Dear Anthony - There are quite a few papers in the Space Syntax Symposia
Proceeedings which address thes issues, though not always under the title
of 'self-organising systems'. But in a sense, a good deal of the space
syntax stuff about cities is about self-organisation, though it doesn't
call itself that. It's about how multi-agent distributed processes spread
over decades or centuries create well-formed emergent patterns with both
invariants and differences. So in a sense, it's a theory of the 'organic'
city. You should browse the web-sites for the last two symposia
As far as the things I have written myslf are concerned, a key recent text
is my first paper to the Third Symposium called 'A theory of the city as
object' http://undertow.arch.gatech.edu/homepages/3sss/ which tries to give
some account of how the spatial patterns formed by the aggregation of
buildings acquire certain kind of emergent structure. This builds on
earlier papers which describe between them how emergent space structure in
cities shapes the processes of movement, land use patterns and centre and
sub-centre formation in cities. The sequence of papers is:
Hillier B et al (1993) Natural movement: or configuration and attraction in
urban pedestrian movement - Environment & Planning B: Planning & Design 20,
29-66
Hillier B (1996) - Cities as movement economies in Urban Design
International Vol 1 No 1 pp49-60 E & F.N.Spon. Also Chapter 4 of Space is
the Machine.
Hillier B (2000) Centrality as a process: accounting for attraction
inequalities in deformed grids Urban Design International, 3/4, 107-127
Hillier B (2002) A theory of the city as object: how the social
construction of urban space is mediated by spatial laws Urban Design
International 7, 153-159)
Also relevant are
Hillier B et al (2000) Self-generated neighbourhood consolidation in
informal settlements (with Margarita Greene and Jake Desyllas) Urban Design
International ISSN 1357 5317 vol 5 no 2 61-96
Hillier B (1999) The hidden geometry of deformed grids: or, why space
syntax works, when it looks as though it shouldn't Environment and Planning
B: Planning & Design, 26, 169-191
Self-orgnaisation issues are also dealt with in in different way in my two
paper to the Fourth Symposium:
Hillier B (2003a) The architectures of seeing and going Paper to the Fourth
Space Synyax Symposium, London, June 2003.
Hillier B (2003b) The knowledge that shapes the city Paper to the Fourth
Space Syntax Symposium, London, June 2003
both of which can be downloaded from www.spacesyntax.net or
www.spacesyntax.org/
- Bill
>I am studying how the theories of self organisation & morphogenesis could
>help our understanding of the structure of human settlements. Obviously,
>space syntax theories would be useful in this regard. Has any research been
>done in this area.
>
>Anthony
>
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