Chapter 1Preperation Works

TU Berlin, IfAADIP

Summer Semester 2012Guest Professor Boštjan Vuga

3 // Space Syntax Analysis – Visibility and Integration

Regatta Center Porto Vecchio

BAchelor TheSIS 2012

You should research how the building site in the old port is connected to the city. It is often quite important for a building how it can be accessed and also how it is perceived from the city. Additionally, also the other way round could be important: What people can see from a specific building site and at which level and from which point of a future building people can see certain points in the city.A research group called ‘Space Syntax developed a theory and tools to analyse the relationship between spatial configurations and social implications. With these analyses they could provide a basis for spatial design and urban planning.

Space Syntax AnalysisSpace syntax is a science-based, human-focused ap-proach that investigates relationships between spatial layout and a range of social, economic and environmen-tal phenomena.These phenomena include patterns of movement, awareness and interaction; density, land use and land value; urban growth and societal differentiation; safety and crime distribution.Space syntax was pioneered in the 1970s by Prof Bill Hillier, Prof Julienne Hanson and colleagues at The Bar-tlett, University College London. Built on quantitative analysis and geospatial computer technology, space syntax provides a set of theories and methods for the analysis of spatial configurations of all kinds and at all scales.

Source: spacesyntax.net

The main aspects in the Space Syntax analysis are Visibility, connectivity and Integration. Field research showed that there is a direct connection between these aspects and e.g. crime in small labyrinthine alleys, busi-ness activity in a shopping street or working efficiency in a hospital.

UCL Depthmap SoftwareUCL Depthmap is an Open Source application to per-form visibility analysis of architectural and urban sys-tems. It takes input in the form of a plan of the system, and is able to construct a map of ‘visually integrated’ locations within it.In addition, the most recent version of Depthmap now carries out a range of configurational analyses which come under the umbrella term of ‘space syntax’. Space syntax analyses examine the relationships between components of space; each analysis starts with a rep-resentation of the spatial components, then makes a graph of these components, and finally analyses this graph using, for the most part, conventional graph theo-retical measures.

Source: http://www.vr.ucl.ac.uk/depthmap/depthmap4r1.pdf

Get the software for free onhttp://www.spacesyntax.net/software/ucl-depthmapWindows only!

The software is explained in detail in:– Turner, A., 2004, “Depthmap 4 — A Researcher’s

Handbook”, Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, UCL, London.

http://www.vr.ucl.ac.uk/depthmap/depthmap4r1.pdf– Pinelo, Joao, 2010, “UCL Depthmap Tutorials Version

10.08.00” http://www.vr.ucl.ac.uk/depthmap/tutorials/introduc-

tion_depthmap-v10-website.pdf http://www.vr.ucl.ac.uk/depthmap/tutorials/

Spatial Integration of the center of Berlin in 1989by Anna rose and christian Schwander at Space Syntax limited

Spatial Integration of the center of Berlin in 2010by Anna rose and christian Schwander at Space Syntax limited

Chapter 1Preperation Works

TU Berlin, IfAADIP

Summer Semester 2012Guest Professor Boštjan Vuga

3.1 // Connectivity and Integration

Regatta Center Porto Vecchio

BAchelor TheSIS 2012

What it meansTo analyse how good (or bad) a certain place/street/street segment is integrated in the whole street net-work you can consider the connectivity and Integration analysis. Both show you how a segment is embedded in the whole system, what it’s relation to other segments is and how easily it can be reached.connectivity shows you how often a street is connected to another street.The Integration measure shows how easy a certain street (or part of a street) can be reached. The integra-tion number of of street tells you how many times you have to turn into another segment/street to reach all other streets in the network. The streets with the lower numbers are better integrated than streets with higher integration numbers.

What you need- plan as DXF file- vector drawing software (cAD, Illustrator …)- Ucl Depthmap software version 10

How to do it1) It’s crucial you have an exact plan showing the city

from a pedestrian point of view. This means you need a line for every border which is not accessible by pe-destrians, such as houses, walls, water. Fences in the middle of a street or curbstones have to be ignored. If you reach the end of your map extract you can also draw a line for that. In the end you will have a large area bordered by a polygon and with inclusions in it. All polygons have to be closed! It’s helpful to draw them as precise as you can. Text and other stuff (symbols etc.) have to be deleted.

2) export the drawing as DXF file.3) open the Ucl Depthmap software and import your

generated DXF file.

4) Select the ‘Axial Map’ tool from the toolbar and click into the inside of your drawn polygon.

5) reduce to “Fewest line Map” by choosing ‘Tools / Axial / reduce to Fewest line Map’.

6) Select ‘Tools / Axial / run Graph Analysis…’ from the menu. In the following popup ‘radius’ should be ‘n’; then press ‘ok’.

7) choose ‘connectivity’ and/or ‘Integration (hh)’ in the lower left menu to show the corresponding analysis.

8) You can export each analysis layer as colored vector data. choose ‘edit / export…’ from the menu and ex-port the current screen as an ePS file. You can open this e.g. in Illustrator. You have to check the scale afterwards.

9) Finally put the generated layers from the ePS files on top of each other in a vector drawing software. Please add a legend.

See also: Ucl Depthmap Tutorials Version 10.08.00, page 39-42, http://www.vr.ucl.ac.uk/depthmap/tutorials/introduction_depthmap-v10-website.pdf

Please provide:* a DXF file in scale with the following layers: 1) plan, 2)

connectivity lines, 3) integration (hh) lines;* a PDF file in scale on A3 format with the following

layers: 1) plan, 2) connectivity lines;* a PDF file in scale on A3 format with the following

layers: 1) plan, 2) integration (hh) lines;* a print-out of each PDF in scale on A3 format.

Segment of Trieste’s map, which should be analysed

example for a base map drawn for a spatial Integration analysisfrom a Depthmap tutorial

Chapter 1Preperation Works

TU Berlin, IfAADIP

Summer Semester 2012Guest Professor Boštjan Vuga

3.2 // Isovist

Regatta Center Porto Vecchio

BAchelor TheSIS 2012

What it meansThe isovist is a graph which shows the area which can be seen from a certain point/area. This means the iso-vist also shows all points from which the point of origin can be seen.

What you need- plan as DXF file- vector drawing software (cAD, Illustrator …)- Ucl Depthmap software version 10

How to do it1) As in “connectivity and Integration” you need a pre-

cise plan of the city showing a figure ground plan at different heights: 2m, 7m, 12m and 17m. Therefore you have to consider the heights of the buildings and also the topography. If there is building of 11 m height it appears, of course, in the 2m and 7m plan but not in the 12m and 15m plan. The plan will be bounded by contour lines of the given heights. Mark the building site in all layers.

2) export the drawing as DXF file. You can export all height layers within one file.

3) open the Ucl Depthmap software and import your generated DXF file.

4) Select the height layer you want to analyse. choose just one layer at a time.

5) Select the ‘Isovist’ tool from the toolbar and click on the target area (the building site). Use exact the same location for every layer.

6) In the popup dialogue select “Full isovist (360 de-grees)”.

7) export the results as colored vector data. choose ‘edit / export...’ from the menu and export the current screen as an ePS file. You can open this e.g. in Illus-trator. You have to check the scale afterwards.

8) repeat this for all height layers.

9) Finally put the generated isovist layers from the ePS files on top of each other in a vector drawing soft-ware. Please add a legend.

Please provide:* a DXF file in scale with the following layers: 1) plan, 2)

isovist in 2m height, 3) isovist in 7m height, 4) isovist in 12m height, 5) isovist in 15 m height;

* a PDF file in scale on A3 format with the following semi-transparent super-imposed layers: 1) plan, 2) isovist in 2m height, 3) isovist in 7m height, 4) isovist in 12m height, 5) isovist in 15 m height;

* a print-out of the PDF in scale on A3 format.Segment of Trieste’s map, which should be analysed

Isovist from a single pointby lydia heard