Space Syntax and the Dutch City

Abstract

Space syntax, as developed at the Bartlett, University College London, proposes a fundamental relationship between the configuration of space in a city and the way that it functions. The analysis of space in terms of its configurational properties—or syntax—may, according to the theory, allow us to determine some aspects of the functioning of cities. It has been the aim of the work described in this paper to test this proposition in five Dutch cities, and to try to explore the nature of any fundamental space — function relation in the Dutch city reflected by space syntax. The results include a basic confirmation of the ability of space syntax methodology to postdict the intensity of the occupation of public space by people in the cities studied at two levels—at the level of the individual space embedded in the local area, and at the level of the local area embedded in the whole city. This second level may be something particular to the Dutch city and it is argued that it may arise—in spite of variation in conditions such as population and housing density—because of certain homogeneities in the spatial and functional structure of the Dutch city and out of certain historical and practical conditions affecting the expansion and development of the Dutch city.