The Hidden Geometry of Deformed Grids: Or, Why Space Syntax Works, When it Looks as Though it Shouldn't

Abstract

A common objection to the space syntax analysis of cities is that even in its own terms the technique of using a nonuniform line representation of space and analysing it by measures that are essentially topological ignores too much geometric and metric detail to be credible. In this paper it is argued that far from ignoring geometric and metric properties the ‘line graph’ internalises them into its structure of the graph and in doing so allows the graph analysis to pick up the nonlocal, or extrinsic, properties of spaces that are critical to the movement dynamics through which a city evolves its essential structures. Nonlocal properties are those which are defined by the relation of elements to all others in the system, rather than those which are intrinsic to the element itself. The method also leads to a powerful analysis of urban structures because cities are essentially nonlocal systems.

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