Theory Of Space Syntax

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To start with the term Space Syntax, it is a term conceived originally by Bill Hillier and Julienne Hanson in the late 1970s, it represents theories and applications generated for understanding and analyzing spatial configurations. Its general idea is based on the concept that any space can be divided up into elements linked through a network of connections, which can be represented in graphs that reflect the measurements of connectivity and integration. Bill Hillier is a professor of Architecture and Urban Morphology from the University of London, he is one of the original generators of theories related to analyzing spatial layouts, he studied social logic of people’s movement through space and related human behaviors and economic aspects…show more content…
However, each space should still have at least one connection with another space (Al_Sayed, 2014). The outcome composition of spaces and links produce a structural composition with properties that could be related to social human behaviors. As for urban scale, cities contain blocks that have the built up areas and connected through movement networks of goods, people and power. Cities include spatial systems of a certain geometry recognized through buildings and objects with a certain topology recognized through a pattern of connections that is obvious in the street networks that connects all locations to all other locations. Urban structures of cities vary from organic to uniform or deformed shapes (Al_Sayed, 2014). It is noticed that the spatial structure of cities determines the patterns of flow of people in space; people tend to observe their spaces and choose the simpler and more direct ways over shorter ways, see Figure (3), hence, this affects land use distribution; for areas that require more movement are located on more accessible streets while others are located on less accessible areas. In that since, societies organize their cities in a natural…show more content…
The same concept applies to cities. Space Syntax assumes that spatial configurations of cities and buildings were not only a by-product to some external aspects; such as, climate or technology; rather there always had been a social logic or local rules that caused to generate the overall global urban societies. Societies do not just exist in spaces, they also order these spaces in merged and isolated groups and accordingly they organize themselves in within. At the beginning of 1960s, there were many studies associated with socioeconomic forces on urban scales; however, all of them did account for the city as a background for all these forces as well as human behaviors, e.g. Jane Jacobs theory of The Economy of Cities in 1969 as mentioned by Vinicius Netto (2015); provided a rational explanation for origins and growth of cities, also Alonso’s theory of land rent based on location and land use in 1964 (Netto, 2015); which offered studies explaining the growth of urban structures basing on locations and densities. These theories considered cities

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