Category: Transportation

Teaching urban design – a sketch for a new approach
Sketch…
Space Syntax is keen to play a role in initiatives that embed the Space Syntax approach in everyday urban practice. The watchword is “dissemination”. Our aim is to create a professional landscape that uses Space Syntax as an everyday approach to the planning, designing and general governance of places.

Here are some of my thoughts about the potential structure of an urban design course, which are largely about using this as an opportunity to break down many of the barriers that conventionally get in the way of good urban design:

1. combine art and science: especially the importance of a science-informed approach to urban design, which is often missing

2. combine creative and analytic/disciplines: bring together designers and analysts in an intellectual cocktail

3. combine design, planning, infrastructure engineering, finance, governance, legals

4. put the human being at the heart of it all (more…)
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
June 18, 2013
Smart cities – why, what, how, how?
Some advice for people promoting a Smart City approach. Prepare your answers to the following questions:

1. Why do we need “smart” and do we even need cities any more?

First, provide a clear and simple explanation of why cities are important ie what they do that is special: they arrange physical buildings within spatial networks to create intensifications of opportunities for people to interact and transact, socially and economically. Acknowledge the interdependencies between cities, towns and villages but emphasise the primacy of cities.

Second, explain how this process is facilitated by the propinquity and connectivity that cities offer – traditionally physical connectivity and, increasingly, digital.

Third, describe the threats to the efficiency of cities: gradual, sprawling growth; over-reliance on private cars.

Fourth, describe the consequences of inefficiency: economic inefficiency, social isolation, unhealthy living, short-term investment, environmental degradation.

Fifth, speculate on the further risks associated with a “same as usual” approach. (more…)
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
June 6, 2013
HS2 – urban connectivity is key to maximising economic impact
This morning’s announcement by the UK government about the preferred route of the proposed ‘High Speed 2’ rail line north of Birmingham raises, quite rightly, the issue of economic impact and its geographic spread. Will the line draw commerce north, or make it even easier to pull southwards towards London’s greater critical mass?

One way in to the problem is to ask: who will take these trains, or rather: where will they have come from when they get on and where will they be going once they get off? In other words, to consider the total passenger journey.

History tells us through the footprint of human settlement worldwide that economic production is greatest in urban centres. The planet’s continued growth towards cities, despite all recent developments in mobile and online communications, suggests the trend is here to stay. HS2 should bear this urban imperative in mind. (more…)
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
January 28, 2013
Old Street – putting the genie back in the bottle?
Old Street Roundabout is a heady intersection of urban movement flows: on foot, on cycles and in vehicles, including the Tube. But it is currently a mess, out of place within the surrounding network of generally convivial streets. In order to appreciate the severely negative condition of the place you only have to walk to Old Street Roundabout from a few hundred metres in any direction to witness the sudden, dramatic degradation of public space, the increase in traffic speeds and the disappearance of pedestrians into subways.

Yet, as a nexus of movement, the Old Street junction has the urban design foundations – the DNA of urbanism – to be a great public space, serving the local area as well as acting as a global emblem of Tech City. Not a valley, glen or vale but a truly urban object: a forum, a plaza, a piazza, a market place a square: Old Street Square. Or even, in keeping with the open source/open access aspirations of many in the technology community: Old Street Commons. For this to happen, the public realm of the Old Street junction needs to be overhauled. Radically. (more…)
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
December 6, 2012
Smart Cities World Expo – speaking notes
Spatial layout influences
Human behaviour:

1. Movement

2. Awareness

3. Interaction

4. Transaction.

Spatial layout benefits
1. Economy
– productivity
– innovation
– building & campus performance

2. Health
– active travel
– access to healthcare
– building & campus performance

3. Social cohesion
– the spatial network creates the social network

4. Safety
– property theft
– personal attack

5. Environmental performance

6. Educational achievement
– access to education
– building & campus performance

7. Cultural identity

Spatial layout
Is defined by:

1. Location

2. Linkage

3. Layout

4. Land use

5. Landscape

These are each measurable commodities/parameters. They are the building blocks of human behaviour and, ultimately, cultural identity.

Our proposal
To put spatial analysis at the heart of city systems integration. As the common ground. As the core code of the urban operating system.

A smart city
Is one which:

1. recognises the fundamental role of Spatial Layout Design

2. embraces a technology-driven approach to Spatial Layout Analysis

3. embeds Spatial Layout Analysis in the Planning and Management of the city

4. evaluates investment decisions using Spatial Layout Analysis.
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
November 5, 2012
UBM Future Cities
My piece in full
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
October 20, 2012
Urban Process Diagram
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
September 5, 2012
Is density just a fashion?
“It is possible that density is a fashion.” Anon

It is also possible that low density is a fashion. Indeed this would seem from the evidence to be a much greater possibility.

Look at the urban record. The last hundred years has seen endless experimentation with urban form and people’s lives – almost always low density solutions, creating disconnected places where people can’t walk, can’t access public transport and are therefore car dependent.

Let’s drop the pretence.
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
September 5, 2012
A short film about Space Syntax
Tim Stonor, Managing Director, Space Syntax
“The population of the world is increasing and, as it increases, more and more of us are living in cities. As cities have grown in the 20th century they have often grown to disconnect people.

Space Syntax has discovered that many of these problems in cities – disconnection, lack of contact between people, lack of access to jobs – come down to the way in which the city is planned as a layout of space.”

Ronan Faherty, Commercial Director, Land Securities
“As a developer, the most important thing for us is understanding the consumer and anything that assesses the consumer and helps us understand them provides real value. When you’re putting down a new property into an existing space we want to understand where consumers are coming from and then how they should engage with the property: where we should put escalation and movement and flows. (more…)
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
May 12, 2012
Life by a thousand connections
Background
The everyday actions of architects and urban planners influence the everyday physical activity of people by creating the networks of streets and public spaces through which people move. Similarly, inside buildings, the layout of space influences the degree to which people move around.

The precise mechanisms through which spatial patterns influence behaviour patterns are increasingly well understood by the academic community. Physical connections are key: well-located pedestrian crossings, cycle lanes, bridges over rivers and canals, simple and direct routes through housing areas and town centres. Well-located shops and public buildings are key: within walking and cycling distance. Good quality paving matters, as does good lighting.

Nevertheless, this scientific knowledge is not yet part of everyday practice. Some of these findings run counter to accepted planning practice, not least transport planning practice. Nor is the connection between planning/design on one hand and physical civility/health on the other embedded in practice. The world of architectural and urban planning practice is heavily silo-ed. Health outcomes are not a priority for architects and planners.

(more…)
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
May 9, 2012
Quality Streetscapes Conference notes
My slides

This first part of this presentation introduces a new approach to valuing urban design – one which allows design decisions to be embedded in real estate valuation calculations. The approach connects design to the rateable value of retail, commercial and residential property offerings. It allows investment decisions to be related directly to design proposals, showing how Proposal A will generate more long term value than Proposal B. The tool is already being used in practice.

Part Two describes Space Syntax Limited’s plans to disseminate its science-based, human-focused approach to urban planning and design. Key to this is the creation of an Academy to provide training to professional and non-professional stakeholders. (more…)
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
April 25, 2012
Future Cities_Cities of Transaction
Thinking about the future of cities is not a new challenge. From Christopher Wren’s plan for the post-fire rebuilding of London in 1666 to Ebenezer Howards’s Garden City concept, to Le Corbusier, to Bladerunner, human ingenuity has been tasked with anticipating the future.

A problem, if we care to admit it, is that these plans tend to fail. Look at what replaced Wren’s ideas: more of the same. Or, consider the legacy of post-war housing and the New Towns movement: social and spatial isolation. Car dependency. Traffic congestion.

Why should this be? (more…)
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
April 16, 2012
Notes for AGI Conference talk: Measure, map, model, make
My slides

Great placemaking is a process combining art and science. There is a place for both and indeed a need for both. Two problems. First, urban planning is largely an analogue discipline. Too many diagrams and watercolours. Not enough science. And, when science is present, it is seen as an adjunct, not as a driver.

Space Syntax has harnessed a scientific technique and used it to drive a creative process. This scientific technique is geospatial. It is all about what goes where and how it is connected together. This should be of interest to this conference. (more…)
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
March 5, 2012
London Riots discussion at #lonconf
Darah Singh
Groups of rioters:
1. Motivators – of rioting
2. Aggressors – towards police
3. Late night shoppers

Simeon
Riots gave people unusual opportunities for power and control. Abnormal empowerment.

David Lammy MP
The risks of social & economic liberalism. Hyper individualism. The selfishness of greed. Poverty, choice, ethics, morality & vulnerability.

A policy idea for London
TS: reconnect London at its grass routes by focusing on disconnected housing estates – spatial exclusion. Work with local communities to educate those who have been given authority to direct their influence towards the right places. Not only the high streets but the catchments of the high streets: the housing estates.
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
December 15, 2011
London Policy Conference – don’t turn your back on housing
These notes accompany a PowerPoint presentation.

Good morning.

1. Connectivity is an issue that has come up several times already at this London Policy Conference.

As an architect and town planner, my interest is in the influence of physical connectivity on the behaviour patterns of Londoners. Was connectivity a factor in the London Riots?

London’s street network, illustrated above me, is a connectivity matrix. It is the principal organiser of the movement patterns of pedestrians, cyclists, bus passengers, car drivers and even – if I had time to show you – tube and rail travellers.

These connections provide the routes by which we get to work, go to the shops or navigate our way to see a friend.

London’s street network is a piece of infrastructure. Indeed it is London’s largest piece of infrastructure. I believe it needs investment and management just like any other piece of infrastucture, not least because it is in this network that London’s values are created; it is where Londoners transact their lives, both socially and economically. (more…)
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
December 13, 2011
This town is big enough for the both of us
Independent newspaper, UK

I am standing at the junction of two of the busiest streets in central London – High Holborn and Shaftesbury Avenue. In one direction is Centre Point and the start of Oxford Street; in another Leicester Square; to the south-east is Covent Garden; behind me is Bloomsbury and the giant hulk of the British Museum. It’s quite a vista. But my view only lasts for eight seconds before the little green man turns red and a herd of black cabs rev their engines.

Pointing down the streets and cursing the crossing barriers that pen in tourists and office workers is Tim Stonor, managing director of Space Syntax, a UCL-affiliated consultancy whose job it is to understand how humans move within spaces like these. They have analysed people flow within the British Museum and helped Norman Foster redesign Trafalgar Square.

London is – when compared to car-heavy cities such as Los Angeles – quite easy to navigate on foot. But all too often roads are designed for cars – pedestrians are plodding afterthoughts.

Read the article
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
December 8, 2011
Approaching large scale urban design schemes
On Friday I gave a presentation at a Design Council CABE event, “Inside Design Review”. My talk, “Approaching large scale urban design schemes“, sets out a framework for thinking about the complexity of major urban development proposals.
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
November 28, 2011
IBM Smart Cities, Helsinki – latest notes
9.50 Keynote

What will the future city look like?
The city of transaction

How to plan a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable city
The effects of the digital revolution on human behaviour patterns

Tim Stonor, Architect & Urban Planner, Managing Director, Space Syntax (UK)
_____________

Data is not the solution.
Turning data into knowledge is a beginning.
Turning knowledge into wisdom is the next step.
Turning wisdom into action is the key.

All of this requires theory.

Here is a theory of the city.
It begins with a description of the city as a geometrical configuration.
Of land uses and linkages.

Addressing the question that planners ask. That politician ask and demand of planners. That property developers make and lose money on.

What goes where and how is it connected together?
(more…)
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
October 18, 2011
IBM Smart Cities, Helsinki
19th October 2011

Tim Stonor
“What will the future city look like?”

View the presentation

Themes to be addressed
1. How to plan a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable city.

2. Effects of the digital revolution on human behaviour patterns.

Summary
In addressing the question, “What will the future city look like?” I am less concerned about the visual appearance of individual buildings and more concerned about how the city is planned as a layout of streets, spaces and land uses.

Why? Because the spatial layout of a town or city organises the movement and interaction of people. Movement and interaction lead to social and economic transaction. These are the building blocks of society, of culture and therefore of being human.
(more…)
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
October 12, 2011
ITC Discussion Evening 5th October 6:15pm
On behalf of the Independent Transport Commission I am writing to invite you to our Autumn Discussion Evening on 5th October 2011, hosted at the Alan Baxter Gallery in Farringdon, London. Your details were passed to me by John Worthington, one of our Commissioners, who believed you might be interested. We will be debating the consequences of High Speed Rail for our cities and regional infrastructure, and the evening will be an opportunity for experts to address these critical issues in a sociable setting. Our expert panel will be chaired by Nigel Hugill, Chairman of the Centre for Cities, and guest speakers will include the acclaimed urbanist Professor Sir Peter Hall, Dr Henry Overman of the LSE, and Jonathan Bray from the Passenger Transport Executive Group.

As you are aware, the British Government has recently announced plans to launch a High Speed rail network linking London and Northern England, at an estimated total cost of £34 billion. Much debate has focused on the costs of the scheme, and yet these new links connecting our cities also invite a raft of new questions regarding Britain’s urban infrastructure. Will High Speed Rail create a new Mega-City Region extending from Manchester to London? To what extent will these links enhance London’s economic dominance? And what of those regions and cities bypassed by High Speed Rail – how will their connectivity and growth be affected? We will cover all these questions and invite you to join us and share your ideas.

The evening will begin with drinks at 6:15 for a 6:30pm start. Following the discussion you are invited to stay for a complimentary buffet supper and wine from 8:15pm to 9:00pm. Please see the attached invitation and map for further details, and RSVP by 26th September to me at matthew.niblett@keble.oxon.org.

We would be delighted if you were able to join us to explore this important debate.

kind regards

Matthew Niblett

—
Dr Matthew Niblett
Secretary
Independent Transport Commission
Keble College, Oxford, OX1 3PG
http://www.theitc.org.uk
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Reddit
Email
Like Loading…
October 5, 2011