Tag: BillHillier

It is wonderful that a new book of Bill Hillier’s work on ‘space syntax’ has been published, including a FREE, downloadable .pdf:

https://lnkd.in/eeQbrAkh

Bill and his colleagues were so far ahead of the curve, writing in the 1970s about design coding, algorithms and generative design long before the technology existed to test their thinking for real.

Yet, in paper after paper, what matters is not speculation for the sake of it but instead a strong sense of social purpose and community-focused design. It is this spirit that inspired the academic research group in all its pioneering work.

Above all (and I would say this, wouldn’t I) the theme that this book keeps coming back to is the importance of professional design practice. Bill and colleagues had the practising architect in mind, not just the research selection committee. The objective of space syntax theory was always to be highly practical in helping architects and urban designers make design decisions. This is something that current space syntax researchers will be reminded of throughout the book.

For those of us not/no longer steeped in academia, the book is also a great read. Although Bill’s writing can be hard going, it’s worth it. There isn’t an unnecessary word in there – just a lot of them!

My recommendation is to start with Ricky Burdett‘s essay in Chapter 7, which introduces the 16-page article on space syntax published by the Architects’ Journal in 1983 (yes, 16 pages!).

And then take it from there…

Congratulations and thanks to co-editors Laura Vaughan, John Peponis & Ruth Conroy Dalton for making this possible.