Li, Chenyang; Psarra, Sophia; Hanna, Sean; (2024) Evaluating and Expanding Hillier's Mean Local Choice: The Need for a New Measure of Quantitative Spatial Description. In: Proceedings of SSS14: The 14th International Space Syntax Symposium. Space Syntax Network: Nicosia, Cyprus.

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Abstract

This paper critically evaluates the ‘mean local choice’, a newly introduced spatial measurement by Hillier in his keynote speech presented in Beijing (2019). Different from the well-discussed mathematical ‘betweenness centrality’ in syntactic studies, Hillier’s proposed measure looks at the step-by-step alternatives (choices) regarding the all-to-all visit from each space in a spatial environment to all others by the simplest route. He argues that different levels of mean local choice values entail ‘consequent functional effects on spatial layout’ (Hillier, 2019, p.14). This paper identifies methodological deficits in Hillier’s explanations, arguing that the calculations of mean local choice in different structure types are not mathematically consistent. Moreover, the social significance stemming from differential functional effects varied by mean local choice in spatial layouts remains undefined, limiting the theoretical and practical applicability of this new measure. Building on this observation, this paper provides two possible evaluations of the theoretical definition of mean local choice, deriving from Hillier’s original work. Comparing this measure with the measures of ‘betweenness centrality’ and syntactic choice, it raises the following questions: How does mean local choice differ from existing spatial measures? How do varying levels of mean local choice correspond to diverse functional effects in spatial layouts? We argue that mean local choice, as an independent spatial variable, provides a new perspective on the relationship between spatial attributes and human behavioural patterns. Furthermore, this paper introduces a third approach to defining and calculating mean local choice, diverging from Hillier's original methods. We suggest that this approach more accurately captures the theoretical essence of the new measure. Consequently, we provide comprehensive evaluations of mean local choice for theoretical models with different node counts and present a Python-based program designed for analysing real-world configurations, which enables the practical application of mean local choice, enhancing its utility in spatial analysis.

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