Space syntax analysis of the city as a movement economy has made major contributions to our understanding of the spatial structure of cities, particularly the importance of a mapping of network integration in relation to density, functional mix and streetlife vitality. It has focused attention of urban researchers onto the importance of the relations between the sociality and spatiality of the city. The primary methods of syntactic analysis involve a reduction of urban morphology to a set of spatial axes; here, we explore some limits to such analysis for urban design. Topological analysis of axial models has long recognized problems in accounting for distance, scale and sinuous streetscapes. Existing adaptations to axial methods that address such problems are modelled and shown to produce a broad range of results for the same urban morphology. In each case, we also compare different capacities for to-movement and through-movement – the distinction between ‘closeness centrality’ and ‘betweenness centrality’ that shows that network integration is multiple. We argue that axial analyses privilege visibility over accessibility and can produce distorted mapping at walkable scales; only one of the methods tested measures permeability and walkable access. Space syntax analysis is a powerful tool that will be more useful the better such limits are understood.

中文翻译：

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城市设计空间句法的局限：轴心、尺度和曲折

城市作为运动经济的空间句法分析为我们理解城市的空间结构做出了重大贡献，尤其是网络整合与密度、功能组合和街道生活活力相关的映射的重要性。它将城市研究人员的注意力集中在城市社会性和空间性之间关系的重要性上。句法分析的主要方法包括将城市形态简化为一组空间轴；在这里，我们探讨了这种城市设计分析的一些局限性。轴向模型的拓扑分析早已认识到在解释距离、尺度和蜿蜒街景方面存在的问题。对解决此类问题的轴向方法的现有适应进行了建模，并显示为相同的城市形态产生广泛的结果。在每种情况下，我们还比较了移动和通过移动的不同能力——“紧密中心性”和“中间中心性”之间的区别表明网络集成是多重的。我们认为轴向分析优先于可访问性的可见性，并且可以在可步行的尺度上产生扭曲的映射；只有一种测试方法测量渗透性和步行可达性。空间句法分析是一种强大的工具，对这些限制理解得越多，它就越有用。只有一种测试方法测量渗透性和步行可达性。空间句法分析是一种强大的工具，对这些限制理解得越多，它就越有用。只有一种测试方法测量渗透性和步行可达性。空间句法分析是一种强大的工具，对这些限制理解得越多，它就越有用。