Papers I've Read
Space and exclusion: does urban morphology play a part in social deprivation?
Space and exclusion: does urban morphology play a part in social deprivation?
Published in Area. Co-authored with Haklay, Sahbaz and Clark
There is currently a growing interest in the spatial causes of poverty, particularly its persistance. This paper presents methodological innovations that have been developed for investigating the relationship between physical segregation and economic marginalisation in the urban environment. Using GIS to layer historial poverty data, contemporary deprivation indexes and space syntax measures of spatial segregation, a multivariate system has been created to enable the understanding of the spatial process involved in the creation and stagnation of poverty areas as well as to analyse the street segment scale of configuration.
Like (1)The relationship between physical segregation and social marginalisation in the urban environment
The relationship between physical segregation and social marginalisation in the urban environment
Published in World Architecture
This paper posits a relationship between the urban location of immigrant quarters and the likelihood that the inhabitants of such areas will improve themselves economically. The application of space syntax methods to this research, coupled with the use of primary census data, the Charles Booth maps of Poverty in 19th century London and historial maps of London, Manchester and Leeds, has enabled analysis of street scale data, to study the socio-economic and spatial structure of areas frequently perceived as 'ghettos'. This paper suggests that some urban areas are especially prone to settlement by impoverished immigrants, due to characteristics that make such areas first, tend to be economically unsuccessful due to their spatial segregation and second, less attractive to those who have the means to move elsewhere. It concludes that such areas are not so much defined by their immigrant constituents, but by their long-standing inhabitants that cannot move elsewhere. Analysis of the relationship between poverty and spatial segregation in such areas, suggests a strong relationship between the physical separation of poverty areas from the economic life of the city, and the lack of potential for the economically marginalized to ultimately integrate into society.
The city as one thing
The city as one thing
Published in Progress in Planning. Co-authored with Bill Hillier.
This paper summarises the latest theories in the field of space syntax. It opens with a discussion of the relationship between the form of urban grids and the process of how cities are formed by human activity; this is done by a comprehensive review of space syntax theory from its starting point in the 1970s. The paper goes on to present research into how cities balance the micro-economic factors which shape the spatial structure of cities with the cultural factors that shape the underlying form of residential areas. It goes on to discuss the relationship between activity and space and how this relationship is formed by the way different activities make different demands on movement and co-presence. The paper ends with a discussion regarding the manner in which patterns of spatial integration influence the location of different classes and social groups in the city and contribute to the pathology of housing estates. The paper concludes that spatial form needs to be understood as a contributing factor in forming the patterns of integration and segregation in cities.