Good afternoon, Vice-mayor Wang and distinguished guests. It is an honour to have been invited to speak at this important conference.   My presentation is about the spatial network of the city – how it can be described; how its properties can be analysed; how its effects on patterns of movement, land use and density can be measured; and how to capture its enormous value when planning and designing the future of our cities. In doing so, I will develop the discussion about the importance of spatial configuration that Mr Kai Wang introduced in his presentation this morning.   My company, Space Syntax Limited, has developed a unique urban modeling system that we use to advise municipalities, property developers and investors about the spatial aspects of their urban planning proposals. We work alongside other urban planners, offering expert advice during the urban planning process.   I will show you some practical experience and will share with you the lessons that my colleagues and I have learned about the spatial network of the city. This experience has been gained over the last twenty years, working on urban planning projects in China and throughout the world, including some of the most prestigious projects in the United Kingdom.   Twenty years seems like a long time to me but of course it is a short period in the lifetime of Xishan and Taiyuan. Our visit yesterday to the Jinci Temple showed me the long history of architecture and spatial planning in Xishan. My impression was reinforced by Party Secretary Shen in his speech this earier today. When we toured the city yesterday afternoon we saw the modern history of Xishan: the rapid growth that economic progress has created and the environmental challenges that have accompanied this growth.   Sustainability The theme of my presentation is sustainability and here I should pause briefly to define what I mean by sustainability, which is, I believe, the most important issue in urban planning. Sustainability has many aspects. One aspect is architectural: the environmental performance of a building – the thermal efficiency of its façade, the effectiveness of its heating and cooling systems and the energy embodied in the materials from which the building is constructed. Another aspect of sustainability is the cleanliness of industry, which we have seen is a major issue in Xishan. We have learned today how great efforts are being made here in Xishan to improve industrial processes and reduce the polluting effects of industrial emissions.   But there is a third, significant, aspect of sustainability which relates to the way that people move around cities. Over the last fifty years, people in cities throughout the world have increasingly travelled greater distances between their places of work and their places of living. Our cities have seen the construction of road networks, rail networks and air networks that have facilitated faster travel across a larger scale. While this progress has opened up new opportunities for people it has also come at a cost. People are becoming less healthy as they take less exercise. Congestion is a feature of most urban centres. The costs on time, on the environment and on the healthcare needed to treat unhealthy people are large and are increasing.   The role of spatial accessibility One of the most striking characteristics of the “global city” has been the reduction of local accessibility. Existing communities have been literally divided by new major roads. New communities are often provided with low levels of local accessibility because they are separated from each other by highways. One of the greatest risks therefore in the development of cities relates to social harmony. I hope to show how this risk has a spatial component and how, by understanding spatial networks, we can rebalance the planning of our cities to achieve a better harmony between global and local accessibility.

The spatial layout of the city is the largest object of human creation – it should therefore be planned as an object in its own right.

The space of the city is the theatre of everyday activity. The purpose of this activity is trade - social & economic. Any urban place is therefore a trading engine – a hugely valuable asset for both social harmony and economic prosperity.

Measuring spatial accessibility My company, Space Syntax Limited, has developed models that measure the spatial accessibility of individual streets within the overall spatial network. We display the results of the calculation graphically, using colours to represent accessibility values with highly accessible routes in red, then orange and yellow to less accessible routes in green and then blue. Here is the spatial accessibility analysis of London, showing the distinctive radial pattern of highly accessible routes from the centre to the edge. This pattern is created by the geometry of London’s street network. Our computer model analyses each segment of space between street intersections and calculates how accessible that segment is from all other segments.   Although we do not feed actual vehicle movement flows into the model, the remarkable fact is that the spatial accessibility pattern corresponds closely to the actual pattern of vehicle movement in London. Not only this, the pattern of spatial accessibility also corresponds to the historic location of land uses, with land uses that need more movement, such as popular retail, locating on more accessible streets and land uses that require less movement, such as housing, on less accessible streets.

Movement is the lifeblood of cities – the spatial model provides a powerful tool to understand and, as I will show you, manage the movement of the city.   We have also discovered that the pattern of land value in London corresponds with the pattern of spatial accessibility, as well as the pattern of certain crimes such as house burglary and street attacks. These correlations are written up in the extensive academic literature that underpins these models and gives our urban planning practice an essential research foundation.

Each city has a unique spatial profile.

Here is the spatial accessibility pattern of Taiyuan’s twin city, Newcastle upon Tyne in England – my home city. We are using this to help the city plan its pedestrian and vehicle movement infrastructure.

Here is the spatial accessibility pattern of Beijing which, unlike London or Newcastle, has strong orbital connections.

Here is Tokyo, with strong radial connections and strong orbitals. Tokyo is famous for its polycentric structure with several major subcentres. Its spatial accessibility pattern makes Tokyo’s economic and cultural identity possible.

It is possible to measure accessibility at any scale: for example, at a local scale of 400 metres or at a global scale of 20 kilometres or more. These different scales relate to the different kinds of trips that people make: for example, short walking or cycling trip or larger-scale commuting trips, and everything in between. This local accessibility analysis of part of London identifies the many small commercial centres that have built up as London has grown. Not all, perhaps not any, of these were planned. Instead they have evolved.

Even in highly planned cities such as Brasilia, we find that unplanned centres have emerged alongside planned ones. Sometimes the planned ones are not located in spatially effective places and they fail. The long-term success of planned centres is a key component of urban sustainability.   Balanced accessibility and risks in modern planning In our experience, sustainability is achieved through a balance between local and global spatial accessibility.

One of the greatest risks to this balance is the design of the major street network. One hundred years ago, as in Paris on the left, we were able to create streets that mixed different modes of transport: pedestrians and vehicles. Today, many of our cities – such as in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on the right – are dominated by high-speed vehicle traffic. Such highways increase global accessibility but reduce local accessibility.

A second risk concerns land use planning. In the historic city on the left, land uses were mixed and so local accessibility was higher and journeys were shorter. In modern city planning, we often separate and zone land uses. This reduces local accessibility and makes journeys longer. Case studies I would now like to show two case studies from the cities of Sao Paulo and Jeddah that demonstrate how Space Syntax modeling is being used to balance the accessibility patterns of rapidly growing cities. I will then present an initial spatial network analysis of Xishan district and make some comments on both the existing spatial layout of the city and the future opportunities for its sustainable growth.

Sao Paulo In Sao Paulo, Space Syntax Limited was asked to prepare a strategic plan to transform a former industrial area in the heart of the city.

We constructed a spatial model of the city to understand its accessibility patterns and to test strategic design ideas.

The site sits between major residential areas…

…and is dominated by the former Ford vehicle manufacturing factory with a railway line running north-south.

Here is the global accessibility pattern of the site, showing poor east-west connections. The motorway is strongly connected.

Here is the local accessibility pattern, highlighting one large centre and one small one.

We tested one strategic option that created new, direct east-west routes.

Our analysis showed that these were in fact too strong – they would have reduced the importance of the motorway and possibly made local routes more attractive for unwanted, large-scale through traffic.

So we curved the routes, changed the connections…

…and created a better global pattern that preserved the importance of the motorway for long-distance movement while improving east-west connections over the railway.

Our next job was to create a local movement network. Again, we tried different options. First, a simple, rectilinear grid of secondary connections…

…second a grid of shorter, less continuous secondary connections…

…and third an “organic” grid that created secondary connections that were either longer and continuous or shorter and more secluded.

The first, rectilinear grid option achieved strong global connections…

…but a weak local accessibility pattern.

Similarly, the less continuous grid achieved a strong global pattern…

…but very weak local accessibility.

The organic layout, however, achieved strong global accessibility…

…and strong local accessibility.

We selected this option and designed a linear park through the masterplan to create a unique character for the development.

We arranged the heights of the buildings so that they were taller at the places where local and global accessibility were highest.

We similarly organised land uses so that greater densities of commercial and retail uses were located at the focuses of accessibility.

We referred to the local…

…and the global patterns of spatial accessibility to guide the masterplan design.

The result is a plan that is both globally connected and locally distinct.

In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Space Syntax urban modeling has been used to guide the replanning of the entire city.

60 years ago, Jeddah was a much smaller city, approximately 1km in diameter.

Since then, the city has grown rapidly to the north and east.

This growth has occurred without proper water supply, sewage and public transport; likewise, without protection of many important historic buildings. As a result the city suffers from sprawl, decay and pollution.

Much movement in the city is only possible by private vehicle.

Our spatial analysis revealed how the city had developed an imbalanced spatial accessibility pattern that only worked because of the motorways.

The authorities in the city had a strategic choice to either build more motorways or to stop building such fast streets and start building a local infrastructure based on shorter journeys, mixed land uses and public transport.

Using the spatial model we showed how the city would suffer if more motorways were built. As a result of our contribution, the authorities have decided to follow the alternative strategy.

A key element of the new spatial plan is the transformation of the many unplanned settlements – or urban villages – that surround the Historic Core.

Our strategy is to connect the strong local movement patterns of the urban villages with the global movement that surrounds them, making the connection with new development that allows trade to occur at their edges.

The Space Syntax spatial model has been used to plan the new land use pattern with retail streets formed along new boulevards, in the historic tradition of street-based trade.

We have identified the location for a major new street, the “Jeddah Boulevard”, which will serve as a new focus for commercial business in Jeddah.

As in Sao Paulo, the spatial accessibility model has been used to create guidance on building heights…

…and on urban design features, such as tree shading, that will ensure that the strategic spatial planning principles are translated into fine-scale design.

We have helped to create a new public transport network in which routes and stations have been aligned with key accessibility corridors and nodes.

We have created area action plans for several parts of the city, including the Jeddah Waterfront…

…illustrating these for potential developers and investors.

We are using intelligent spatial models to understand the implications of real estate development requirements…

…on spatial and physical form. Such “parametric urban modeling” is, we believe, the future for city planning.

I would like to close my presentation by turning to Xishan District in the city of Taiyuan.   It has been a pleasure for my company to collaborate with Mr Kai Wang and his colleagues at he China Academy of Urban Planning and Design in preparing an initial analysis of Xishan District, which I would like to present to you.

The first point I would like to make is that, in order to study the spatial layout of Xishan District, we need to gain an understanding of the entire city of Taiyuan. We can begin by first acknowledging the powerful role of the mountains in defining the boundaries of the city and in creating a key element of its character.

Next, the Fen river, as an important communications route and supply of water.

Between them, the mountains and the river define the built up area of the city.

The railways and the airport provide the key large-scale transport connections for the city.

The ring motorway facilitates movement to, from and around the city.

The six central bridges across the Fen river provide important connections between the Taiyuan side of the city and the Xishan side in the west.

The streets that lead up to the six bridges then become the principal east-west alignments in the overall city.

The east-west routes are complemented by key north-south roads, two each on either side of the river.

Together, the east-west and north-south routes create the “supergrid” of movement connections for the city.

Within the supergrid are located a secondary network of important streets.

The various layers, when presented as a composite image, create an initial spatial mapping of Taiyuan.

In order to produce a finer-grain understanding of the city’s spatial layout network, we have constructed a Space Syntax model of Taiyuan.

First, we can view the local accessibility analysis of the street network where we see higher levels of spatial accessibility to the east of the river and lower levels on the west, Xishan side. This suggest to us that the spatial planning of Xishan should aim to create a stronger local movement network. As we saw in Sao Paulo, the layout geometry of the street network is a critical factor in any city’s urban performance, so the local qualities of the spatial layout – and especially the way in which the local and global patterns overlap - is something that deserves special attention in Xishan.

When we analyse the global spatial pattern, we see strong levels of accessibility on each side of the river. This suggests that Xishan already benefits from good global accessibility. New, major road projects will strengthen the global pattern even further. Based on our experience, we believe that the way in which the local pattern integrates with the global pattern will be very important to the sustainability of the future Xishan.   We have proposed to use this model, as we have done in Jeddah, Sao Paulo, Newcastle and London, to help develop the strategic spatial plan, the land use plan and the transport plan. We look forward to the opportunity to do so.

And so, in conclusion, I hope that I have shown you how, by understanding space, we can facilitate the planning process and help to achieve the systematic coordination between planning, urban economics, transport and architecture that is the objective here in Xishan District and is, in my opinion, the final component of sustainable development.

Thank you.

The spatial components of sustainability 可持续的空间要素 Evidence, value & the role of space 证据，价值和空间的作用 Taiyuan, Xishan Sustainable Development Demonstration & Executive Forum Taiyuan, 9th July 2009 Tim Stonor Town planner & Architect

The spatial layout of the city is the largest object of human creation. 城市的空间布局是人类创造的最大产物。

The space of the city is the theatre of everyday activity. 城市空间是日常活动上演的舞台。 The purpose of this activity is trade social & economic. 这一日常活动的目的是交易 社会和经济性的。 Any urban place is a trading engine – a hugely valuable asset. 任何城市空间都是一部交易的引擎 - 一项巨大价值的资产。

London 伦敦

Movement is the lifeblood of the city. 人车流是城市的血液。

Each place has a unique spatial signature. 每个场所都有一种独特的空间签名。

Newcastle upon Tyne Taiyuan’s twin city 纽卡斯特 太原的孪生城市

Beijing 北京

Tokyo 东京

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 Spatial layout shapes “centrality” 空间布局塑造中心性 Since the network of space shapes movement and land use patterns, it also shapes patterns of centrality. 由于空间的网络塑造了人车流和土地利用的类型，它也塑造了中心性的类型。 This is the fundamental city creating process by which cities evolve from collections of buildings to living cities. 这是至关重要的城市创造 过程，通过这一过程城市由一个建筑的集合演变为活生生的城市。

Suppressed movement economy. 快速路，分割了城市尺度和局部地区尺度的人车流 被压制的人车流经济。 Enhanced movement economy. 主街，混合城市尺度和局部地区尺度的人车流 增强人车流经济。 Main street, mixing global & local movement. Fast highways, separating global & local movement. Risk #1 We have stopped building main streets 失误1 我们不再建造主街

Modern planning Zoned land uses, creating longer journeys. 现代规划 区划土地利用性质，造成 更长距离的出行 Historic planning Mixed land uses, minimising journey lengths. 历史上的规划 混合的土地利用，最小化 出行距离 Risk #2 We have separated land uses into zones 失误2 我们将土地利用性质分割区划

Sao Paulo Global location

Motorway

Motorway

الرؤية تراث تاريخي عريق Jeddah Global location

الرؤية تراث تاريخي عريق Jeddah Historic centre

51 km Rapid urban expansion Madinah Road Makkah Road

التحديات معاناة المشاة Jeddah Weaknesses sprawl decay pollution

New plan Historic Core Spatial accessibility analysis Motorway city Urban motorway

Existing New plan Former plan A car-based plan is socially & economically unsustainable

Historic Core is “choked” by unplanned settlements Al Hindawiyah As Sabil Historic Core Al Amariyah Al Kandarah An Nazlah Al Baghdadiyah Ash Sharafiyah As Sahifah

Globally important routes Connecting locally routes Realignment and extension of intermediary routes Intermediary important routes Roads Locally important routes Strategy Integrate the segregated scales of movement

Recirculate the city with “healthy” movement

The outcome Enhanced accessibility, movement & trade Existing The Jeddah Plan Jeddah Boulevard

Line key boulevards with major, street-facing buildings

Align new streets with the Red Sea breeze & shade them

Create a public transport system that follows main streets Shared space (pedestrians / buses) Pedestrian Priority area Secondary public transport network Primary public transport network Multi-modal transport interchange Old Airport Waterfront Al Balad Khozam

مشروع المركز المدني لجدة تحليل الموقع مكونات الخطة الرئيسية Jeddah Waterfront 500Ha masterplan

Jeddah Waterfront Corridors for transaction

استخدامات المباني Development Specifications Development guidelines Density and building height generation مؤشرات العمران – الواجهة البحرية موجهات التطوير توليد الكثافة وارتفاعات المباني

5D Visualisation Length, breadth, height, use, value

Taiyuan Global location

Taiyuan Context Mountains Tai Hang Mountain Lvliang Mountain Heng Mountain

Taiyuan Context Fen River

Taiyuan Context Built up area Xishan

Taiyuan Context Railways and airport Taiyuan Wusu Airport

Taiyuan Context Motorways Dayun motorway to Datong Ring Road Taijiu motorway to Shijiazhuang Taichang motorway to Changzhi Dayun motorway to Pingyao & Lvliang

Taiyuan Context Bridges Shengli Bridge Yifen Bridge Yingze Bridge Nanneihuan Bridge Changfen Bridge Jinqiao Bridge

Taiyuan Context East west structure

Taiyuan Context North south structure

Taiyuan Context Main spatial structure

Taiyuan Context Route hierarchy

Taiyuan Context Taiyuan

Taiyuan Context Taiyuan 迎泽大街 太原站

LogChoice800m Road Hierarchy 800m radius 迎泽大街 太原站

Road Hierarchy Whole-city radius LogChoiceN 迎泽大街 太原站

Space A common language Architecture Town planning Urban economics Criminology Masterplanning Transport planning Property agency PR & branding Space Location Land use Linkage Layout

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