Publications

Hillier 2008

UIA World Congress 2008 "Tools for governance" 
(.pdf version  11 MB)

This publications is about how we can use a new architectural technique called space syntax, invented at University College London and exploited by its spin-out company, Space Syntax Limited, to masterplan the regeneration of the declining historic city centre of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

Hillier & Sahbaz 2008

An evidence based approach to crime and urban design (.pdf version  348 KB)

"It is generally agreed that a key priority in the design of cities is, insofar as it is possible, to make life difficult for the criminal. But is that really possible? Different crimes, after all, are facilitated by very different kinds of spaces: picking pockets is easier in crowded high streets, street robbery is easier when victims come one at a time, burglary is helped by secluded access, and so on. In inhibiting one crime, it seems, we might be in danger offacilitating another."

Vaughan 2007

The spatial syntax of urban segregation
(.pdf version  1 MB)

"Space Syntax is a set of theories and techniques about buildings and cities and how they function, rooted in a theory of society and space that originated in Bartlett School of Graduate Studies in the 1970s. The ability of space syntax methods to objectively measure the physical and spatial attributes in cities in relation to patterns of human activity has led to hundred of projects, covering subjects as diverse as the relationship with the burglary and hosing layout, architecture of Inuit snow houses and visitor movement in museum layouts."

Hillier 2006

Can streets be made safe? (.pdf version  1.5 MB)

"If the spatial design of our urban environment can reduce crime, then it is likely that it can do so by increasing the degree and effect of ‘natural policing’ – that is the way in which everyday movement and activity by people inhibits crime opportunity."

Stonor 2006

An evidence-based approach to spatial planning and design (.pdf version  128 KB)

"The role of public realm in regeneration is vital. Making it work is not easy, especially if world of urban practice is divided into silos – including architecture, town planning, highways engineering, sociology, criminology and, ultimately, end user. "

Hillier 2006

The golden age of cites? How we design cities is how we understand them (.pdf version  5.3 MB)

"In certain parts of southern France, we can see the remains of circular dry stone buildings constructed by corbelling. People ask why they are, and expect to hear that they are primitive dwellings, tombs, shrines, or places to keep tools."

Hillier & Iida 2005

Network and psychological effects in urban movement (.pdf version  1.2 MB)

"Correlations are regularly found in Space Syntax studies between graph-based configurational measures of street networks, represented as line and observed movement patterns. This suggests that topological and geometric complexity are critically involved in how people navigate urban grids."

Stonor 2004

Towards Evidence-Based Urban Design
(.pdf version  419 KB)

"Everyone working on regeneration issues in the UK knows that sustainable communities are what the Government expects them to deliver. However, many remain unaware of how the Government expects them to go about it."

Chiaradia2004

Gates and the Danger of Some Strangers
(.pdf version  160 KB)

"On one level, the issue of gating communities – or residential areas, in any case – is really an issue about strangers, and in particular about ways of managing the potential interaction between strangers and residents in these areas."

Hillier 1999

Centrality as a process: accounting for attraction inequalities in deformed grids (.pdf version  7.1 MB)

"The “centre” of a settlement, whether city, town or village, usually means a concentration and mix of land uses and activities in a prominent location. At any pint in time, it is usually fairly cleat where the centre is and what its limits are. However, the need to revitalize the centres of towns and cities, has draw attention to how little we know of the processes by which centres are generated and sustained."

Penn 1999

The space of innovation: interaction and communication in the work environment
(.pdf version  7.9 MB)

"As the pace of organizational change accelerated and as new technologies demand more rapid responses from organizations to changing conditions in their business environment, buildings are being called on to play an active role in helping to generate new organizational structures and in facilitating individual communications."