Emergent Urbanism

Rediscovering Urban Complexity

public space

A conversation about the geometry of nowhere

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Sun, 04/12/2009 - 20:42, last updated Mon, 02/20/2012 - 16:07

In response to my previous article, Bruce Liedstrand of Community Design Strategies in Paris writes,

I read with interest your essay on The Geometry of Nowhere because I divide my time between Paris and Silicon Valley (the site of your Cupertino Target store example). After re-reading the essay, I am puzzled. I hear your frustration with narrow sidewalks, but I am lost in understanding your concept of “place”.

The movement economies

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Tue, 04/15/2008 - 01:36, last updated Sun, 11/06/2011 - 01:13

Bill Hillier of Space Syntax is, along with Christopher Alexander and Michael Batty, part of the British old school of urban complexity researchers. (Hillier has joked that he would have used the term "Pattern Language" instead of Space Syntax had Alexander not used it first.) He has studied the functional impact of spatial relationships on human behavior over a career spanning several decades, and came upon some very insightful results.

A measure of urban connection

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Fri, 12/07/2007 - 15:58, last updated Sun, 11/06/2011 - 01:11

What does it mean for a city to be connected? And is there quality resulting from this property? Let's define the basic node of a city as a doorway. (Not necessarily a building. A single building can have many doorways to separate spaces.) A connection is the distance from this doorway to the next node, that is to say the next doorway. A well connected city is a city where the distance from doorway to doorway is minimized, since everything will be easily accessible from the public space.

Further comment

Please send your comments by email at mthl@mthl.info, or find me on Twitter @mathieuhelie. The commenting system is closed at the moment as no measures can hold back blog spamming bots.

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