Architectural Articulation and Configurations of Space 

Advancing theory, principles and bases for spatial modelling

建筑的衔接和空间的配置

——推进空间建模的理论、原则和基础

DANIEL KOCH 

KTH School of Architecture | Chalmers Civil Engineering and Architecture 

daniel.koch@arch.kth.se | daniel.koch@chalmers.se

ABSTRACT 

Space syntax has established itself as a significant field of research into architectural and urban 

phenomena through the analysis of spatial configuration. Analyses that predominantly consist of 

variations on modelling spatial configurations as systems of axial lines, segments, convex spaces or 

isovists with further refinements. This analysis builds on the process of, as stated in the Social Logic 

of Space, first making discrete units out of continuous space, so as to create a system that can be 

analyzed, and then subjecting this system to analysis. The procedures of creating these discrete 

systems have seen many iterations, lately often employing a range of processes to road center line 

maps or similar existing geographical information or, increasingly dominantly for buildings, VGA 

analysis where isovists are distributed evenly in a grid in the space subject to analysis. This has 

allowed for more rapid analysis of larger sets of data and ostensibly less impact of human decisions in 

constructing the analytic models. At the same time, theoretical developments have increasingly looked 

to cognition to explain statistical results and to theorize the spatial units employed in syntactical 

analysis. This work has been important for the field. However, some important questions still await 

robust theoretical reconciliation. For instance, isovists, argued for as representation of vision, are 

employed both to analyze visibility and accessibility while the scale and type of object or material 

boundary that is considered a boundary in an axial line or convex space map varies. This article does 

not strive to provide a final resolution to these challenges, but discusses and refines the theoretical 

basis to provide potential paths forward. In this discussion, the article compares spatial configuration 

as the understanding of the combination of construction of pre-defined entities to spatial configuration 

as the result of subdivision and articulation of spatial differentiation in several ways, which 

incorporates cognition as an active faculty that operates in relation to intent and background of 

whomever is concerned, but also allows to consider the potential of different cultures embedded in 

cognition through notions of salience and articulation. It suggests that some of the difficulties in 

finding a clear-cut definition of e.g. ‘convex space’ lies in that rather than a geometric property of 

‘space’, one might look to their formation and articulation by material boundaries as culturally and 

situationally conditioned. This allows for a more dynamic yet not completely relativistic theoretical 

ground for developing analytic modelling further and meeting challenges that are yet theoretically 

unresolved.

摘要

通过对空间配置的分析，空间句法已成为研究建筑和城市现象的重要领域。分析主要包括将空间配置建模为轴线、线段、凸空间或等距线系统的变化，并进一步细化。正如《空间的社会逻辑》中所说，这种分析建立在这样一个过程之上：首先从连续空间中制作离散单元，从而创建一个可以分析的系统，然后对该系统进行分析。创建这些离散系统的程序已经出现了许多迭代，最近经常采用一系列的流程来处理道路中心线地图或类似的现有地理信息，或者越来越多地对建筑物进行VGA分析，其中等值线均匀地分布在要分析的空间的网格中。这使得对更大的数据集的分析更加迅速，而且在构建分析模型时，表面上看人类决定的影响较小。同时，理论发展也越来越多地从认知方面来解释统计结果，并对句法分析中使用的空间单位进行理论化。这项工作对该领域非常重要。然而，一些重要的问题仍然有待于强有力的理论调和。例如，被论证为视觉的表征的等值线，既被用于分析可见性和可及性，而在轴心线或凸空间地图中被视为边界的物体或物质边界的规模和类型却不尽相同。本文并不致力于为这些挑战提供最终的解决方案，而是讨论和完善理论基础，以提供潜在的前进路径。在这一讨论中，文章将空间配置作为对预设实体的构造组合的理解与空间配置作为空间分化的细分和衔接的结果进行了比较，这将认知作为一种积极的能力纳入其中，这种能力的运作与谁的意图和背景有关，但也允许通过显著性和衔接的概念考虑不同文化嵌入认知的潜力。它表明，要找到一个明确的定义，例如 "凸形空间 "的一些困难在于，与其说是 "空间 "的几何属性，不如说是物质边界的形成和衔接，是受文化和情境的制约。这就为进一步发展分析模型和迎接在理论上尚未解决的挑战提供了一个更有活力但不完全相对主义的理论基础。

KEYWORDS 

architecture theory, spatial configuration, cognition, spatial models, diagramming

关键词

建筑理论、空间配置、认知、空间模型、图解

论文下载链接：http://www.12sssbeijing.com/proceedings/  264-1