Griffiths, Sam; (2024) Segment analysis as space-syntactic 'archaeology' and the configurational stratification of historic built environments: three research scenarios. In: Charalambous, Nadia and Psathiti, Chrystalla and Geddes, Ilaria, (eds.) Space Syntax Symposium 14. (pp. pp. 2231-2258). Tab Edizioni: Nicosia, Cyprus.

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Abstract

Although it is now routine to produce segment graphs from road-centre lines, they are, in principle, derivative of axial models There is a conceptual difficulty, however, in this derivation since the individual segment cannot be easily represented as an ‘embodied diagram’ in Conroy Dalton’s sense. In this paper I start by explaining why the abstraction of the segment has serious implications for the space syntax proposition that an intrinsic connection exists between the physical city of buildings and the social city of human action, prompting questions about what a segment actually is. I argue that while the axial line represents a highly synchronic syntactic description that is undifferentiated along its extension, the granularity of the segments represents a more diachronically enriched description. If the axial line embodies continuity in the smooth flow of movement from the past to the future, the segment expresses greater temporal depth, embodying mutability and contingency. The particular quality of segment analysis to represent urban movement potential at a given network (‘metric’) distance is a source of interpretative ambiguity since any given segment may be implicated at multiple resolutions of description. This quality of segment analysis transforms the axial map into a complex of interfaces identified contingently as the configurational expression of historical spatial cultures. In the second section of this paper I explain what I mean by space syntax archaeology. In the final section I offer examples from three ongoing research projects that engage with the theoretical arguments made in this paper.

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