Space Syntax Laboratory Research Seminar Series 2018/19

This academic seminar series will include researchers sharing their findings, discussing their ideas and showing work in progress from The Bartlett's internationally renowned Space Syntax Laboratory.

• Read more about the Space Syntax Laboratory
• Master's and PhD programmes offered by the Space Syntax Laboratory 

The Seminars

Dr Ed Baggs: The human actor in urban space

Cognitive research and urban design

Tuesday 30 October, 16:00 - 17:00

In recent years, cognitive scientists have increasingly begun to conceptualise cognition as a process that goes on not in an abstract mental realm, but in the physical encounter between a living body and a structured physical environment. 

This shift in thinking gives rise to a useful way of understanding urban design. Actors perceive the world in terms of the relationship between specific structures in the environment and complementary physical capacities in their own body. 

Dr Ed Baggs presents an overview of the most developed account of perceptual control in a structured environment. What is called for is a well-grounded theory of perceptually-controlled movement that can motivate good, principled design in specific instances.

Biography

Dr Ed Baggs recently joined the Space Syntax Lab as a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow. He has spent the last two years at the University of Cincinnati working in ecological psychology; a research programme based on the perceptual psychology developed by James J. Gibson.

Image: Busy City Crosswalk, Creative Commons

Petros Koutsolampros: Dissecting Visibility Graph Analysis

The metrics and their role in understanding workplace human behaviour

Tuesday 13 November, 16:00 - 17:00

Visibility Graph Analysis (VGA) is one of the main methods of analysis of interior space within the field of space syntax. It is a means to quantify the configuration of space as regular units which can then be used to examine the relationship of that space to the behaviour of the humans that occupy it. 

This seminar will focus on the application of VGA in the context of workplaces and more specifically how it can be used to understand the relationship between the office configuration and the behaviour of office workers. Such knowledge is valuable for methodological advancements within the space syntax field and can be used as evidence when designing new office spaces. 

Biography

Petros studied Architectural Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens before graduating from Adaptive Architecture and Computation MSc at The Bartlett. Initially under a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between Spacelab and UCL, and currently as a PhD student in the Space Syntax Laboratory, Petros is exploring patterns of human behaviour in office buildings and their relationship to the properties of space.

Petros is a Tutor on the Architectural Computation  MSc programme, teaching on the Introduction to Programming and Body as Interface modules. He is interested in spatial analysis through statistics and simulation, human-computer interaction, graphics and video games. He is also a regular contributor to the development of the open-source spatial analysis software depthmapX. 

New PhD Students in the Space Syntax Lab

Introducing new Space Syntax Lab PhD Students

Tuesday 27 November, 16:00 - 17:00

This forum provides an opportunity for the Space Syntax Lab’s new PhD students to introduce themselves and their research to each other, and to other members of the Lab. The students who will be taking part are Sepehr Zhand, Constance Desenfant, Xiaoming Li, Duygu Ozden, Stella Fox and Aaron Davis. The format of this forum is brief and will include informal presentations and discussion. 

Eduardo Rico: Network characterisation in sketch planning 

Network Characterisation as a Means of Supporting the Production of Diagrammatic Sketches 

Tuesday 11 December, 16:00 – 17:00

Eduardo studies the extent to which questions of urban and landscape character can be addressed by allowing participants to express themselves through hand drawn sketches, image processing tools and data analytics.

He proposes an experiment in which participants are asked to make drawings of public space in a diagrammatic fashion. These drawings are processed via a network characterization algorithm and presented back to the participants for further discussion.

Participants' responses and general behaviour are then studied, with the objective of generating knowledge that can help develop this form of participation in the future.

Ana Rodriguez: Mapping networks of practice 

Mapping the networks of practice of London's skateboard communities

Tuesday 08 January, 16:00 – 17:00

Ana's research investigates how London’s skateparks are linked by the spatial practices of their users. She examines whether there is any relationship with the topological logic of the skatepark’s distribution and the social ties inside the skateboarders’ communities.

Ana maps potential networks of interaction among the skater communities, as well as links between the different skateparks in London, using sociometric techniques overlaid with space syntax methods. This offers a model for the evaluation of the popularity of any location frequented by a specified social group.

Issam Sekkour: Movement of centralities in Greater Algiers: 1830 – 2018

Movement of centralities in Greater Algiers: 1830 – 2018

Tuesday 22 January, 16:00 – 17:00

Issam’s PhD research investigates the movement of urban and suburban centralities in Greater Algiers through the past two centuries. It is intended to contribute to the debate around the future of the rapidly developing post-colonial urban regions, with a focus on identifying the spatial-morphological mechanisms of socio-economic adaptability. 

The research uses space syntax and ArcGIS to examine the emergence, growth and change in built form and spatial characteristics of 6 historical centres around Algiers. All the sampled centres have in common a characteristic pattern of spatial growth alongside a shifting of the urban population after the beginning of the French colonization in 1830 and again, after the independence of the country in 1962. 

Biography

Issam Sekkour is a PhD candidate at the Bartlett School of Architecture in the programme Architectural Space and Computation. 

Alan Outten: Capturing movement and interactions in hospital wards

Capturing movement and interactions in hospital wards

Tuesday 5 Feb, 16:00 – 17:00

How do we best observe, make recordings and learn from fieldwork taking place in restricted environments such as a hospital ward? Alan discusses his early research findings from the AHRC-funded ‘Paths of Resistant Pathogens in Hospitals’ project, which looks at how design may improve infection prevention.

Alan will present his initial findings from integrating fieldwork data with mathematical exposure modelling and Space Syntax analysis, and discuss how outputs can be combined with co-design methods to drive design.

Biography

Dr Alan Outten is Research Associate at the Bartlett School of Architecture. His interests lie in the beneficial crossovers between people, data-driven design and technology. He has previously worked on projects for McLaren, the British Museum, Channel 4 and NASA.

Image: Capturing hospital interactions via a range of symbols and characters, by Alan Outten.

Dr Sean Hanna: Random walks on urban graphs

Random walks on urban graphs

Tuesday 19 Feb, 16:00 – 17:00

Sean introduces and compares two new methods of graph segment analysis, which use a random walk as a theoretical and practical basis. The first, random walk betweenness (RWB), is a measure of betweenness centrality similar to choice, and the second is a simple calculation of a random walk on a graph with similarities to visual agent simulation. Sean's theory suggests a much simpler model of agency: that navigation may be more opportunistic than optimised. 

Biography

Dr Sean Hanna is Reader in Space and Adaptive Architectures at The Bartlett, and Departmental Graduate Tutor for Architectural Space & Computation MPhil/PhD, and Architecture & Digital Theory MPhil/PhD. He is a member of the UCL Space Syntax Laboratory.

Sean's research is primarily in computational methods for dealing with complexity in design and the built environment, including the comparative modelling of space, and the use of machine learning and optimisation techniques for the design and fabrication of structures.

Image: Random movement in Barnsbury, by Sean Hanna

Farbod Bakeshloo: The power of social media in the city

How does social media transform the socio-economic relationship of the physical city and the social city in urban centres? The case of Oxford Street.

Tuesday 5 March, 16:00 – 17:00

Farbod Bakeshloo's seminar explains how high-street land-uses are being transformed by social media, and the impact this has on human activities in urban space. The study focuses on Oxford Street, the largest high-street in Europe and one of the main platforms of social media interactions in London. 

Farbod combines spatial analysis and data mining methods and applies them to a large dataset of social media activity, in order to track the dynamic relationship between human action and land-use change on Oxford Street over the last five years.

Biography

Farbod Bakeshloo is a PhD candidate at The Bartlett School of Architecture in the programme Architectural Space & Computation MPhil/PhD.

Image: Mapping Foursquare check-in points in the Oxford Street area of London, by Farbod Bakeshloo

Ecem Ergin: Times Square in the era of post-truth politics

Times Square in the era of post-truth politics: Content vs context

Tuesday 19 March
**Please note that this event will take place at the later time of 17:00 – 18:00**

Ecem’s research explores the role of architectural space in conveying a message in both physically situated and virtually distributed forms. Using Times Square in New York as a case study, her research aims to contribute to the debate around the trustworthiness of digital media and the importance of the urban environment as an informer of the publics.

Biography

Ecem Ergin studied architecture at Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Politecnico di Milano and the Pratt Institute, New York. She is currently doing her PhD in Architectural Space and Computation at The Bartlett, UCL, in London.

Ecem is also a photography and video editing enthusiast with an active Instagram account where she shares her architectural photos.

Image: Times Square as an immersive spatial experience, by Ecem Ergin.

This event is run by Architectural space and computation | Media Architecture

Po Nien Chen: The spatial impact of public transport networks on urban activities

The application of an integrated multimodal urban network model

Tuesday 23 April, 16:00 – 17:00

Po Nien Chen’s study aims to bridge the gap between transport and urban study by applying space syntax as the main methodology. It will also allow access to the configurational effect of the urban fabric, and will integrate with the time-based model to reveal the network accessibility effect of the public transport network.

Biography

Po Nien Chen is a PhD candidate at the Bartlett School of Architecture in the programme Architectural Space and Computation.

Reza Mahoudi Nejad: The rite of urban passage *Please note: this event has been cancelled*

*Please note: this event has been cancelled*

The spatial ritualization of Iranian urban transformation

Tuesday 7 May, 16:00 – 17:00

Based on his recently published book, The Rite of Urban Passage, Reza discusses the spatial dynamics of religious rituals as part of urban processes, offering a contribution to ritual studies and investigating the processes of urban transformation. 

The Rite of Urban Passage is based on a spatial reading of the history of Muharram rituals, and an investigation into the re-organization of Muharram procession routes during the transformation of Iranian cities since the 1920s. The book ultimately offers a new spatial approach in ritual studies and locates ritual at the centre of attention in urban studies.

Biography

Dr Reza Masoudi Nejad is an urbanist, who is generally interested in the spatial organisation of collective actions, with a particular focus on religious rituals, urban violence, and protest in Iran and India. 

He is currently a Senior Teaching Fellow for the Department of History and Research, and an Associate at the Department of Anthropology, SOAS. He was previously a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen, Germany, and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies (ZMO), Berlin. He received his PhD from The Bartlett in 2009.

Kimon Krenz: The role of spatial network analysis in identifying regional disparities

The role of spatial network analysis in identifying regional disparities

Tuesday 21 May, 16:00 – 17:00

Kimon Krenz presents findings from his work on the theoretical and methodological application of space syntax in regional contexts and how these can inform the identification of regional disparities. Specifically, he focusses on how to model, analyse and explore large-scale spatial network data. He also provides insight into his on-going research of spatio-temporal dynamics of country-wide street networks.

Biography

Dr Kimon Krenz is Research Associate at the Urban Dynamics Lab, UCL. He has a background in Architecture and Urban Design and holds a master’s degree in Advanced Architectural Studies and a PhD in Urban Space & Computation from The Bartlett’s Space Syntax Laboratory. In addition to his academic work, Kimon has experience working as an architect and a consultant for medium to large-scale urban development projects in Germany.
 

Genevieve Shaun: The spatial culture of mass consumption

Positive social impacts of the fast food chain network on the city and neighbourhood

Tuesday 4 June, 16:30 – 17:30

Can the fast-food chain network, to some extent, support the social structure of the city? Despite all the negative associations in previous research associating fast food’s proximity to areas of high obesity and lower income, are there any positive social impacts on the community?

Genevieve’s research dwells on spatial patterns of mass consumption, through the lens of the fast food chain network, in the hopes of understanding not just fast food, but eventually how it is embedded within the wider mass commercial-retail structure. 

Biography

Born and raised in commercially-driven Singapore, Genevieve Shaun completed her professional Architecture degree at the South Californian Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). 

After several years of working in international architecture design offices in Tokyo and Hong Kong, Genevieve joined the MRes programme at the Space Syntax Lab, and is currently pursuing her first year of PhD studies. She is also currently working part-time as a consultant for Space Syntax Limited.

• Find out more about the Space Syntax Laboratory 

Lead image: Ana Rodriguez

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