Space Syntax Methodology Review

Abstract

Space syntax is a street network method, which was developed in the 1970s at the University of London as a way to quantify urban morphology features and recorded movement and interaction within cities and buildings. In the book The Social Logic of Space (Hillier and Hanson 1984), they firstly argued that spatial layout or structure has a great impact on human social activities. Recently, the approach was refined by Hillier (1996), and it particularly focuses on the arrangement of spaces and possibilities and patterns of movement through the “spatial configuration.” Over the past two decades, space syntax theory has provided computational support for the development of urban morphological studies, revealing the characteristics of spaces in terms of movement and potential use. Indeed, space syntax attempts to define the elements of urban form by geometric accessibility, measuring the relationships between street segments by a series of measurements, such as connectivity, control, closeness, and betweeness (Jiang and Claramunt 2002).