BEGINNING READINGS ON SPACE SYNTAX

Compiled by

Saif Haq, College of Architecture, Texas Tech University

• Hillier, Bill and Leaman, A. (1974) How is design possible? Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, 3 (1). pp. 4-11, available at http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/archive/00002321/01/hillier-leaman1973b-howisdesignpossible.pdf
• Bill Hillier, (1983),"Space Syntax: A Different Urban Perspective", Architects' Journal, vol. 178, no. 48, Nov. 30, pp. 47-63.
• Hillier, B.; Hanson, J., (1984),The social logic of space, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (see Chapter 3)
• Bentley, A. Babcock, P. Murrain, S. McGlynn, & G. Smith, (1985), “Introduction” in Responsive Environments, Architectural Press, London, pp. 9-15
• Hillier, Bill and Hanson, Julienne and Peponis, John (1987) Syntactic Analysis of Settlements. Architecture et Comportement/Architecture and Behaviour, 3 (3). pp. 217-231, available at http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/archive/00000086/
• Hillier, Bill and Burdett, Richard and Peponis, John and Penn, Alan (1987) Creating Life: Or, Does Architecture Determine Anything? Architecture & Comportement/ Architecture & Behaviour, 3 (3). pp. 233-250, available at http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/archive/00000101/
• J. Peponis, (1989), "Space, Culture and Urban Design in Late Modernism and after, " Ekistics, vol. 56, no. 334-355, pp. 93-100
• Peponis, J., E. Hadjinikolaou, et al. (1989). "The Spatial Core of Urban Culture." Ekistics 334, 335 Jan-Feb, Mar-Apr: 43-55
• Hillier, B. (1993), "Specifically architectural theory: a partial account of the ascent from building as cultural transmission to architecture as theoretical concretion", in Harvard Architecture Review, 9, 8-27, available at http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/archive/00001027/01/hillier_1993-specifically_architectural.pdf
• Hillier, B. and Penn, A. and Hanson, J. and Grajewski, T. and Xu, J., (1993), “Natural movement: or, configuration and attraction in urban pedestrian movement”, Environment and Planning B, 20 (1), pp. 29-66.
• Hillier, B. (1996), “Cities as movement economies”, Urban Design International, 1 (1), pp. 41-60.
• Jiang B., Claramunt C. and Klarqvist B. (2000), “An Integration of Space Syntax into GIS for Modelling Urban Spaces”, International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, Vol.2, pp.161-171.
• Jiang, B. and Claramunt, C., “Integration of Space Syntax into GIS: New Perspectives for Urban Morphology” in Transactions in GIS, Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 6(3), 2002, 295-309 (See Section 2)
• Sonit Bafna, (2003), “Space Syntax: A Brief Introduction to Its Logic and Analytical Techniques” in Environment and Behavior 35, pp. 17-29 available at http://eab.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/35/1/17
• P. Murrain, "Urban Expansion: Look Back and Learn, (date?), " in Making Better Places: Urban Design Now, R. Hayward & S. McGlynn, eds. Butterworth, London, pp. 83-94
• "Space Syntax" in Wikipedia, available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_syntax
• Hillier, B. (2005). "The Art of Place and the Science of Space." World Architecture 11(185: Special issue on Space Syntax): 24-34, Chineese, 96-102 Engllish.

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.

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 isovist (popularised by Michael Benedikt 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.

Green pilgrim cities

The vision is of pilgrims on all continents and the pilgrim cities that receive them, leaving a positive footprint on the Earth.

Download the Green Pilgrim Cities leaflet HERE (File size 6.2 MB) 

The Network will inspire Pilgrims to:

• prepare mindfully for their pilgrimage... 
• walk lightly and travel responsibly in the spirit of their faith... 
• choose sustainable tourist agencies... 
• eat and drink sustainably and ethically... 
• minimise their waste and water use... 
• dispose of their rubbish... and pick up after others... 
• support a fund to green the city they are visiting... 
• help local people in ecologically sensitive activities... 
• share the art of green pilgrimage with the people they meet on the way...
• bring greener ideas for living home with them...

Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple?

Predating Stonehenge by 6,000 years, Turkey's stunning Gobekli Tepe upends the conventional view of the rise of civilization

By Andrew Curry

Six miles from Urfa, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey, Klaus Schmidt has made one of the most startling archaeological discoveries of our time: massive carved stones about 11,000 years old, crafted and arranged by prehistoric people who had not yet developed metal tools or even pottery. The megaliths predate Stonehenge by some 6,000 years. The place is called Gobekli Tepe, and Schmidt, a German archaeologist who has been working here more than a decade, is convinced it's the site of the world's oldest temple.

"Guten Morgen," he says at 5:20 a.m. when his van picks me up at my hotel in Urfa. Thirty minutes later, the van reaches the foot of a grassy hill and parks next to strands of barbed wire. We follow a knot of workmen up the hill to rectangular pits shaded by a corrugated steel roof—the main excavation site. In the pits, standing stones, or pillars, are arranged in circles. Beyond, on the hillside, are four other rings of partially excavated pillars. Each ring has a roughly similar layout: in the center are two large stone T-shaped pillars encircled by slightly smaller stones facing inward. The tallest pillars tower 16 feet and, Schmidt says, weigh between seven and ten tons. As we walk among them, I see that some are blank, while others are elaborately carved: foxes, lions, scorpions and vultures abound, twisting and crawling on the pillars' broad sides.

Schmidt points to the great stone rings, one of them 65 feet across. "This is the first human-built holy place," he says.

From this perch 1,000 feet above the valley, we can see to the horizon in nearly every direction. Schmidt, 53, asks me to imagine what the landscape would have looked like 11,000 years ago, before centuries of intensive farming and settlement turned it into the nearly featureless brown expanse it is today.