6,987 research outputs found
Scaling and Universality in City Space Syntax: between Zipf and Matthew
We report about universality of rank-integration distributions of open spaces
in city space syntax similar to the famous rank-size distributions of cities
(Zipf's law). We also demonstrate that the degree of choice an open space
represents for other spaces directly linked to it in a city follows a power law
statistic. Universal statistical behavior of space syntax measures uncovers the
universality of the city creation mechanism. We suggest that the observed
universality may help to establish the international definition of a city as a
specific land use pattern.Comment: 24 pages, 5 *.eps figure
Cities as emergent models: the morphological logic of Manhattan and Barcelona
This paper is set to unveil several particulars about the logic embedded in the diachronic model of city
growth and the rules which govern the emergence of urban spaces. The paper outlines an attempt to
detect and define the generative rules of a growing urban structure by means of evaluation techniques.
The initial approach in this regards will be to study the evolution of existing urban regions or cities which
in our case are Manhattan and Barcelona and investigate the rules and causes of their emergence and
growth. The paper will concentrate on the spatial aspect of the generative rules and investigate their
behaviour and dimensionality. Several Space Syntax evaluation methods will be implemented to capture
the change of spatial configurations within the growing urban structures. In addition, certain spatial
elements will be isolated and tested aiming to illustrate their influence on the main spatial structures.
Both urban regions were found to be emergent products of a bottom up organic growth mostly
distinguished in the vicinities of the first settlements. Despite the imposition of a uniform grid on both
cities in later stages of their development these cities managed to deform the regularity in the preplanned
grid in an emergent manner to end up with an efficient model embodied in their current spatial
arrangement. The paper reveals several consistencies in the spatial morphology of both urban regions
and provides explanation of these regularities in an approach to extract the underlying rules which
contributed to the growth optimization process
Reformulating Space Syntax: The Automatic Definition and Generation of Axial Lines and Axial Maps
Space syntax is a technique for measuring the relative accessibility of different locations in a spatial system which has been loosely partitioned into convex spaces.These spaces are approximated by straight lines, called axial lines, and the topological graph associated with their intersection is used to generate indices of distance, called integration, which are then used as proxies for accessibility. The most controversial problem in applying the technique involves the definition of these lines. There is no unique method for their generation, hence different users generate different sets of lines for the same application. In this paper, we explore this problem, arguing that to make progress, there need to be unambiguous, agreed procedures for generating such maps. The methods we suggest for generating such lines depend on defining viewsheds, called isovists, which can be approximated by their maximum diameters,these lengths being used to form axial maps similar to those used in space syntax. We propose a generic algorithm for sorting isovists according to various measures,approximating them by their diameters and using the axial map as a summary of the extent to which isovists overlap (intersect) and are accessible to one another. We examine the fields created by these viewsheds and the statistical properties of the maps created. We demonstrate our techniques for the small French town of Gassin used originally by Hillier and Hanson (1984) to illustrate the theory, exploring different criteria for sorting isovists, and different axial maps generated by changing the scale of resolution. This paper throws up as many problems as it solves but we believe it points the way to firmer foundations for space syntax
Examining trade-offs between social, psychological, and energy potential of urban form
Urban planners are often challenged with the task of developing design solutions which must meet multiple, and often contradictory, criteria. In this paper, we investigated the trade-offs between social, psychological, and energy potential of the fundamental elements of urban form: the street network and the building massing. Since formal methods to evaluate urban form from the psychological and social point of view are not readily available, we developed a methodological framework to quantify these criteria as the first contribution in this paper. To evaluate the psychological potential, we conducted a three-tiered empirical study starting from real world environments and then abstracting them to virtual environments. In each context, the implicit (physiological) response and explicit (subjective) response of pedestrians were measured. To quantify the social potential, we developed a street network centrality-based measure of social accessibility. For the energy potential, we created an energy model to analyze the impact of pure geometric form on the energy demand of the building stock. The second contribution of this work is a method to identify distinct clusters of urban form and, for each, explore the trade-offs between the select design criteria. We applied this method to two case studies identifying nine types of urban form and their respective potential trade-offs, which are directly applicable for the assessment of strategic decisions regarding urban form during the early planning stages
Organized complexity of the urban object
Over a half-century, space syntax has proven resilient as a theory and method for describing and analyzing the built environment from dwellings and complex buildings to cities. The paper briefly discusses resilience as a concept in the built environment and the foundations of space syntax itself. We summarize the body of the theoretical thinking in space syntax – laws of the urban object, generic function, principles of centrality and linearity, the design method of spatio-formal processes, and laws of spatial emergence-convergence – before offering a new hypothesis about laws of spatial conservation and spatial optimization at work in the built environment. The latter builds on Conroy-Dalton’s (2001) ideas about angularity and the conservation of linearity in movement. Both could provide an essential bridge with Carvalho and Penn’s (2004) concept of self-similarity in settlements, which relates to Batty and Longley’s (1994) notions of fractal cities. We argue the hypothesis of conservation-optimization defines the conceptual framework for the progressive and regressive practice of urban planning in settlements. We illustrate this theoretical discussion by demonstrating the resilience or replication of previous space syntax findings, and by drawing on new research about the history, spatial structure, and neighborhood logic of Metropolitan Doha.
Discursive design thinking: the role of explicit knowledge in creative architectural design reasoning
The main hypothesis investigated in this paper is based upon the suggestion that the discursive reasoning in architecture supported by an explicit knowledge of spatial configurations can enhance both design productivity and the intelligibility of design solutions. The study consists of an examination of an architect’s performance while solving intuitively a well-defined problem followed by an analysis of the spatial structure of their design solutions. One group of architects will attempt to solve the design problem logically, rationalizing their design decisions by implementing their explicit knowledge of spatial configurations. The other group will use an implicit form of such knowledge arising from their architectural education to reason about their design acts. An integrated model of protocol analysis combining linkography and macroscopic coding is used to analyze the design processes. The resulting design outcomes will be evaluated quantitatively in terms of their spatial configurations. The analysis appears to show that an explicit knowledge of the rules of spatial configurations, as possessed by the first group of architects can partially enhance their function-driven judgment producing permeable and well-structured spaces. These findings are particularly significant as they imply that an explicit rather than an implicit knowledge of the fundamental rules that make a layout possible can lead to a considerable improvement in both the design process and product. This suggests that by externalizing th
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