| 1. |
- Abshirini, Ehsan, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Visibility Analysis, Similarity and Dissimilarity in General Trends of Building Layouts and their Functions
- 2013
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Ingår i: Proceedings of Ninth International Space Syntax Symposium. - Seoul : Sejong University Press. - 9788986177213 ; , s. 11:1-11:15
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Visibility analysis is one of the key methods in space syntax theory that discusses visual information conveyed to observers from any location in space that is potentially directly visible for the observer without any obstruction. Visibility – simply defined as what we can see – not only affects the spatial function of buildings, but also has visual relation to the perception of buildings by inhabitants and visitors. In this paper we intend to present the result of visibility analysis applied on a sample of building layouts of different sizes and functions from a variety of places of periods. The main aim of this paper is to statistically explore the general trends of building layouts and show if and how visibility properties such as connectivity, clustering coefficient, mean depth, entropy, and integration values can make distinctions among different functions of buildings. Our findings reveal that there are significant correlation coefficients among global properties of visibility in which we consider the mean value of properties, a similarity suggesting that they are not intensively manipulated by architecture. On the other hand, there are correlations although less so than the previous, still significant among local properties of visibility in which we consider the (max-min) value of properties, suggesting that social, cultural or other physical parameters distinguish buildings individually. We also show that functions such as ‘museum’ and ‘veterinary’ are relatively well-clustered, while functions such as ‘ancient’ and ‘shopping’ show high diversity. In addition, using a decision tree model we show that, in our sample, functions such as ‘museum’ and ‘library’ are more predictable rather than functions such as ‘hospital’ and ‘shopping.’ All of these mean that – at least in our sample – the usability and applicability of well-clustered and well-predicted functions have been predominant in shaping their interior spaces; vice versa, in well-diverse and unpredicted functions, the pragmatic solutions of people’s daily life developed in material culture affect the visual properties of their interior spaces.
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| 2. |
- Heyman, Susanna, et al.
(författare)
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The willingness to pay for urban sustainability
- 2013
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Ingår i: 2013 International Space Syntax Symposium. - : Sejong University Press. - 9788986177213
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Quite recently certification systems for sustainable development of neighborhoods and communities, such as L EED ND and BREEAM for Communities, came to the market. These systems try to define urban sustainability through sets of criteria that in a variety of ways measure aspects in urban developments that have an influence on environmental, social and economical issues on a local level. This paper investigates the monetary values on these criteria, derived from property prices from apartments and single family houses in Copenhagen. In order to make proper estimates on the monetary values for certification criteria a hedonic price model is used. The model holds property prices from about 20 000 sales as dependent variable which is then correlated, through multiple regressions, with variables made out of the criteria through GIS-analyses. Translation from certification criteria into measurable variables is done with great consideration to contemporary urban theory. These variables are results from spatial analyses based on space syntax and other more standard spatial measures. The certification systems focuses on neighborhoods and communities, which is considered in the radiuses used for analyzing. It turns out that 19 of the 30 measured criterions are statistically significant, but a majority shows negative correlations to price. It is also acknowledged that space syntax measures like integration and betweenness have an influence on prices. Local integration, used as a proxy for various urban qualities, is shown to have a negative impact on prices. Qn the contrary, betweenness on a global scale is valued as positive. From these results the conclusion is that people are generally not willing to pay for urban sustainability on the local scale, as defined in LEED and BREEAM certification systems. However, it is furthermore argued that this is a question of measure and definition. Previous studies, e.g. (Spacescape and Evidens 2011) and (Sjaastad et al. 2007), imply that many of the measures used in this study are positively correlated to price if done on a global scale. It is concluded that the urban sustainability should to be examined further before rejecting the hypothesis that it has positive monetary value.
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| 3. |
- Koch, Daniel, 1976-
(författare)
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Choreographing Exposure : Theatrical configurations of architectural disjunction
- 2013
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Ingår i: Proceedings of Ninth International Space Syntax Symposium. - Seoul : Sejong University Press. - 9788986177213 ; , s. 70:1-70:18
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The way architecture articulates social, cultural, political, and organizational values as well as character and identity through manipulation of visibility, permeability and the relation them in-between has been discussed by many researchers. Consistent methodologies that focus on this specific split are however unusual, and it tends to be handled discursively and on a case-by-case basis. There are also shortcomings in how such disjunctions are considered both in functional and communicatory terms. For development of morphological and configurational analysis, studies of well-known architectural works can be used to investigate geometric and configurative properties and how they relate to analyses and understanding of spatial mediation of societal values. This, however, faces a methodological challenge, as it deals with a multi-variable set of relations – including both amount of and degree of differentiation between visibility and permeability, and potentially questions of directionality that are problematic for syntax analysis to deal with.To move forward, one can either build a library of analysed buildings to compare and evaluate different disjunction patterns to, or compare these analyses to a base set of geometries and disjunctions. This paper intends to make generic methodological and theoretical contributions through specific studies of these relations focused on a well-known and analysed building: Adolf Loos' house for Josephine Baker (1928), and introducing comparison to other situations. It also aims to more clearly begin establishing a terminology for such disjunctions that can be used to further refine the understanding.
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| 4. |
- Koch, Daniel, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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Syntactic Resilience
- 2013
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Ingår i: Proceedings of Ninth International Space Syntax Symposium. - Seoul : Sejong University Press. - 9788986177213 ; , s. 54:1-54:16
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In many fields connected to architecture and urban design, the term ‘resilience’ has grown common and tends to stand for a variety of different things. What this paper intends to do is to work with the term under a rather basic understanding – that of systems capable of performing even after being altered. Specifically, this means the extent to which a spatial configuration is sensitive to smaller or larger changes, where these sensitivities can be found and the degree of impact should the links be severed. Building on investigations by Hillier, Shpuza, and Conroy Dalton and Kirsan, the intent is to take one step further and set the term in relation to what a spatial configuration operates as social and cultural interface. Thus, a system that is considered as syntactically resilient is a system where inhabitance (use, identity) can follow similar principles as before the change, whereas a non-resilient system is one that can suffer big changes in the spatial logic by ostensibly minor local changes, thereby putting considerable strain on or enforcing change of inhabitance. The paper furthermore establishes some basic methods and measures for how to measure and analyse this, and also discusses the pros and cons of different spatial models for the ability of analyzing the question at hand.Concretely, the investigation begins with a conceptual, methodological discussion that is then followed by analysis of a small number of buildings to investigate the validity of the proposed methods and measures. The paper investigates the use of a series of existing measures as well as proposes new measures of configurational sensitivity. Finally it discusses how these measures relate to on the one hand security issues, and on the other generic questions in architectural design.
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| 5. |
- Koch, Daniel, 1976-
(författare)
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The Architectural Interface Inside-Out : Interior-Exterior Relations, Spatial Models, and Configurational Mirroring
- 2013
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Ingår i: Proceedings of Ninth International Space Syntax Symposium. - Seoul : Sejong University Press. - 9788986177213 ; , s. 67:1-67:16
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- One of the early concepts of space syntax, from the Social Logic of Space, is architecture seen as an interface. This is sometimes interpreted as on one hand a singular transition between ‘private’ and ‘public’, or more gradually as a transition from ‘public’ urban space towards more and more private space on the other. Methodologically, the latter tends to consist of analyses that incorporate both interior and exterior space in the analysis. Similarly, it can be said that justified graphs drawn from the entrance – a commonly deployed practice – is the same kind of description, that is, they describe rather how interior and exterior relates based on the conditions set up by the ‘exterior’. This paper, instead, explores how internal configurational properties sets up an interface description, applying a method of ‘mirroring’ that in certain ways of doing it rather than replacing an exterior in the analysis, emphasizes the internal configuration of the building with regards to its exterior and how it thus describes directionality and priorities of both the building as a whole and of its constitute parts to the surrounding environment. It is thus possible to analyse buildings as interface ‘from the outside in’ – that is, how entry conditions sets up an interface for visitors, a kind of public-private gradient – and ‘from the inside out’ – that is, how the building describes its relation to the various exteriors and to what extent ‘inhabitants’ share similar interfaces and relations as visitors. It further tests these different models to empirical data. The paper explores both a methodology for this kind of analysis and what the results may mean through a series of analysed buildings that makes possible to posit a range of different questions to architectural and configurative analysis.
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| 6. |
- Legeby, Ann, 1972-
(författare)
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Configuration and co-presence : The underpinnings of job opportunities
- 2013
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 9th International Space Syntax Symposium. - Seoul : Sejong University. - 9788986177213
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Several suburbs in the Stockholm region witnessed serious outbreaks of violence during May 2013. The pattern is recognizable: frustration over a situation of social exclusion has resulted in recurrent disorder in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. There is no doubt that the matter of social segregation is highly complex; there is neither an easy explanation nor a simple solution. The uneven distribution of unemployment and the uneven income distribution in Stockholm that often coincide with ethnic residential segregation stand out as increasingly compromising manifestations of urban segregation and of increasing social polarization—a situation that has proved difficult to change in spite of several initiatives.This paper focuses on how the built environment may play a role in matters related to segregation; more specifically, it studies this from the angle of chances in the labour market. The starting point for this investigation is twofold: first, geographical access to jobs has been identified as an extremely important factor affecting people’s chances of success in the labour market (Åslund et al. 2010; Gobillon et al. 2005; Zenou et al. 2006), a mechanism related to the spatial-mismatch hypothesis (Kain 1968). Second, co-presence in public space affects the life chances that a neighbourhood affords. For example, the public culture that may develop, including certain views and norms, is arguably affected by those who share public space (Zukin 1995; Grannis 1998; Strömblad 2001; Franzén 2009), and it is argued that information and knowledge that non-locals may bring to an area is different from ‘provincial news and views’, believed important in obtaining a job (Granovetter 1983).Through an application of advanced spatial analysis using space syntax and the Place Syntax Tool in combination with information from questionnaires and observations, this study identifies inequalities, comparing neighbourhoods across the city of Stockholm. The results show that spatial configuration has a direct influence on access to workplaces as well as on other aspects that affect residents’ opportunities in the labour market. It also comes to light that the local outcome is highly dependent on the context of a place or of a neighbourhood, indicating that an area’s surroundings need to be acknowledged to a greater degree and taken into consideration in antisegregation initiatives. I argue that the precise spatial analysis applied in this paper captures important implications regarding urban configuration for matters related to opportunities in the labour market.
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| 7. |
- Marcus, Lars, 1962-, et al.
(författare)
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Can spatial form support urban ecosystem services : representing patches and connectivity zones for bees using space syntax mehodology
- 2013
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Ingår i: Proceeding - 9th international space syntax symposium. - : Sejong University Press. - 9788986177213
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Within the broad research field of sustainable urban development, we can identify a movement from a first generation of research and practice, primarily addressing mitigation strategies, to a second generation, broadening the field to also encompass strategies of adaptation. Most sustainable urban growth concepts (e.g. new urbanism, urban containment and smart growth) built on the findings from the first generation of research and have a strong focus on the transport-land use relation, aiming atreducing private (car) mobility and related CO2- emissions and air pollution. Research shows that higher density, land-use diversity and pedestrian-friendly designs generally reduce trip rates and encourage non-car mobility, although the results are still ambiguous (Colding et al, forthcoming). Creeping global environmental changes, natural catastrophes and volatile financial markets, highlight the need to put emphasis also on strategies of adaptation as a complement to environmental mitigation strategies of cities (Vale et al 2005). This type of research concerns the understanding of the resilience of urban systems in which urban systems are seen as integrated social-ecological systems, bridging the ancient dichotomy between human and ecological systems. Research shows that green spaces and its fragmentation are crucial for biodiversity and other ecosystem services. One of the most relevant variables affecting landscape fragmentation is population density (Jaeger 2000). Indeed, urban sprawl causes directly land cover changes at the urban fringe and impacts indirectly on the rural landscape progressively further away from the urban fringe by fragmenting both agricultural areas and woodlands (Salvati et al 2012). However, city compactness and higher densities decrease the amount and access to green space within cities (Pauleit et al 2005, Burton 2000).This paper especially focus on green space and its fragmentation and accessibility within cities and combine the human perspective on green space with the landscape ecological perspective in the aim to develop knowledge that opens for integration of eco-system design in urban design, moving towards an expanded professional practice of social-ecological urban design. To include the ecological perspective we use effective mesh density, which is a direct quantitative expression of landscape connectivity (Jaeger 2000) and biotope diversity (Marini et al 2010). To include the human perspective we build on the methods to measure cognitive accessibility developed within Space syntax research (Hillier 1996) and especially the measures proposed by Ståhle et al (2005, 2008) in which besides the measure of distance, also a measure of attraction is introduced. Through this we aim to include the described ecological measures in the framework of Space syntax, enabling us to use accessible green space both from a human and an ecological perspective. Important stepping-stone structures within the network (patches and links with more importance from one or both perspectives) can be traced and interventions can be proposed to improve (parts of) the system. This paper presents, firstly, a conceptual discussion on this topic and secondly, results from a study in Stockholm showing in principle the possibility of a spatial morphology of social-ecological urban systems
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| 8. |
- Marcus, Lars, 1962-, et al.
(författare)
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Network buzz : conception and geometry of networks in geography, architecture and sociology
- 2013
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Ingår i: Proceeding - 9th International Space Syntax Symposium. - : Sejong University Press. - 9788986177213
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The idea of networks has in the recent decade rapidly risen to a top position in a long series of disciplines. Given that network is a key concept in space syntax theory and methodology, this paper investigates the origins and later development of network analysis in the adjacent fields of sociologyand geography, not least since networks often are seen as a language that can connect and translate between systems and phenomena addressed in different disciplines. The overarching aim in the paper is to contribute to a more precise understanding of what network concept actually is in use in space syntax and, in extension, what this particular version has to offer the larger and more established disciplines of sociology and geography.In sociology we find an initial discourse on networks already in Georg Simmel that to a certain degreechallenged the conception of sociology strongly promoted by the more powerful Émile Durkheim, but was later lost. The concept of networks, however, remerged, not least in the work of John Scott that made direct references to the emergence of network analysis in geography. In geography we find networks to be an intrinsic part of the quantitative revolution in the 1950s and 60s, heralded by Peter Haggett and others, where networks were promoted as an alternative to the regional approach in geography. This opens for an exciting vista of geometric foundations of geography, with pertinent repercussions also for architecture.However, this is clearly to move between distinctly different conceptions of networks; between what we can call social, physical, and cognitive networks. With this distinction in mind, there is a possibility to more precisely position networks as conceptualised in space syntax. Socially, networks in space syntax are representations of, what Durkheim referred to as, social morphology, which distinctly can never reach beyond the threshold of sociology but deals with “material substratum of society”, which thereby offers a distinct identity and limit to the field of space syntax. Geographically, space syntax thus represents a peculiar form of network analysis demarcated by the physical fact of the city. Such ontology of ‘regional networks’ (cf. Jessop) is not unusual in geography, but fundamentally alien to the contemporary concept of networks found within sociology, emphasizing networks as an ontological alternative to such region-thinking (Latour, Scott). Finally, and possibly most originally, representations of networks in space syntax seem to develop a particular strand of advanced cognitive geometry that extends and complements the aims of behavioural and cognitive geography.
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| 9. |
- Miranda Carranza, Pablo, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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A Computational Method For Generating Convex Maps Using the Medial Axis Transform
- 2013
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Ingår i: Proceedings of Ninth International Space Syntax Symposium. - Seoul : Sejong University Press. - 9788986177213 ; , s. 064: 1-064: 11
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Convex maps were first introduced by Hillier and Hanson in “The social logic of space”, and have since become a standard diagram of space syntax, particularly in the analysis of interior of buildings. Despite of their extensive use, the computer generation of convex maps turns out to be quite difficult. An algorithmic description of the process would afford an objective form of reproducing analysis results and the consistent application of the same method on a set of data; unfortunately the original guidelines to draw convex maps by hand have been shown to be impossible to translate into a formal description of the type necessary for a computer program. Thus, rather than attempting a translation of the original procedure, we have looked at alternatives methods for producing convex maps in the field of shape analysis. In particular we have studied a set of problems which deal with the decomposition of shapes into simpler parts and their organisation,and which are conceptually related to the convex map. We have accordingly developed a method for subdividing architectural plans into non overlapping, convex partitions that captures their most salient organisational features, based on the medial axis transform, a well known shape descriptor first proposed by H.Blum in 1967. Our method is based on adding the simpler convex regions defined through the segments and branching points of the medial axis according to different priorities, under the condition that these additions remain convex. In space syntax the automatic production of convex spaces has often focused on their instrumentality in the calculation of axial maps, and has not have the convex map as the final objective.The method we have developed, in the other hand, produces convincing convex partitions and maps, which often coincide with those resulting from following the original hand-drown method description. Its results can be used for representing the organisation of spaces at the level of simplicity and abstraction of the original convex partitions proposed by Hillier and Hanson, and to allow the study of their configuration through the application of different graph measures and visualisation techniques.We have implemented our methods in C++. The effective calculation of the medial axis required the use of robust and reliable computational geometry libraries, and consequently we have based most of our geometric data-structures and algorithms in those provided by CGAL, a well tested and widely used library distributed under GPL/LGPL license. Besides CGAL our tests and demonstration programs also use a number of different libraries, such as Dime, for dxf input and output or Qt, for GUI and interaction.
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| 10. |
- Miranda Carranza, Pablo, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Spot with Paths, an Interactive Diagram with a Low Complexity Isovist Algorithm
- 2013
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Ingår i: Proceedings of Ninth International Space Syntax Symposium. - Seoul : Sejong University Press. - 9788986177213 ; , s. 062: 1-062: 13
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In an often quoted sentence of his 1976 book “The Architecture of Form”, Lionel March drew a clear distinction between science, interested in extant forms, and design, which initiates novel forms. The theories, methods, measures and diagrams of space syntax have often developed following this first more scientific scheme, and they have been concerned with the analysis of existing or projected buildings and cities.This emphasis on analysis is evident in current software, algorithms and measures. But is it possible to think of a space syntax not only as a way of analysing existing situations or validating future designs, but as a form of actually generating architecture?In our work we have used space syntax at the early stages of the design process, not so much as a form of analysis, but as a sort of architectural diagram. The shift of space syntax into a generative role has demanded a set of conceptual and technical adjustments: from the emphasis on graphic language and visualisation to the need for fast feedback and interaction.In this paper we present an example from our work, and the framework (technical and methodological) necessary to produce it. The digital diagram we have created deals with the design of a new hospital ward. It represents some basic problems we have encountered in the relation of patients, staff and architecture, which are incorporated into the software through 3 basic interactive entities: isovists (from patients positions), the circulation paths of hospital staff (with a calculation of their visibility relations to the patients), and the arrangement of walls to form rooms. All these 3 entity types are interdependent: isovists depend of walls and positions and the visualisation of staff paths depends on the patients isovists. They are also editable in real time, that is, walls, isovists and paths can be added,deleted, or moved, and the effects of any of these actions visualised at once.This fast interaction and feedback require efficient algorithms and data structures. In particular we have implemented an algorithm for the calculation of isovists or visibility polygons with a complexity dependent of the size (in terms of visible vertices) of the visibility polygon, rather than being a function of the size of the boundary. This allow us to calculate visibility polygons in real time irrespective of the size of the boundary, may this be a building or a whole city. Our method implements an idea by Åsmund Izaki for the calculation of isovists and visibility graphs, based in the use of an underlying triangulation data structure for the search of all visible vertices from a point. Besides the general interest of our approach to the use of space syntax in a generative rather than in an analytical way, we believe that the algorithms for the calculation of visibility polygons or isovists can find application also into existing space syntax software, improving its performance, and in some cases opening the possibility for an extension of its role from forms of analysis to generative ones.Our software has been developed using the C++ programming language, and it makes extensive use of Open Source libraries such as CGAL, Dime, Qt and Boost.
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