Analyzing Neighborhood Facilities Using Space Syntax:case studies on Taichung and Fengyuan

• Main Authors: Chi-fang Jiang, 江其芳
• Other Authors: Wen-Chieh Wang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/65328585634948748791

碩士 === 朝陽科技大學 === 建築及都市設計研究所 === 100 === Urban planning is a field involved with the analysis, assessment, allocation, designation, and siting of urban resources for the welfare of the general public. Over the years, Taiwan has developed a rather sophisticated and rigorous standard operation procedure in its formal urban planning practice. Although there are various laws and regulations to guide almost every stage of the urban planning process, the assessment of the impact of an urban plan is usually not mandatory unless the plan involves controversial environmental issues. However, given the advent of new spatial theories and technologies that could apparently facilitate the assessment of an either proposed or adopted urban plan, it might be time to include the assessment of an urban plan as an integral part of the overall planning process. Space syntax is a spatial configuration theory that was initially developed by Bill Hillier, Julienne Hanson and their colleagues in late 1970s to assist architects to explore and evaluate their design options. This theory and associated analytical techniques combine the concept of man-environment interaction in sociology with the concept of morphology. After nearly three decades of development, space syntax has become an effective tool in architecture, interior, and urban design as well as urban and transportation planning, which is applicable to both theoretical research projects and practical professional projects. Building upon the traditional axial analysis, the latest development of the space syntax theory called segment analysis offers an analytical resolution of the urban fabric up to individual road segments and thus provides insights into the street block level. Accordingly, this paper argues that the space syntax could be an appropriate tool for assessing some aspects of an urban plan. To this end, this study takes the original Taichung and Fengyuan cities as the study sites and uses the integration and choice measures of the segment analysis and their associated segment maps to analyze the fabric of both cities'' urban plans. The outcomes are then served as the basis of further statistical analyses to assess the suitability of locations of convenient stores and major public facilities assigned by urban plans of each city. The result of this study shows that the space syntax indeed proves to be a potentially effective urban planning assessment tool.