Okkali Alsavada, Merve; Vaughan, Laura; (2022) Spatio-Historical Impact of Urban Canals on the Street Configuration of Cities Diachronic Analysis of Amsterdam and London. In: Proceedings 13th international space syntax symposium. (pp. p. 361). Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL): Bergen, Norway.

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Abstract

Constructed waterways have played a major transportation role since the earliest days of cities’ recorded history, connecting cities and enhancing commerce. There does seem a possibility that canal networks are associated with the growth of the world’s first cities and their spatial structure. Therefore, the aim of the study is to investigate the canal structure in shaping the urban form through the city-growing process and its spatio-cultural outcomes in the city environment. It intends to perform a comparative analysis of Amsterdam and London, two diverse structures within their urban configurations and represent a different paradigm of the canal-street structure relationship. The study analyses the main spatial effect of differences in the canal structure overtime on the street configurations of the two cities. Diachronic spatial analysis has been undertaken for three periods for both cities: the 1850s, the 1950s, and the contemporary period. The study uses space syntax techniques as the main methodology; further, the spatial analysis results are geographically projected in GIS, and the statistical analysis is performed on the analysis results of historical maps to measure the physical effects of canal systems on the potential mobility in both cities. The Amsterdam and London analysis results show different examples in terms of street interconnections with canals in the formation of urban structures. While the urban form has been shaped with a top-down planning process in the form of a regular grid structure designed with canals in Amsterdam, the urban form of London is a dominant landbased spatial structure with regard to its movement potentials. Hence, Amsterdam shows an intermediate spatial structure between water- and land-based networks. On the other hand, places are locally and globally more accessible with land-based transportation systems in London.

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