A space syntax approach to spatial cognition in urban environments

2010

The present work aims to investigate the role of 3 factors related to the environmental configuration in emergency wayfinding strategies. In particular, it moves from the results of a previous real-world study in which visibility, in particular, seemed to be the most influent factor in influencing wayfinding strategies. Angular incidence, in turn, played a-minor-role, whereas metrical distance was the less used criterion. These outputs appeared to deserve to be more deeply studied, so that two VR experiment were designed to better control environmental variables and to compare the results obtained in different situations. Results confirm the role of Visibility and Angular Incidence in influencing participant's wayfinding strategies.

1999

Over the past two decades, space syntax has been extensively researched with a considerable amount of empirical case studies Hanson 1984, Hillier 1996). It has been found that space syntax can be a valuable tool for the prediction of people's movement in urban environments. Basic to this finding is the relationship between human spatial behaviour and urban morphological structure, i.e. how people's movement is affected by spatial perception. This paper intends to provide an analysis, based a comparison study, of space syntax as a computer model of space, i.e. a unique vision of space syntax in spatial modelling from the point of views of spatial perception and cognition. In this context, space syntax is examined in details in terms of representation and analysis capabilities, in comparison to the human and computer models of space in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). We believe that such a discussion can benefit to the space syntax research community by providing more evidence to support space syntax as a valuable tool for many disciplines and application areas.

The Virtual And The Real in Planning and Urban Design: Perspectives, practices and applications, 2018

Configurational analyses represented by the method of syntax allows the modelling of a city that links intuition and science, and it can be used for designing and planning cities, as well as in research (Hillier 2009). Developed by Bill Hillier and his colleagues at the University College London, it has been applied in urban studies since the 1980s. This method consists of calculating configurative spatial relationships in built environments. According to Hillier, space syntax demands four elements in urban analyses. Firstly, space syntax means operating with a concise definition of urban space. Secondly, it offers a family of techniques for analysing cities as networks of space formed by the placing, grouping and orientation of buildings. Thirdly, it involves a set of techniques for observing how these networks of space relate to functional patterns, such as movement, land use, area differentiation, migration patterns, and even social wellbeing and malaise. Fourthly, based on the empirical results arising from the first two aspects, space syntax makes it possible to develop a set of theories about how urban space networks relate in general to the social, economic and cognitive factors which shape them, and how they are affected by them (Hillier et al. 2007). Recently, the Space Syntax toolkit has been integrated into the open source geographic information system known as QuantumGIS. Modelling the real world Space syntax measures the two primary all-to-all (all street segments to all others) relationships. Firstly, it measures the to-movement-or accessibility-potential of each street segment with respect to all others. Secondly, it measures the through-movement potential of each street segment with respect to all pairs of others. Each of these two types of relational patterns can be weighted according to three different definitions of distance. The metric distance measures the city's street and road network as a system of shortest paths, while the

Journal of Urban Design, 2017

space syntax laboratory, The bartlett school of architecture, uCl, london, uK Space Syntax is a set of theories and methods for modelling and analyzing cities, using space as the fundamental generator of the city. A major virtue of this approach is that it is supported by a powerful social theory of space. Founded in the 1970s and 1980s by Bill Hillier and his colleagues (Hillier and Hanson 1984; Hillier et al. 1987), and developed further in the following decades, space syntax theory describes the logic of society through its manifestation in spatial systems: how the way spaces are put togetheror the configuration of spacerelates directly with how people perceive, move through and use spatial systems of any kind, ranging from small domestic spaces to large-scale cities (Penn et al. 1998). This sounds like a common sense way of understanding cities, but yet has been overlooked in many urban theories, particularly in the recent decades, when rapid growth and urbanization have demanded new ways of dealing with cities. The configuration-function relationship, or the space-society paradigm in more general terms, has a direct consequence for design and planning. Since there is a direct relationship between spatial configuration and urban functions, analysis of spatial configuration provides a powerful tool for designing, shaping, maintaining and changing urban functions. Based on this assumption, which is strongly supported by research, a series of methods and modelling techniques have been developed for analyzing spatial configuration (Penn 2008). These techniques are predominantly based on very fundamental concepts of human behaviour, such as movement, visual perception and human occupation, which directly link physical space with people. The models use simple geometrical attributes, such as lines of sight and movement or visual fields of perception, to create a network of spatial elements. This network is then turned into a pattern of relationships, or a graph representation (Freeman 1977), which can be quantitatively analyzed to determine the relative role that each space plays in the configuration of the system, as a whole or in its parts. Due to the nature of the elements used in simulation, any analysis of spatial configuration by space syntax methods relates directly to how the urban system functions. This simply turns a set of analytical spatial models into a useful method for measuring how movement, activity and behaviour are distributed within the system (Karimi 2012). These methods are simple in nature, but they have the capability to become more complex by linking spatial configuration with other spatial attributes, such as movement, land use, density, social interactions and practically any attribute of the city that has a spatial nature. The model is also multi-scalar, since the configuration can be analyzed in different contexts and is

Environment and Behavior, 2004

This article investigates the effects of the spatial configuration of the local environment on residents’ spatial cognitions of their built environment by examining the relationship between the spatial syntax of sketch maps and the spatial syntax of the environment. Hampstead Garden Suburb in London was investigated in detail. Structured interview surveys were carried out to elicit residents’ sketch maps of their local area. Analysis of the spatial characteristics of the area and of the sketch maps using space-syntax methods provided a common basis for analyses of these data. Strong correlations were identified between residents’ sketch maps and the spatial configuration of the area. The degree of local integration of spatial configuration is the most significant factor in relations with the two variables of sketch maps, the frequency of appearance of configurational elements, and the global syntactic characteristics of spatial configuration in sketch maps. Findings suggest that spa...

2017

Spatial behaviours often shape spacescapes, but because of dynamic complexity they are hard to be simulated in AI-based environments. Thus, degrees of uncertainty often emerge in describing spaces, when trying to give shared significance to structural, fundamental, peculiar spacescape qualities. This paper explores space ontologies built by human agents. Students of the Technical University of Bari have been invited to explore an urban commercial street using app features of personal smartphones. Relevant results achieved in the context of spatial cognition were then analysed and discussed for environment planning and management.

Sustainability, 2020

The present study provides a reflection on the agent-based intelligence of urban spatial environments through the comparison of a formal quantitative approach, i.e., space syntax, and a qualitative experimentation based on the spatial cognition approach. Until recently, space syntax was adopted by urban planners and designers to support urban design and planning decisions, based on an analysis of the urban physical environment. Researchers in the cognitive science field have increased their attempts to address space syntax techniques to better understand the relationships of cognitive spatial agents with the spatial features of urban environments. In this context, the experimental approach focuses on the qualities of the environment as interacted, perceived and interpreted by cognitive agents and reflects on the role which it plays in affecting spatial decisions and route choices. The present paper aimed to explore the extent to which possible integration between the different appro...

This paper aims to explore the potential of using available WiFi networks as an input for a space-use analysis model (SUA_m) capable of describing -observing, recording and quantifying -and visualizing spatial usage and users' spatial behaviours in knowledgesharing scenarios (KnSc) and correlating this information to spatial structure. For the purpose of this paper, KnSc are defined as physical locations where people go for collaboration and other activities carrying mobile devices functioning as location probes.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2017

Spacescapes are often shaped by spatial behaviour. However, their dynamic complexity makes it difficult for them to be simulated in AI-based environments. As a result, degrees of uncertainty often arise when one describes spaces, trying to give shared importance to structural, fundamental, peculiar spacescape qualities. This paper explores space ontologies built by human agents. With the use of app features of personal smartphones, students of the Technical University of Bari have explored an urban commercial street. The results they obtained in the context of spatial cognition have been analysed and discussed for environment planning and management.

There are two fundamental links necessary to establish for a robust theoretical foundation of space syntax methodology. The first concerns the relation between humans and the environment, where space syntax has contributed to the development of what may be called a cognitive geometry for the analysis of spatial form. The second is the relation between humans and humans in the environment, that is, the role of spatial form for social processes, where space syntax has demonstrated how spatial form is essential for the distribution of human co-presence in space and with sociological support argued the vital importance of such co-presence for social processes. Nevertheless, these issues are far from exhausted in space syntax theory or even always convincingly argued. It is therefore the aim of this paper to further contribute to the first of these issues and in a parallel paper to contribute also to the second. While James Gibson's theory of affordances often is referred to in this regard, his larger framework of an ecological approach to visual perception is far less addressed in space syntax research. This paper conducts a close reading of Gibson's theory on perception in the aim to demonstrate its close links and high relevance to space syntax theory. Its more recent development by other writers, such as Harry Heft and Anthony Chemero, will also be referred to. More precisely, it will be argued that Gibson's theory forms a most apposite ontological framework for space syntax theory and methodology that supports its novel conceptualisation of the relation between humans and the environment and, not least, presents a firm theoretical foundation for its particular form of geometric representations, such as the axial map. Importantly, Gibson's ecological ontology distinctly contrasts with the typical conception of space, borrowed from physics, found in most spatial analysis and urban modelling.