they can now be used to analyse road networks over an entire continent.As the domain of...
- Urban planningUrban planningUrban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
- Visibility graph analysisVisibility graph analysisVisibility graph analysis is a method of analysing the inter-visibility connections within buildings or urban networks. Visibility graph analysis was developed from the architectural theory of space syntax by Turner et al...
- Fuzzy architectural spatial analysisFuzzy architectural spatial analysisFuzzy architectural spatial analysis is a spatial analysis method of analyzing the spatial formation and architectural space intensity within any architectural organization.Fuzzy architectural spatial analysis is used in architecture, interior design, urban planning and...
External links
- For more information, visit: http://www.spacesyntax.org/
- The special issue (v. 30, no.5) of the journal Environment and Planning-B on Visibility Analysis contains several articles on visibility in urban and natural environments. http://www.envplan.com/epb/epb30_contents.html#iss5
- The article by C. Ratti: http://senseable.mit.edu/papers/pdf/2004_%20Ratti_Environment%20and%20Planning%20B01.pdf