Spatial morphology, urban history and design

Julienne Hanson’s article ‘Urban transformations’ forms a point of departure for discussing the role of spatial morphology, urban history and design in space syntax research. In this article Hanson draws from a rich analysis of housing designs in a small Inner London area, Somers Town, to identify the ways in which configurational patterns and design ideologies have evolved over a period of about one hundred years. This paper discusses the significance of her approach with regard to analysis and design. It argues that the emphasis on non-discursive configuration distances space syntax analysis from the evolution of morphological patterns over time and the ways in which they are raised to the level of discursive knowledge by architects and urban designers. The paper is structured in two parts: the first part argues that by positioning configurational analysis within historical sequence, Hanson’s approach can help reconceptualise morphology as process-oriented configuration. The second part suggests that interdisciplinary translation between space syntax and architecture is possible if configuration is placed in the broader context of how design ideas are formed and how they are structured though history.