From a social point of view, built space defines a field of structured co-presence, co-awareness and encounter. The boundaries that divide and the connections that re-unite built space organize the way in which behaviors, activities, and people come together or remain apart. Boundaries are used to create relations of enclosure, contiguity, containment, subdivision, accessibility and visibility. It follows that built space is to be understood as a relational pattern, a pattern of distinctions, separations, interfaces, and connections, a pattern that integrates, segregates or differentiates its parts in relation to each other. It is the contention of the theory of space syntax that this pattern becomes entailed in everyday behavior, in the structuring of social relationships and in the way in which society and culture become intelligible through their spatial form.
"Space syntax" can be defined as a set of theories and analytical techniques first presented by Hillier and Hanson (1984) in their book The Social Logic of Space (see also Hillier (1996) Space is the Machine). Syntax analysis techniques can be applied to two dimensional building plans or urban layouts to produce quantitative measures of the characteristics of spatial layout. The analysis represents a spatial system as a series of smaller spatial units, as a system of lines of potential movement between these spatial units, or fields of visibility. For each of these representations, syntax analysis involves the study of patterns of connections, both in terms of the relationship of each spatial unit, line or field, to its immediate neighbors measured by variables such as "connectivity," and by the relationship of each spatial unit or line to the entire set of lines that constitute the spatial system being studied, measured in terms of "integration." Taking lines as an example, as a global measure, integration describes how easily (traversing the fewest number of lines) all other lines can be reached from a given line. "Mean integration" is calculated as the average number of lines that must be traversed to move from each line in a system of lines to all other lines in the system. "Mean connectivity" represents a local measure and is calculated as the average number of lines that intersect each line in the system of lines.

Previous research has demonstrated the importance of such spatial characteristics in describing use patterns in many different kinds of organizations and many different types of built space. Research indicates that principles of spatial organization affect the generation and distribution of movement patterns in space, and the ways in which occupants encounter others in space (unplanned encounter). Techniques of spatial analysis have been used to study visitor movement and viewing patterns with respect to the educational function of museums. Space syntax techniques provide rigorous methods of measuring both global and local street network characteristics and relationships between them. These methods have also been applied to organizational studies to examine the effects of spatial layout on patterns of collaborative interface.

Over the last several years, the University of Michigan has emerged as a center for research and development of syntax techniques. New software for the analysis of spatial form, Syntax 2D, has been developed at the University of Michigan. These new analysis techniques provide a powerful tool to augment our knowledge concerning the configuration of space and its associated relationships with building use.

Other support services at U of M: The University Library's Numeric and Spatial Data Services (NSDS) offers a lab, assistance finding and using data, tutorials, and one-on-oneand group instruction. It is open to all faculty, staff, and students. The Center for Statistical Consultation and Research (CSCAR) also offers Spatial / GIS user support along with help regarding campus-wide GIS software licensing and installation.

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