INTERVIEW


THE LANGUAGE OF SPACE


Space Syntax explores the science of human behaviour for cities, urban places and buildings. Director Bill Hillier and managing director Tim Stonor tell Katie Buckley and Alice Davis how their approach works


SYNTAX STEPS


When a new project lands on a desk at Space Syntax, there’s a process of research, analysis, discussion and evaluation to go through.


1 Diagnosis


A thorough investigation of the existing situation. The fi rm builds a spatial analysis model of the site and a detailed set of pedestrian movement surveys. This helps them to understand the wider context of the project.


Bill Hillier T Tim Stonor


he social housing of 1960s London gets a bad rap these days, but when the structures were being built, a student


named Bill Hillier found them exciting. Fascinated, he’d fi nd and explore them, buoyed by the notion that great things were happening in the city’s architecture. But, after 10 minutes inside, he’d get the feeling that “life wasn’t worth living.” “There was something wrong,” Hillier


says, “something had disappeared.” The sense of organisation and connectedness he associated with the city were not present in these developments. “These places seemed to be quite different; they seemed to separate people and create empty spaces,” he says. Hillier wanted to know why, and that marked the start of his life’s work:


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understanding the way people behave in space. He discovered that this not only informs the way we move, but can also affect our psychological wellbeing and wider societal behaviours. Throughout the next decades, ‘space


syntax’ came into being, an evolving family of theories pioneered and devel- oped by Hillier and Julienne Hanson at University College London (UCL) to analyse spatial confi gurations. Hillier established the company Space Syntax as a consultancy whose “science-based, human-focused” methods determine the optimum planning direction for buildings, urban spaces and cities. Space Syntax aims to help urban planners and architects achieve the best possible performance for their project and the surrounding community, in terms of social, environmental and economic benefi ts.


2 Report The fi ndings are presented to the team and the client, and the constraints and opportunities of the development are discussed. The fi ndings inform the architect’s creative process.


3 Design Development Based on space syntax principles and expertise, design concepts are tested. Proposals are simulated to help clients understand different options. These are then explored and evaluated in an iterative process between the design team, the client team and Space Syntax.


4 Impact Assessment A detailed impact assessment investigates the plan within a variety of socio-economic parameters, from a pedestrian movement forecast to projected rental incomes or property values to assessing risk of burglary.


5 Planning Support The reports generated are used to various ends; for example, to communicate likely impacts to stakeholders and investors.


CLADmag 2015 ISSUE 2


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