The role of space in the creation of place Tim Stonor Architect & Town Planner

The role of space in the creation of place Tim Stonor Architect & Town planner London 30th October 2008

This presentation is about the process of self organisation by which cities acquire their generic forms. Cities are a foreground network of linked centres at all scales set into a background network of primarily residential space. London benefits from pervasive centrality. London’s spatial structure Pervasive centrality CASA, UCL

The architecture of space Space syntax starts with the spatial architecture of the city. Cities are large collections of buildings held together by a network of space: the street network. The network of space is the largest thing in the city. It is what holds it all together. Space has an architecture, that is a certain geometry and a certain topology, that is, a certain pattern of connections.

Space syntax models provide a complete representation of the space network, defining the basic element as the segment of a street between junctions. Space syntax analyses the spatial relations between each spatial segment (road/pathway) and all the others in the network. Representing the spatial network

By isolating and analysing the street network we bring to light a fundamental fact of cities. The spatial structure of the street network is a, perhaps the, primary determinant of movement. This applies to private vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. Spatial layout determines urban movement

Because the network structure shapes flows, it also shapes land use patterns, in that movement-seeking land uses seek locations that the grid has already made movement-rich, while other land uses, such as residential, migrate to less-movement rich parts of the network. Economic values follow this process. This is the fundamental city creating process by which cities evolve from collections of buildings to living cities. Spatial layout shapes land use patterns

Cities create centres in a more intricate way than previously thought. It is this that makes them sustainable, because it means that, wherever you are, you are close to a small, local centre and not far from a much bigger one. The space syntax theory of the city explores how the pattern on the right is emergent from the space network on the left. So what do the colours mean in the pattern on the left ? CASA, UCL

The colours are measures of the different kinds of movement potential of each street segment. Red = high and blue = low. Movement is the lifeblood of the city and creates the dense patterns of human contact that are its raison d’etre. Spatial layout & movement

Movement potential are measured in two ways, reflecting the fact that every trip involves two things. First, selecting a destination from an origin. Deciding where to go. Call it the to-movement element of the trip. Mathematicians call it closeness. Two views of movement To-movement

Second, selecting the spaces to pass through on the way to the destination: selecting the route to get there. Call it the through-movement component of the trip. Mathematicians call it between-ness. Two views of space Through-movement

Key discovery #1 Spatial accessibility shapes movement Research shows that 60-80% of movement flows are due to the structure of the network, measured by spatial accessibility. More accessible places get more movement This does not mean that space determines individual movement. It means that human movement follows predictable patterns.

Key discovery #2 Spatial accessibility shapes land use As cities evolve, land uses exploit spatial accessibility. Movement-sensitive land uses locate on movement-rich streets. Less movement-sensitive uses locate around the corner. In this way, historic cities organise themselves, mixing land uses in a natural way that people understand intuitively.

You can see the streets but can you see the centres?

St John’s Wood High Street West Hampstead Hampstead Pond Street South End Green Englands Lane Regents Park Road Swiss Cottage Belsize Village Belsize Park Fortune Green West Hampstead tube Kilburn High Street Tim Stonor The role of space in the creation of place Space Syntax © 2008 …set into a residential background London: a network of centres Least angle through movement, radius = 750m

Marylebone High Street

Least angle through movement, radius = 1,250m Tim Stonor The role of space in the creation of place Space Syntax © 2008 Marylebone High Street

Lambs Conduit Street

Tim Stonor The role of space in the creation of place Space Syntax © 2008 Lambs Conduit Street Least angle through movement, radius = 250m

Cell count 305 Mean all to all distance 2.79 Cell count 305 Mean all to all distance 3.02 Cell count 305 Mean all to all distance 2.69 Understand the process of centre formation Centres, with their need for inter-accessibility & commercial transaction, have smaller block structures than the residential areas that surround them. A grid with smaller central blocks and larger peripheral blocks has a lower mean metric distance from all points to all others than a regular grid. In a grid with larger blocks in the centre, the mean distance becomes larger than a regular grid. This simple formal fact is reflected everywhere in cities.

Centres form when local and global properties appear together. For example, the Edgware Road, a main edge-to-centre axis in London, has three high streets along its length between the North Circular Road and Marble Arch. In each case, the high streets are found when the global importance of the Edgeware Road is matched by what we call local grid intensification – a small scale grid. Edgware Road, London Understand how centres form along lines

Chiswick log Choice RN West Ealing Kilburn Swiss Cottage Hampstead Walworth Rd Clapham Tooting Streatham Suburban centres & spatial accessibility

Variables Subcentre “spatial profiling” Spatial profiles for the different centres build a picture of the differing characteristics of each. Four groupings emerge, which appear to makes sense against the differing economic profiles of the sample.

Building centred density Plot exposure Dwelling type Dwellings per street segment Value of property security Layout indicators This project is supported by the UCL-led UrbanBuzz Programme, within which UEL is a prime partner Dwellings per segment Crime risk 1 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 Crime risk Building Centred Density 1 10 5 15 20

Understand the historic place-making process Urban structure emerges in an aggregative process through a rule of preferential attachment. Never block a long line if you can block a short one instead. This is why all cities are made up at all scales of a very small number of long lines and a very larger number of short lines. Tokyo

Modern planning Zoned land uses, creating longer journeys Historic planning Mixed land uses, minimising journey lengths Key problem #1 We have separated land uses into zones

Suppressed movement economy. Enhanced movement economy. Main street, mixing global & local movement. Fast highways, separating global & local movement. Key problem #2 We have stopped building main streets

Suppressed movement economy. Enhanced movement economy. Urban building, active frontage, street dependent. Anti-urban building, blank frontage, car dependent. Key problem #3 We have stopped building urban buildings

Main street with urban buildings, active frontages, mixing global & local movement. Enhanced movement economy. Fast highway with anti-urban buildings, blank frontages, separating global & local movement.. Suppressed movement economy. Summary We have replaced urbanism with transport

BRASILIA choice radius 1600 metres

Old local plan The Jeddah Plan Creation of a local movement economy Space Syntax has produced a new plan, based on re-creating Jeddah’s main streets and building new public spaces. The result is a network of urban boulevards, with all movement at-grade, allowing transaction between global and local activity.

The Jeddah Plan Creation of a local movement economy

Party walls Privacy/shading screens Continuous facades Shading structures/ privacy screen Shared surface/ Pedestrian priority Building height ranges Vertical land use distribution Accessible roof space Plot coverage ranges On street parking Infrastructure routed below parking areas Active frontages Ground floor setback for shade Overlooking uses Floor to floor heights Plot widths Jeddah Detailed design guidelines

Jeddah Planning Code Primary boulevards

Jeddah Central Urban Area Development of vibrant, mixed-use sustainable communities الأفكار الرئيسية وسط مدينة متنوع الاستخدامات يلائم جميع فئات المجتمع بشكل مستمر City Area Local Neighbourhood District Area 200m 2,000m 600m Primary Care Friday Mosque Eid Mosque College Police Station High School Local Clinic Shops School 1,000m Mosque Femalework Female club

Elephant & Castle Capitalising on strategic value High Low Spatial Accessibility

Elephant & Castle Area layout framework

Elephant & Castle Proof of concept – linkage modelling

Elephant & Castle Civic Square

Elephant & Castle Southern Crossing

Elephant & Castle Southern Crossing

Multi-scale centrality

Tim Stonor Managing Director Space Syntax t.stonor@spacesyntax.com www.spacesyntax.com