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FROM SPACE TO PLACE: the role of space and experience in the construction of place

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Keywords:
Neighbourhood Place Configured space Place identity Sense of place Phenomenology Irini Perdikogianni The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, 1-19 Torrington Place, University College London (UCL) Gower St. London WC1E ucftipe@ucl.ac.uk

Irini Perdikogianni
The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, UCL

Abstract
This paper investigates the role of spatial structure and urban narrative in individuals experience of a place. The spatial structure describes the actual space that individual navigates and occupies through its everyday activities. Whereas the term urban narrative describes the factors in urban history and social culture that create an imagined space that evolves through historical time and is navigated through citys cultural mythology. A main challenge that urban designers and planners are facing is of creating recognisable and valued places that people would like to live and work in. This paper deals with the nature of neighbourhood as spatial, social and economic phenomenon and brings to the fore the sense of place as its intrinsic characteristic. It is acknowledged that the latter has a long history of investigation. However, to date the research has focused either on individuals perceptions or attitudes towards geographical spaces or the local design features of urban areas with a lack of methods to deal with the physical and attitudinal together. This currently forms the major scientific challenge: to develop methods to bring together the analysis of urban structure, design and morphology with the broadly qualitative investigation of individual and community perceptions, attitudes and aspirations. This paper does not report new research results but it suggests a finer grain of analysis of neighbourhoods by differentiating the concept of configured space from the notion of place.

Setting the Scene


The last decades that residential mobility has increased with a great number of people relocating themselves to new neighbourhoods, cities or countries, the challenge for recognisable and valued places became imperative need for distinctive urban environments that reinforce and sustain social and economic networks. Decision-makers and urban designers are in quest either for creating new sustainable urban neighbourhoods that will reinforce economic and demographic growth or for re-designing the old ones and creating a new positive dynamic for the existing social and economic forces within them. Haughton and Hunter (1994) describe a sustainable city as one in which its people and businesses continuously endeavour to improve their natural, built and cultural environments at neighbourhood and Proceedings, 6th International Space Syntax Symposium, stanbul, 2007

Perdikogianni; From Space to Place: The Role of Space and Experience in the Construction of Place

regional levels, whilst working in two ways which always support the goal of global sustainable development (p. 27). The issue of external/internal sustainability, implied in the quote above, has been also highlighted by Campagni et al (1998) who stress the need for action to prevent the imbalances in sustainability policy in all regions considering an interconnected spatial system. The model of a global polynucleated urban system emerges as the basis upon this paper is formedi. However, as Kloosterman and Musterd (2001)ii argue the concrete operationalisations of a polycentric urban system is different for spatial planners, human or economic geographers. This diversity in the interpretation of polycentricism, they continue, is a reflection of its inherent complexity, since cities are rich historical contextualised spatial phenomena that encompass every aspect of social life. According to Hall (1997), all post-industrial cities are polycentric systems with multiple centres of employment, residential locations and other social activities. For Hillier (1996), the property of polycentrism emerges as one intrinsic characteristic of cities which makes them worth living in. Although arguably the polycentric development by its definition does not support a spatial demarcation of social activity and culture, it appears that the majority of social activity does take place in a spatially local context due to several constraints that people experience in space and time (Musterd and van Zelm, 2001). City-dwellers often refer to their neighbourhood as one way of defining their urban identity as well. They even express psychological bonds, especially affective bonds, with these geographical spaces or placesiii However, it has been argued that there is very little evidence to support a relation of correspondence between spatial demarcation and community identity (Hanson and Hillier,1987). Drawing on the complexity of polycentric cities and the richness of these spatial phenomena, this paper reviews the local context of a neighbourhood and its physical, social and economic dimensions. It further investigates what the urban factors that construct a place in a polycentric city are. Then, it deals with the philosophical division between space and place. The role of configured space as the main object of analysis in space syntax, particularly in defining what is called place identity, is put under scrutiny. Thus, space syntax is set in its phenomenological-experiential perspective. This paper also sets to the fore of discussion the sense of place as having been suggested synonymous with place identity (Lynch 1981). The sense of place is defined as the ease that its elements can be linked to other places or events as a mental representation of time and space considering non-spatial elements and values, as well (Lynch, 1981, p.131). Or else, the sense constitutes the degree that the place can be easily perceived and identified. The perception of a place has been the object of discourse since 60s when the notion of legibility was introduced. The latter was defined as the ease with which its parts can be recognised and can be organised into a coherent pattern (Lynch 1960, p.2). This paper juxtaposes the concept of legibility with the concept of intelligibility as introduced by Hillier (1996,1993). The last concept is defined as the degree that we (moving or standing observers) can be informed about our position within the urban system as a whole from every location that we potentially occupy as we are situated within space, The intelligibility describes properties inherited in the interconnected spatial system of a city (Hillier, 1996; Hillier et al, 1993).These concepts are embedded in the theoretical framework within which they were developed. The conjecture that underpins this reasoning is that lived experience in cities emerges through a constant interaction between the actual spaces that people navigate and occupy through their body movement Proceedings, 6th International Space Syntax Symposium, stanbul, 2007

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Perdikogianni; From Space to Place: The Role of Space and Experience in the Construction of Place

and the imagined space bound up with cities (cultural) mythology. The imagined space is a product of a long historical process of evolution and change nourished by personal narratives, inherited to future generations as collective memory of places and events. Hence, it is suggested to revisit the foundation of space syntax analytical theory eliciting its experiential elements for the study of the city. It is further suggested broadening space syntax methodology at the neighbourhood level to capture dwellers perceptions, attitudes and aspirations for their urban environment considering it as one promising line for a more holistic approach to the spatial and sociocultural mechanisms of cities.

The Nature of Neighbourhood The Neighbourhood as Urban Entity


Urban designers, planners, sociologists and economists refer to the neighbourhood as a discrete urban phenomenon. The neighbourhood as urban entity, if something like this exists, was revitalized with the advent of neo-traditional ideas on town planning, known as New Urbanism. This strand of urban design practice suggested that build environment could create a sense of knit-community currently lost in modern city provided that urban designers and planners adopted new design principles (Katz, 1994, Audirac and Shermeyen, 1994). The design principles mainly focused on the use of public space and the mixing of uses (Duany and Platter-Zyberk, 1991, Calthorpe, 1993, Langdon, 1994). The basic argument upon which New Urbanism was formulated and developed as planning movement has been highly criticized as lacking first and foremost empirical evidence (Talen, 1999). On the other hand, Webster (1993) argues about the existence of the neighbourhood justified from lived experience that we find local authorities introducing special policies protecting them and property market investors considering their attributes, as well. Hence, the neighbourhood as such exists at least as one economic and institutional entity. Despite the fact that, pre-existing economic models defined neighbourhood on the basis of consumption-sharing premise (Christaller, 1966, Losch, 1939/1954, Alonso, 1964), Webster (1993) argues that in urban economics it remains partly conceptualised. Thus, he defines the entity in relation to transaction costs that comprise the spine upon which cities are operating, since individuals seek to reduce the cost of cooperating with each other (Webster, 1993, p.2596). This entitys spatial, social and economic aspects are correlated. His thesis manifests that there is a close relationship between the idea of people being knitted together and the physical existence of a neighbourhood. However, the sense of community is formed and sustained over shared resources. In the body of space syntax literature the focus is on the different centres of activity that are formed through the movement economy processiv This is how the theory, supported by empirical evidence, describes the way cities are put together as a system of different centres and sub-centres of activities of different densities within a global spatial network (Hillier, 1996: 168). Functionally, this centre is characterized by a concentration and mix of activities in a certain position within the urban network. However, this description refers more to a dynamic process that would enact a series of spatial and functional transformations rather than a static entity (Hillier, 2000). The dual nature of the city which operates both at the neighbourhood (local) and the global scale is an argument that underpins all the theoretical developments in this field. Hillier (2005) argues that although we experience a bit of a city each time the city does not exist in fragments. So cities cannot be seen as patchwork of enclosures. Proceedings, 6th International Space Syntax Symposium, stanbul, 2007

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But our perception of cities consists of different parts or sub-areas and mechanisms of transition from the part to the whole. If this relationship between global and local scale is broken then it appears that cities malfunction, urban areas become enclosures where social life is stagnant or institutionalised result in social malaise (i.e anti-social behaviour) (Hillier, 1996). In the case of London, recent research results suggest that people are aware of this duality by which city operates. Previous research conducted as part of EPSRC funded consortium VivaCity 2020 under the Sustainable Urban Environment (SUE) Programmev hallenged this idea by using a combined methodology that investigated the spatial properties of the network itself related with observed activity patterns (i.e land use and pedestrian movement patterns) and first person experience of these areas captured with the aid of questionnaires. The findings showed that dwellers in Clerkenwell, a diverse neighbourhood located on the fringe of Central Business District of London, being asked what they value the most in their local area, prioritised the fact that they can easily get out of it and have easy access to central activities located outside the area, over other amenities and qualities located inside its boundaries (Aeisha and Perdikogianni, 2005,). The question that arises from previous arguments that explore the nature of the neighbourhood and the complexity of the city within which each one is embedded is where people feel that they belong. This could be reformed into how people do define their neighbourhood.

Neighbourhood as Place
In place attachment literature the neighbourhood emerges as the space which is characterised by high levels of interactions among residents, that share interests while their identify draws on their attachment to this particular place (Willmott, 1984). Altman and Low (1992) define place attachment as the affective bonds observed to have been developed between people and places. The consistent study of this psychological connection that people develop experience and express with a particular location started in 70s when human geographers like Tuan (1974) and Relph (1976) expressed the negative effects of rootlessness or placelessness. For the body of relevant literature, the longevity of residency within a location was considered to be one essential component of the place attachment phenomenon (Manzo and Perkins,2006). Human geographers contributed to this debate by arguing further that affective bonds with a geographical space are inherited in the notion of place (Guiliani and Feldman, 1993). The expression of this attachment to a neighbourhood or residence is the local knowledge that is gradually formed or the negative psychological effects that city-dwellers would experience if they were forced to move somewhere else. Whereas the naming of a neighbourhood is thought to be another expression of this as well (Taylor et al,1984). The notion of a community defined by a strong spatial boundary is challenged by Hanson and Hillier (1987). In their reasoning the notion of community and its relation with the physical space are embedded in the theoretical paradigm within which these ideas were formed. Hence, Hanson and Hillier (1987) distinguish between these approaches which theorize that the relationship between space and society is expressed as a correspondence model (Alexander 1977, Lynch, 1981, Newman 1980) and those ones that manifest that urban environment is heterogeneous and simply space plays a positive role of controlling and generating this heterogeneity (Jacobs, 1961, Appleyard, 1981). (Fig.1) Hanson and Hillier (1987) agree with the latter by arguing further that empirical evidence does not support self-contained neighbourhoods. Proceedings, 6th International Space Syntax Symposium, stanbul, 2007

Perdikogianni; From Space to Place: The Role of Space and Experience in the Construction of Place

On a par their boundaries thought to vary according to the urban activities or the age group that their dwellers belong (Glass, 1966). By reviewing different approaches on the relation sense of community and space, they mention Botts (1957) argument that the social relations that a family could have exceed the physical boundaries of a defined area. However, Young and Willmots (1962) famous study on family and kinship in East London suggested that space played a vital role in social life in Bethnal Green case. Hanson and Hilliers (1987) thesis should be seen within the framework of space syntax theory and its approach to the nature of the relationship between space and society. Another thing that clearly emerges so far is that there is need to trace the difference between space and place and how this is conceived in both experiential and analytical theories like space syntax. For example the place as conceived by environmental psychologists is (more than) a (-) spatial entity (Tuan, 1977).

Figure 1: Some results of an attitudinal survey conducted in the city of San Francisco by Appleyard (1981) investigating the environmental values held by different populations in the city

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Perdikogianni; From Space to Place: The Role of Space and Experience in the Construction of Place

The Configured Space and Place The Phenomenology of Place


For Casey (1992), the first explicit distinction between space (chora) and place (topos) in Western philosophy is to be found in Plato Timaeus. Plato names first the existence of an unchanging Form and second a sensible entity, constantly in motion, apprehended by perception being. For Plato space (chora) is apprehended without the sensesvi he experience of place (topos) is based on belief involving perception and thus, Plato observes the link between place (topos) and the body. Place is a particular locus for a sensible thing that comes to be in a certain place. Casey (1992) argues that both Plato and Aristotle recognise the special role of body in regard to place. For Artistotle a place is a way of being in the world at unique angle like water in a vesselvii. So Aristotles conception of place is corporeal and vesicular so that it bounds and supports (Casey 1992, p.55). Furthermore Aristotelian place is part of the definition of the being of a physical thing. Aristotle reduces chora to magnitude (megethos) and names place (topos) as the immobile content of space (chora)viii. On the other hand, Plato stresses on the extensiveness of space, conceived as providing a situation for all things that come into being. For Aristotle, the place and the being or the sensible thing are separable and are bound to their identity. So they both keep their identity even if the being moves to another place (topos). But space (chora) exceeds the principle of identity (Berque, 2004). For Berque (2004) space (chora) is unidentifiable, undetermined and undefined in itself, and relational. Casey (1992) argues that this clear distinction found in ancient greek philosophy dissolves itself in Descartes Principles of Philosophy (1644) where place is defined as that of being the extendedness of the occupying subject (i.e. body)ix. According to Casey (1992), Descartes legacy blurs the definitions by introducing the lived body for connecting mind and physical body and distinguishing place and space. However, the critical shift in conceptualising space and place is the fact that from now on the lived body precedes space. Later, Newton and More will claim that place is only a portion of space but both of them will maintain a theory of absolute space. With the advent of phenomenology, in the 20th century and Husserls discourse there is a shift of focus from the world out there or what it exists in reality, to the way human beings understand and experience it. So the point of departure of this discourse is no more the physical world but the individual and his/her sensual and psychological realm. For Tuan (1977), experience covers the various modes through which a person understands or even constructs the reality. These modes span the whole experiential field from the senses of touch, smell, and touch to the visualisation and the indirect mode of imagination and symbolisation. (Fig. 2) Relphs (1976) claim that a place has a meaning as long as one feels that is inside it is indicative. Seamon (1984) argues that a place is only a phenomenological vantage point from which we (observers and participants) are about to clarify the person-world relationship. However, this dependency upon this duality does not minimize places importance as far as the phenomenological approach to the physical world is concerned. The individual is among other things a physical body that it should establish and identify itself spatially and environmentally (Seamon 1984). His idea of place reinforces his claim (2000) that there is an overarching theme across all variations of the phenomenological approach to the world: the person-world indiscrete. This is in accordance with the Heidegerrian existential phenomenology and the term being-in- the- world or else dasein. However, MerleauPonty (1962) develops this indiscrete further by obliterating mind-body Proceedings, 6th International Space Syntax Symposium, stanbul, 2007

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Perdikogianni; From Space to Place: The Role of Space and Experience in the Construction of Place

distinction. In the same framework, space is an abstract set of terms which despite its vagueness and cultural interpretations should be seen in relation with the human body as the measure of all things (Tuan 1977). Interestingly, Hillier (2005) is indecisive whether the phenomenological mindbody indiscrete is different from the embodied mind developed in cognitive studies which describes the mind as embedded in the body that informs us about how we act in the world.
Figure 2: The notion of place as conceptualised in phenomenologicalexperiential terms. The marketing area or region overcomes the boundaries and thus is (more than) a (-) spatial entity
Source: Tuan (1977)

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The Configured Space and the Lived Space


In space syntax reasoning, space is substituted by the concept of configured space. The latter sets the ground rules for transforming the continuous space or the space as unbounded perceptual scene as Casey (1992) expresses it, to a structured system of discrete units. The configured space and how this is formed is the main object of analysis (Hillier, 1989). However, what underpins the whole body of this theory is that space is considered as an existing entity provided that it is relational (Hiller 2005). (Fig. 3).The main argument of space syntax theory is that human societies use space as their prime resource for organising themselves and the result is that inhabited space is configured. So it becomes obvious that the relationship between social culture, human behaviour and urban form is embedded in the concept of configured space. However, as Bafna (2003) observes space syntax theory (Hillier and Hanson, 1984) does not describe just a relation that allows mapping each system upon the Proceedings, 6th International Space Syntax Symposium, stanbul, 2007

Perdikogianni; From Space to Place: The Role of Space and Experience in the Construction of Place

other but rather a dynamic process of restructuring and modification of configured space and society. For example in an urban setting the action of creating a boundary between spatial components forms a particular relationship of accessibility and visibility among different categories of dwellers resulting first and foremost in a certain social dynamic (Bafna 2003). This dynamic process emerges from an inherited spatiality into society and vice versa.
Figure 3: In space syntax theoretical framework space is to be shown as a spatial entity only if seen as relational (Hillier, 2005). The basic urban element is a cell with certain permeabilitys properties. These elementsa, b in relation with an outside space c, can be used to construct patterns with the properties symmetry, asymmetry, distributed-ness and non-distributed-ness. Source: Hillier and Hanson, (1984)

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Despite its main object of analysis, the configured space as said just above, space syntax analytical theory seeks for appropriate descriptions of the discrete units of inhabited space that will articulate its social logic for penetrating the dipole moment: space-society. Each of these discrete units is identified according to its topological properties. Empirical (observation-based) studies that form the basis upon new theoretical developments emerges suggest that the abstract (topological) descriptions of these units capture peoples behaviour in space that is peoples movement patterns within configured space and the kind of activities that each unit accommodates and consequently the kind of social groups that occupy different spatial components. Recently a strand of research used these descriptions as indices for the accessibility to different uses in the city (Stahle et al, 2005). Thus, the experienced or the inhabited space is also a key element in space syntaxs analytical approach but not only in relation with a bounded local setting but with its global dimensions.

The configured space is a valued space which informs us about the kind of uses and users that potentially will occupy it. Its values are inherited in its relational nature. In the case of urban space, its values are the product of its expression as (street) network. The phenomenological space however is undifferentiated but this becomes a place as individuals familiarise themselves with locations and thus attributes and values (Tuan,1977).The point of departure of these approaches differ. Space Syntax stems from the physical environment seen as an object, incorporating though in its approach the experiential aspect (Seamon, 1994). On the other hand, phenomenology starts with the individual and his/her experience of being in space without minimising the role of space as such. The problematic of this paper shifts to whether one could see a possibility of bringing these approaches closer. My interest would lie in incorporating the experience and perception of the individual in the syntactical model of the city within the local context of a neighbourhood.

Legibility and Intelligibility


Drawing on the quest for an integrated urban analytical approach the juxtaposition of Lynchs approach to perceptual space and space syntaxs affinity to cognition of the city could be indicative for the outcome of this rhetoric at the moment- experiment. Lynch (1960) uses legibility to describe a city of which all districts, landmarks, or pathways are easily identifiable and grouped into an overall pattern. City-dwellers understanding of cities as depicted in sketch maps, is reduced into five elements of form: paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarksx.(Fig.4) This understanding is thought to be enabled by other, often symbolic, meanings that, the history of places or the naming of areas may carry. Imageability is the concept that Lynch (1960) uses to define the ability of some urban Proceedings, 6th International Space Syntax Symposium, stanbul, 2007

Perdikogianni; From Space to Place: The Role of Space and Experience in the Construction of Place

areas to evoke a strong image in any given observer (p.9). In his late work, Lynch (1981) defines legibility as one component of the sense of a place along with congruence, transparency which makes the notion to lie as the joint between the structure and the phenomenological identity. The sense of a place is a subjective variable quality that Lynch (1981) invents to describe explicitly possible connections of the urban form to non-spatial concepts and values and its symbolic significance to its users. This quality features as one of the five indices (vitality, fit, access and control and sense), that he uses to access a good city. For Lynch (1981) a good city is a sustainable city which will support its complex ecology without objecting to new developments within it. For Hillier (1996), the visual image of the city evokes properties inherited in the configured space. In this framework, the property that an urban environment bears that guide pedestrians to grasp it so that they potentially find their way around is thought to be its key quality. The visual information that is offered to moving or situated within a particular location individual is a good guide to what they cannot see. This is also expressed as the degree which each unit of configured space is integrated into the (urban) system as a whole (Hillier 1996). Hence, the intelligibility of an environment as defined above is about how predictable the global structure of an environment is derived from its local properties (Hillier, 1996; Hillier et al., 1993). Drawing on the abstract descriptions of urban space represented as axial mapxi whose discrete units (axial lines) are differentiated or weighted only in relation with their position in the global network, it is suggested a syntactic definition of intelligibility that describes it analytically and quantitatively. The quantified property is measured as the degree of correlation between local and global measures of spatial configuration, depicted on a scattergramxii.The shape of scattergram (tight or diffused shape of points around the regression line) also describes the degree of intelligibility for a given (urban) environment (Fig.5).
Figure 4: Lynch (1960) reduced the urban form to five elements of form: paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks. His concepts of legibility and imageabiltiy were tested by interviewing a small sample of citizens with regard to their image of their environment. a: The Boston image from verbal interviews b: The Boston image from sketch maps c: The distinctive elements of Boston d. The visual form of Boston in the field e. The Boston image from street interviews f. A conceptual map of Chappaquiddick Island by one of its resident.
Source: (a,b,c,d,e) Lynch (1960), (f) Lynch (1981)

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The immediate questions that arise from a comparative study of these definitions are the followings: What is the relation between Lynchs, experiential and syntactical approach aided by space syntax research to cities? At what extent can the researcher envisage a combined methodology that would acquire both approaches based on their experiential aspect? How much do these phenotypic different frameworks complement each other for a more accurate understanding of citys complexity?

Proceedings, 6th International Space Syntax Symposium, stanbul, 2007

Perdikogianni; From Space to Place: The Role of Space and Experience in the Construction of Place

Figure 5: Soho, Bloomsbury and Mayfair, different areas of London form an independent linear cluster crossing the regression line of Inner London as a whole in scattergrams between local and global integration. This characteristic pattern show the property of some parts of configured space to act as identified sub-areas of the spatial network (Hillier, 1996)

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This juxtaposition of ideas could be seen in Platos framework of the indiscreet form-figure: how forms are conceived versus how figures are perceived. Hillier (1985) advocates the Platonic supremacy of the world of intelligibilia over the world of visibilia. So if Lynchean legibility is about the ability that individuals have to read just what is out there in the real world then intelligibility is about understanding the intangible relations between the different units of the tangible world. So, space syntax theory quantifies and makes concrete knowledge the intangible possibilities of the abstract world as captured by configurational properties of the inhabited space. However, the term intangible does not lead us to think that they dont exist. In Popperian reasoning (Popper, 1972) the intangible relations exist as far as they have objective logical contentsxiii. Conroy-Dalton and Bafna (2003) argue that in space syntax analytical approach the representation of (urban) space as axial map reveals a hierarchical differentiation between spatial and visual elements of physical environment considering the cognitive process that is likewise implicit in Lynchs approach. This representation seems to agree with cognitive mental maps constructed on the basis of a sets of paths against of which areas and locations are identified (Kuipers 1996, Kuipers et al. 2003; Penn 2003)xiv. There are also empirical findings based on sketch mapping techniques that suggests a positive relation between spatial configuration in the real world and its image in human cognition depicted in sketch maps (Kim and Penn 2003). In this framework intelligibility is about relational differences in space through which city-dwellers can gain their spatial autonomy (Penn et al. 1998, Stegen 1999). These differences are the determinant parts of citys underlying structure which research has shown it bears a cause-effect relationship with observable human behaviour. Furthermore,, although Lynch (1960) claims about the synergy of all elements for the urban environment to evoke a strong image to people, described by imageabiltiy he fails to aggregate all the elements into a global network to deal with their configurational properties (Kim 2001).

Discussion: From the Configured Space to a Place


Urban designers, planners and city-dwellers are talking about desirable places. Property investors prioritise the location as one guiding factor for their decision to buy premises. NIMBYist behaviourxv defined as the propensity for people to oppose development or change in what they consider to be their immediate locality, despite the possible benefits of such change to the community at large or to future generations, is critical to sustainability discussion. This social practice takes for granted the existence of a vague entity of a place that people are attached or just attracted to it. For this paper, the arisen question as to whether there are such urban entities as place or space, seem to be part of a philosophical debate that goes back to ancient Greece with Plato and Aristotle as the first philosophers in Western tradition that theorized it. Furthermore, it is suggested that it is timely to develop an understanding of the kind of elements in urban structure, urban history and social culture which contribute to the definition of what people consider to be their locality or their back yard. Now, more than ever that residential mobility has increased and Proceedings, 6th International Space Syntax Symposium, stanbul, 2007

Perdikogianni; From Space to Place: The Role of Space and Experience in the Construction of Place

sustainability discussion is spread among the communities mainly due to the threat of shortage of available resources, is really important to understand the relationship between the physical environment that surrounds us and our psychological realm as human beings. In the same framework place definition should be embedded within reasoning for the relationship between space and society or people and world. To date Space Syntax as manifested in the Social Logic of Space (Hillier and Hanson, 1984) has partly answered this question by searching for underlying structures in the built environment that surrounds us. In this framework it has been claimed that city-dwellers can extract structures and identity from the material that they have at hand that is street and usage patterns. As well, this paper suggested diversity in theoretical approaches to the relational unit space - society mirrored in the multiplicity of place definitions. However, within the notion of place the experience of this physical environment is its intrinsic characteristic, at least in its phenomenological definition, considering citys major actor, the individual. The main object of analysis of both phenomenology and environmental psychology is the individual and the qualities underlying the human experience. For Hillier (2005) the urban phenomenology sees the complexity of cities as a mirror of the complexities of experience and vice versa. His approach though to cities complexity derives from the analysis of observed structures. On the other hand, it has been claimed that space syntax descriptions of the configured space (axial lines, convex spaces and isovists) are by their nature experiential entities (Seamon,1994). Furthermore, it is exactly this experiential aspect of Space Syntax analytical tools along with the correlated observed patterns of usage with configuration of space considering the global properties of the urban system that establishes the affinity of this approach with cognitive studies. Drawing on these shared aspects between these different approaches, this paper suggests defining place as the lived space or the inhabited space as it is often cited in the space syntax literature. This description slightly diverges from the configured space which has been so far the main object of syntactical analysis. Thus, it further suggests to establish a problematic upon which empirical data about how people understand and define their neighbourhood could be incorporated as other (concrete) values in the syntactical model of the city. Although it is accepted the decisive role of configured space in informing individuals and communities actions in space the study claims that there are other implicit interactions between the individual and space which are related with his/her awareness of the environment that surrounds him/her. As well, research developments in cognitive psychology suggest that in order for the individual to act in the space there is need for a mental representation of space. It is argued that the knowledge underlying this representation comes from many sources, like imagination and language. (Twersky, 2003). This suggestion has as prerequisite to combine quantitative and qualitative methodologies. However, it is acknowledged the difficulty of a task like this. Finally, I would argue that this reasoning is not only a philosophical debate over the credibility of a theory or the complementarities of different theoretical approaches. This stream of ideas aims at creating more successful and desirable environments through which urban design and policy could be tailored to approach local communities encouraging behavioural change and local acceptance of sustainable development.

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Acknowledgments; The author would like to thank EPSRC for its financial support under the Research Assistant Industrial Secondment Scheme (RAIS) and her PhD supervisor Prof Alan Penn at the Bartlett School of Graduate Studies (University College London). Aiesha, R. and Perdikogianni I. (2005). Decoding urban diversity in "mixed-use" neighbourhoods,. EPSRC Conference: Sustainable Urban Environments: Vision into Action, Birmingham, UK.

References
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Perdikogianni; From Space to Place: The Role of Space and Experience in the Construction of Place

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Proceedings, 6th International Space Syntax Symposium, stanbul, 2007

Perdikogianni; From Space to Place: The Role of Space and Experience in the Construction of Place

Stahle, A., et.al., 2005, Place Syntax - Geographic Accessibility with Axial th Lines in GIS, A. van Nes (Ed.), Proceedings, 5 International Space Syntax Symposium, TU Delft, Techne Press, Delft. Stegen, G.M., 1999, Qualitative Descriptions of Urban Clusters, F.R.B. Holanda, L. Amorim, F. Dufaux (Eds.), Proceedings, 2nd International Space Syntax Symposium, Universidade de Brasilia, Brasilia. Talen, E., 1999, Sense of Community and Neighbourhood Form: An Assessment of the Social Doctrine of New Urbanism, Urban Studies, 36(8): 1361-1379. Taylor, R., et.al., 1984, Neighborhood Naming as an Index of Attachment to Place, Population and Environment, 7(1): 103-125.

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Tuan, Y.F., 1974, Topophilia, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Tuan, Y.F., 1977, Space and Place; The Perspective of Experience. University of Minnesota Press, Mineapolis, MN. Twersky, B., 2003, Structures of Mental Spaces: How People think About Space, Environment and Behaviour, Jan (2003)(35): 66-80. Webster, C., 2003, The Nature of the Neighbourhood, Urban Studies, 40(13): 2591-2612. Willmott, P., 1984, Community in Social Policy, Policy Studies Institute, London. Young, M., Willmott, P., 1962, Family and Kinship in East London, Penguin, Harmondsworth.

i.

EU regional policy has recently shifted from encouraging a core-periphery development pattern, mainly driven by distance costs concepts, towards a balanced polynucleated regional development model that will use the potential of all regions (Copus 2001). Kloosterman and Musterd (2001) write in the introduction of Urban Studies Volume 38 Issue 4 Special Issue dedicated to the conference contributions held in Amsterdam in February1999 on polycentric urban regions.

ii. This notion was introduced since the 60s when there was an emerging interest in people-environment research iii. The theory of movement economy suggests movement patterns generated by the urban grid itself, known as natural movement, shape land use patterns at the same time that the latter have a feedback effect on movement (Hillier, 1996: 168, Hillier et all 1993). iv. This research explored the urban mechanisms that create and sustain a diverse urban environment having as its case studies the cities of London, Sheffield and Manchester. The questionnaires were conducted by Prof Graeme Evans, Dr Jo Foord and Rosita Aiesha from Cities Institute at London Metropolitan University. v. Timaeus 51e-52b vi. Physics IV 210a 24 vii. aggeion ametakineton Physics, IV, 212a 15 viii. Descartes in Principles of Philosophy distinguishes between internal and external place. The first is equivalent of a given body size (magnitude) and shape (figure) and the latter is determined by the relationship between a given and other bodies (p.46). ix. For a detailed account of the methodology that Lynch followed to test his theoretical arguments see: Lynch, K. (1960). The Image of the City. Cambridge Mass, MIT Press: 140-181 x. The axial map represents the urban grid (street system) as a matrix of the longest and fewest lines of direct access that pass through all the spaces and make all the connections (Hillier and Hanson, 1984). xi. Hillier (1996) defines the metric of intelligibility as the correlation between connectivity and global integration value of the (axial) line in a configuration. Connectivity measures the number of lines that each (axial) line is connected to. Global integration (or radius n integration) measures the mean depth (distance) of all axial lines in a plan from the line in question and then normalises this for the number of lines that are present in the plan. xii. For Hillier (1985) Poppers third world of abstract but real objects emerges as the generalisation of Platonic Idea. xiii. The set of paths within a complex environment are described by Kuipers et al (2003) as skeleton of paths defined as the subset used with greater frequency than the rest of paths creating the mental framework of environment cognition. xiv. NIMBY stands for Not In My Back Yard

Proceedings, 6th International Space Syntax Symposium, stanbul, 2007

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