Measuring Social and Spatial Relations in an Office Move

Abstract

In this paper, we outline an investigation of the impact of an office move on the social relationships of staff and students in a university research department. Combining the techniques of Social Network Analysis to assess for changes in social relations and Space Syntax Analysis for measuring the spatial changes, we identify key changes in the social relations that can be defined by spatiality. A decline in the social connections taking place and a change in the structure of the social network, accompanied by significant changes in spatial connectivity suggests that the office locations are influencing the underlying complex social processes.