Space Syntax

Buildings operate socially in two ways: they constitute the social organisation of everyday life as the spatial configurations of space in which we live and move, and represent social organisation as physical configurations of forms and elements that we see. 1

Topological analysis of a house 6

…let us use this concept of configuration, and its key spatial dimensions of depth and rings, to try to detect the presence of cultural and social ideas in the spatial forms of buildings. 1

Spatial analysis of 3 French townhouses 1

By correlating the visual integration values with observed movement, it turns out that about 68% of the differences in movement rates in rooms can be accounted for by the visual field structure, implying that people are using the space structure of the Gallery, rather than, say, the attractive powers of particular exhibits, to guide them around the gallery. 6

10 GPS traces of movement through Tate Britain 6

The social city is either side of the physical city: it brings it into existence, and then acts within the constraints it imposes. 1

…the larger scale geometric and topological properties of the spatial network create the processes by which centres and sub-centres emerge in the network through the logic of the network itself. 3

Integration values in a theoretical network of streets 6

…the structure of the urban grid considered purely as a spatial configuration, is itself the most powerful single determinant of urban movement, both pedestrian and vehicular. 1

Integration values for 4 cities. Clockwise from top left: Atlanta, The Hague, Shiraz, Manchester. 2

The result now available suggests that socio-economic forces shape the city primarily through the relations between movement and the structure of the urban grid. Well functioning cities can therefore, it will be suggested, be thought of as ‘movement economies’. 1