Space Syntax Laboratory Seminar: Gianna Stavroulaki

Modelling the spatial form of the city and its relation to pedestrian flows

Abstract

Street centrality, built density, land division. Since 2015 the Spatial Morphology Group has been developing a descriptive-analytical model of the spatial form of the city, combining what we see as the basic components of urban form and the basic elements of urban design - streets, buildings and plots. Through morphological, analytical and empirical studies, we have been focusing on the individual and combined effects of the elements of spatial form to processes of social, economic and ecological nature. In this presentation we will focus on the driver of many socio-economic processes, that is pedestrian flows. How do street centrality, built density and land division affect pedestrian flows, individually and combined? How do centrality and density types distribute pedestrian movement in the city, spatially and temporally? We will go through 3 related studies, using original empirical data gathered in a large international pedestrian survey, from almost 60 neighbourhoods in Stockholm Amsterdam and London, during October 2017.

Biography

Gianna Stavroulaki is a Docent / Associate professor in Spatial morphology. She is a member of the Spatial Morphology Group (SMoG) in the Division of Urban Design and Planning at the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. She conducts fundamental and applied research at urban and building scale. She uses advanced descriptive analytical methods and develops tools for spatial analysis, applied to modelling spatial form and understanding its relation to human social activities (e.g. patterns of co-presence, movement flows, patterns of use, spatial cultures). Since 2015, as part of the SMoG she focuses on tools to analyse the spatial form of the city and to model how its spatial structure relates to urban processes of social, economic and ecological nature. Before joining the SMoG, she was working as a freelance architect, consultant and researcher in Athens, collaborating with national universities of Greece (NTUA, Univ. of the Aegean). Since 2012 she was an invited lecturer at the School of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens.

About this series 

This academic seminar series features researchers sharing their findings, discussing their ideas and showing work in progress from The Bartlett's internationally renowned Space Syntax Laboratory. Seminars are moderated by PhD candidate Sepehr Zhand. They are open to the public and attended by Bartlett’s staff and students.

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Image: International Pedestrian Study - Spatial Morphology Group - Dr Gianna Stavroulaki