Space Syntax Laboratory Research Seminar: Howard Davis

Christopher Alexander and Bill Hillier: Overlaps and Divergences

Abstract

Working during the same decades, Bill Hillier and Christopher Alexander were both attempting to understand the relationships between social life and the physical structure of cities and towns. Both developed powerful means to do so. Howard Davis, who worked for many years with Alexander before his recent association with the space syntax group, will offer a comparison between the two approaches, and suggest the possibility of an understanding of urban structure that incorporates both mathematical precision as well as intuition and experience.

Speaker Biography

Howard Davis is Professor of Architecture at the University of Oregon. He worked with Alexander on a series of experimental housing and neighborhood planning projects in California and Mexico, and more recently with the Space Syntax Lab investigating the historic furniture industry of London. He is the co-author, with Alexander and others, of The Production of Houses, and author of The Culture of Building, Living Over the Store: Architecture and Local Urban Life, and Working Cities: Architecture, Place and Production.

About this series 

This academic seminar series features researchers sharing their findings, discussing their ideas and showing work in progress from The Bartlett's internationally renowned Space Syntax Laboratory. Seminars are moderated by PhD candidate Sepehr Zhand. They are open to the public and attended by Bartlett’s staff and students.

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Image: Turkish rug fragment, Professor Howard Davis