Analysis and Research on Spatial Nodes of Historical Villages based on Spatial Syntax Theory: Cuiwei Village in Qianshan Area of Zhuhai as an Example

This research takes Cuiwei Village located in Qianshan District of Zhuhai City as an example. The village is investigated and analyzed through field research, and the street scale, spatial structure, functional characteristics of streets, internal commercial distribution forms, and functions in the Cuiwei Historic Block are studied and analyzed. Based on the convex space analysis method and the line of sight analysis method in the space syntax theory, with the help of the Depthmap software, the complex street nodes, that is, the space of the two nodes A and B analyzed. Through the establishment of a viewshed model, including the analysis of the viewport integration degree, the viewport agglomeration degree, the viewport connection value and the spatial characteristics of the historical area, the most representative traditional buildings in the village, namely the Sanwang Temple and the Weishi Mansion, are selected. =N and when the radius R=3, observe the changes of the two parameters, the integration of the visual field and the visual depth of the two historical buildings. And with the help of Baidu time machine photos in different periods to observe and record the store's changes and people's behavioural characteristics. The results show that: at the present stage, the coordination of villages is poor, people's recognition in the village space is weak, and people cannot use local perception to reflect the overall space. There are obvious sub-interfaces between the interior of the village and the outside world—good but poor global intelligibility. After an on-the-spot investigation and analysis, it can be seen that although people can walk out of Cuiwei Village, they are always in a state of confusion, and it is difficult to grasp the spatial form of the overall area. Therefore, the space syntax analysis results are consistent with the field survey results, so this research method has good reference value and reference significance in the study of village space.

Decoding the Spatial Configuration of the Ottoman Palace “Khdewedj El Amia” in Algiers (Algeria) through Space Syntax

Palaces of the Ottoman era, the Golden age of Islamic civilization, bear witness to a prestigious know-how, drawing its rules from a way of life governed by the Islamic Sharia, the socio-cultural context of the Berber-Arab population and the climate-physical environment. The palace of Khdewedj El Amia is one of the majestic palaces located at the Casbah of Algiers and constitutes the subject of this article whose objective is to decode its genome in order to understand the social logic of a space inhabited and designed by a princess who lost her sight. Hence the name El Amia, which means blind in Arabic. The decoding of this building used the space syntax approach via a visibility graph analysis (VGA) performed by the Depthmap tool and a quantitative analysis of the graph justified by the Agraph tool. It is about taking into account the way in which vernacular architecture can stimulate the direct perception of space and participate in the construction of the user’s path. It was found that the palace is made up of two entities; one is of public order highlighting the resident/alien interface, and another intended for the private apartments, the harem of the princess, isolated from the outside world.

Układ urbanistyczny Szadku – ocena konfiguracyjna

Artykuł zawiera wyniki analizy konfiguracyjnej układu urbanistycznego Szadku (obszaru miasta lokacyjnego i jego bezpośredniego otoczenia) z zastosowaniem narzędzi składni przestrzeni (space syntax). Przedstawione badania ujawniły przestrzenie kluczowe dla funkcjonowania miasta w kontekście konfiguracyjnym. Są to m.in. dwa rdzenie integracji: jeden o charakterze pasmowym, położony na obszarze miasta lokacyjnego z przedłużeniem w kierunku struktur Nowego Miasta, drugi o charakterze węzłowym, istniejący na obszarze przypuszczalnego położenia struktur przedlokacyjnych tego miasta. Zidentyfikowane zostały także przestrzenie istotne dla utrzymania sprawności systemu miejskiego w kontekście ruchu pieszego.

Interlinked; A New Approach to Urban Expansion in Papamoa

<p>New Zealand cities are prone to poor urban planning and have a strong tendency to expand out into widespread suburbs, consuming the fertile farmland and natural landscapes that reside at the fringes of urban development. These types of greenfield development are rampant throughout New Zealand. Posed as the solution to housing issues and a growing population, these developments nullify and alienate the surrounding context. Low-density urban planning is particularly damaging with its maze of curving cul-de-sacs and dead-end streets resulting in an overly complex network with little to no central framework or hierarchy. This lack of internal infrastructure puts a significant strain on static infrastructure such as roads and public transport, which struggle to meet the needs of the end user. The aim of this research is to develop an alternative strategy for urban growth in Papamoa. Located in the Bay of Plenty, Papamoa is a regional community within the Tauranga city limits, currently experiencing unprecedented growth. Current projections show development in Papamoa will exhaust current land reserves by as early as 2028, requiring the development of additional land to the south in order to sustain demand. This research aims to respond to this issue by increasing density within the existing sprawl, specifically focusing on the site of Papamoa Plaza, the original retail centre of the area. By reducing the need for greenfield development and enabling better connectivity across the region, a shift in focus of the use of public space can revitalise the existing urban centre to the benefits of connectivity within urban design. Case studies and literature were reviewed in order to assess their viability within the New Zealand context and to identify key design elements that would be used. Criteria and guiding principles were developed using Assemblage Theory and Space Syntax. Existing developmental framework and growth trends were analysed during the research, then initial design goals and strategies were identified. Using this information, several schemes and approaches were developed. These were evaluated using ‘Space Syntax’ to establish levels and patterns of connectivity. A selection process of the most viable schemes was explored in detail. These were then broken into key components that were progressively developed to generate a range of different options, which were then reflected upon, assessed and, from this, the final scheme emerged.</p>

Interlinked; A New Approach to Urban Expansion in Papamoa

<p>New Zealand cities are prone to poor urban planning and have a strong tendency to expand out into widespread suburbs, consuming the fertile farmland and natural landscapes that reside at the fringes of urban development. These types of greenfield development are rampant throughout New Zealand. Posed as the solution to housing issues and a growing population, these developments nullify and alienate the surrounding context. Low-density urban planning is particularly damaging with its maze of curving cul-de-sacs and dead-end streets resulting in an overly complex network with little to no central framework or hierarchy. This lack of internal infrastructure puts a significant strain on static infrastructure such as roads and public transport, which struggle to meet the needs of the end user. The aim of this research is to develop an alternative strategy for urban growth in Papamoa. Located in the Bay of Plenty, Papamoa is a regional community within the Tauranga city limits, currently experiencing unprecedented growth. Current projections show development in Papamoa will exhaust current land reserves by as early as 2028, requiring the development of additional land to the south in order to sustain demand. This research aims to respond to this issue by increasing density within the existing sprawl, specifically focusing on the site of Papamoa Plaza, the original retail centre of the area. By reducing the need for greenfield development and enabling better connectivity across the region, a shift in focus of the use of public space can revitalise the existing urban centre to the benefits of connectivity within urban design. Case studies and literature were reviewed in order to assess their viability within the New Zealand context and to identify key design elements that would be used. Criteria and guiding principles were developed using Assemblage Theory and Space Syntax. Existing developmental framework and growth trends were analysed during the research, then initial design goals and strategies were identified. Using this information, several schemes and approaches were developed. These were evaluated using ‘Space Syntax’ to establish levels and patterns of connectivity. A selection process of the most viable schemes was explored in detail. These were then broken into key components that were progressively developed to generate a range of different options, which were then reflected upon, assessed and, from this, the final scheme emerged.</p>

Service Facilities in Heritage Tourism: Identification and Planning Based on Space Syntax

Improving the development level of tourism service facilities in historic areas of old cities and realizing the sustainable tourism are important strategies for urban historical protection, economic development, and cultural rejuvenation. Districts at different tourism development stages show different characteristics of tourism service facilities. This study collects location-based service data and uses space syntax to identify the correlation between the distribution of tourism service facilities and street networks, which helps decision-makers to optimize the spatial layout of tourism facilities in the planning of historic areas. Taking the southern historic area of Nanjing, China, as an example, this is an area with a rich collection of cultural heritage and many historic districts, and the study reveals that the areas with strongest street agglomeration and best accessibility, as well as the districts with most mature tourism development, are the core of the tourism facilities. The agglomeration of transportation and accommodation facilities should be set at the traffic nodes as much as possible due to the highest correlation with the street network. Instead, the entertainment, catering, and shopping facilities can be set in the nontraffic node areas under the premise of ensuring good traffic accessibility owing to the insignificantly relationship with the street network. The research results can be used as an important reference for urban decision-makers regarding the planning of historic areas.

The Space of Intimacy as The Most Important Islamic Cultural Value in Traditional Iranian Architecture

This study aims to carry out a critical reading of individual spaces of traditional Iranian houses. Through recourse to expert opinion, seven traditional houses in Iran have been chosen. A deductive content analysis is used to assess space syntaxes by way of three steps: preparation, organization, and the final report. In the preparation step, the individual and family territory in Iranian culture is defined. In the organization phase, territories are classified by reviewing plans, maps, and making visual observations. Finally, conclusions are reached on the situation of privacy and individuality in the houses. It is suggested that family privacy is the main function of traditional Iranian houses. Despite the fact that spaces could be used as personal and individual territories, in practice this is not so, and individualism and individual values have been forgotten. Individuality is not considered as valuable in the sense of one who needs his/her own territory; rather, this is determined in relation with other people. Keywords: Mahram Territories, Personal Spaces, Space Syntax, Territoriality, Traditional Iranian House

Space-time mapping of co-working spaces in Cairo: shifting paradigms from openness to technologically controlled spaces

The paper demonstrates how co-working spaces, with their openness ideologies that are not only manifested in sharing space, but also sharing knowledge and generating access to nonhierarchical productive opportunities, are being subsumed into reinforcing neoliberal exclusiveness. The paper questions the openness of co-working spaces that reconciled with the dominant ideologies of 2011 Cairo, setting the stage to the mushrooming of co-working spaces inside Cairo’s apartment buildings as zones of relative freedom. Through space-time mapping of the emergence of co-working spaces in Cairo, in addition to interviews with co-workers, co-founders, and managers of co-working spaces, the spatial appropriation and accessibility of co-working spaces are demonstrated. Using content analysis and space syntax analysis, the study differentiates between two paradigmatic shifts in the spatial appropriation of co-working spaces—from democratizing digital infrastructure in the aftermath of 2011, to being subsumed by technological capitalist ventures by the end of 2015 into a closed paradigm, they originally emerged to defy—and compares between the spatial accessibility, visual accessibility, and social diversity of the two waves of co-working spaces. Using Cairo’s co-working spaces as a case study, this paper shows how ideologies of openness “neutral” as they may seem, can serve to legitimize exclusiveness, emphasizing how ideas—as men—can be socially located, and serve to legitimize a particular social situation.

Megarons and Minoan Hall Systems: A Comparison of the Large Hall Systems in Minoan and Mycenaean Architecture

<p>Scholarship comparing the Minoan Hall System with the Mycenaean ‘megaron’ has in general emphasized either the similarities or differences between the two types of suite. Early archaeological literature tends to equate the two suites, with scholars such as Joseph Hazzidakis (Hazzidakis 1934:16-17) suggesting that the differences between the two can be explained by differences in climate between Crete and mainland Greece. On the other hand, in more recent scholarship, the two forms are distanced from one another, in effect polarizing the two architectural forms. Comparisons such as these tend to imply that the form of both types of hall system is very regular, with each suite likely hosting the same function as the next. In order to study the similarities and differences between the Minoan Hall System and Mycenaean ‘megaron’, 27 Minoan hall systems and 15 megaron-units have been analysed and compared. These hall systems will be compared in their form, in the way they were incorporated into the surrounding building, and in the features they incorporate. To discuss how the hall systems were incorporated into buildings, Space Syntax Analysis will be used alongside a typology of access and circulation developed by Miriam Clinton (2013) for Minoan architecture. The climate-controlling features of open-air spaces, pier and door partitions and hearths will also be discussed. A close examination of a wide variety of Minoan Hall Systems and Mycenaean ‘megarons’ shows that both forms differed considerably from site to site. Within each architectural form are examples of vastly different sizes, which are incorporated into buildings in very different ways. It is likely, therefore, that these buildings would have functioned in different ways. With this wide variation, it is unsurprising, therefore, that in comparison while some Minoan Hall Systems and Mycenaean ‘megarons’ are very different, others are very similar. It is likely that the functions of some of these more standard hall systems may have overlapped. An examination of the climate-controlling features of open-air spaces, pier and door partitions and hearths reveals that Minoan Hall Systems and Mycenaean ‘megarons’ likely did not differ primarily based on differences in climate. Though these features would have certainly been used for climate control, it will be shown that they likely had some other significance. Finally, from this comparison some tentative and broad conclusions about the possible functions of the two types of hall system have been drawn.</p>