Indicating street vitality in excavated towns. Spatial configurative analyses applied to Pompeii

Abstract

The aim of this contribution is to show how it is possible to indicate degrees of street life and economic attractiveness in excavated towns through micro- and macro-spatial configurative analyses. The space syntax method is able to calculate the spatial configuration of built environments and compare it with numerical socio-economic data (Hillier, this volume). It is capable of identifying the spatial features for vital shopping areas, various social classes’ spatial preferences when choosing a dwelling area, and the spatial features of the location of various institutional buildings in a contemporary urban context. At present, research on the urban environment by means of space syntax theory and methods tends to focus on macro-scale spatial conditions. However, the micro-scale aspects should not be neglected. For this purpose, spatial methods were developed and tested out with regard to the topological relationship between private and public space. Issues such as various degrees of inter-visibility between windows and doors, density of entrances, topological depth between private and public space, and degree of constitutedness were taken into account. It became clear that micro-spatial measurements depend on the macro-spatial ones (van Nes and Lopez 2010). Together they offer knowledge about the spatial conditions for different issues, such as vital street life, urban safety, social interactions and their interdependence. Everything seems to depend on various degrees of adjacency, permeability and intervisibility being taken into account on different levels of scale. When applying these spatial analysis tools on excavated sites, empirical socio-economic knowledge from a modern urban context is required. Then it is possible to derive from the spatial analysis information on street life, poverty and various degrees of social control on excavated sites. Pompeii is one of the best preserved towns from the Roman period and it is used as an example to derive interpretations by means of spatial analysis.