Tom and Luciano make a very good point. I hope that they - and any others
interested in this side of syntax have not been relying on this discussion
group which has been virtually inactive! The syntax community has been
pretty bad at publicising its live applications. I don't want to make
excuses, but there are several reasons, one is that clients tend to be a
bit sensitive when projects are still live, and then they seem to be out of
date and we are onto the next thing. The other is just general busyness. I
think it is important to note that most of the Space Syntax research work
that is going on in UCL at the moment is 100% funded through live design
projects, and not all of this is with big practices or big schemes. It is
some time since we have had substantial 'funded research' from the research
councils except for development of software. In live applications we do a
lot of work on single buildings - mainly the interiors of work environments
through Space Syntax Lab projects.

The Space Syntax Lab is involved in a large number of projects at the
moment, and the numbers and scope are increasing rapidly. The best place to
look for information on this is on the website:  http://www.spacesyntax.com
(or to be precise it will be in about a week as Kayvan is completely
updating the site at the moment and the new one will go live very soon) -
it will be announced here when it does.

SSL does run courses on the application of space syntax and the use of the
software, and there are licensing arrangements which have been taken up by
a small, but increasing band of practices around the world. The difficult
part in all this is that syntax is partly a set of techniques (pace Jake)
but the other part (which links it to the problem domain) is the knowledge
of past research findings that allows one to make sensible interpretations
and value judgements about the meaning of the analysis in a given context.
The world and problems are complex, and so the knowledge that you need to
apply in trying to interpret analysis is also complex - we run an MSc on
this and even at the end of the year it takes people some time working
within the SSL to really get competent in thinking creatively with the
tools and theories.

It would be good if this discussion group could help in supporting people
trying to think using syntax and to apply it so I would encourage anyone
'sitting on the periphery' to not worry about it and ask questions -
answers can't be guaranteed of course :-)

Alan

________________________________________________
Alan Penn
Director, VR Centre for the Built Environment
The Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning
1-19 Torrington Place  (Room 335)
University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT
tel. (+44) (0)171 387 7050 ext 5919   fax. (+44) (0)171 916 1887
mobile. (+44) (0)411 696875
email. [log in to unmask]
www.   http://www.vr.ucl.ac.uk/
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