Architecture and Spatial Culture

Built space supports our daily habits and our membership of communities, organizations, institutions, or social formations. Architecture and Spatial Culture argues that architecture matters because it makes the settings of our life intelligible, so that we can sustain or creatively transform them.

As technological and social innovations allow us to overcome spatial constraints to communication, cooperation, and exchange, so the architecture of embodied experience reflects independent cultural choices and human values. The analysis of a wealth of examples, from urban environments to workplaces and museums, shows that built space functions pedagogically, inducing us to specific ways of seeing, understanding, and feeling, and supporting distinct patterns of cooperation and life in common.

Architecture and Spatial Culture is about the principles that underpin the design and inhabitation of space. It also serves as an introduction to Space Syntax, a descriptive theory used to model the human functions of layouts. Thus, it addresses architects, students of architecture and all those working in disciplines that engage the design of the built environment and its social effects.

'Peponis? groundbreaking book, Architecture and Spatial Culture, addresses the ways in which individuals and societies organise and make sense of the buildings and urban spaces that they inhabit. We appear to live in an increasingly dematerialised world dominated by digital technologies and virtual realities but, because physical infrastructure continues to underpin human existence, the design of architectural and urban space really matters. Blending memoir with philosophy and rigorous empirical research, the book encapsulates a lifetime?s deep knowledge and understanding of complex buildings and urban forms. Wide ranging, thought-provoking and sometimes challenging, it is essential reading for architects and urban designers and also for anyone intrigued by the role played by built space in shaping existing and emerging social practices.'

Julienne Hanson, Professor Emerita of House Form and Culture, University College London, UK

'For John Peponis, 'spatial culture' is a set of principles by which people take account of the configurations of buildings and cities, to arrange their activities in space. This theme is explored through an attractive blend of theoretical analysis, personal reminiscence, and detailed studies of buildings. Peponis is the leading figure in the 'space syntax' movement; one of the pleasures of the text is to have a history of those ideas by one of the chief protagonists. This splendid and important book will be greatly valued in architecture and the social sciences.'

Philip Steadman, Professor of Urban and Built Form Studies, University College London, UK

'Elegantly written, eminently accessible, and indispensable for its evidence-based wisdom, Architecture and Spatial Culture is studded with insights into how buildings and cities work, in their spatial configuration, to engage human attention, interaction, movement, and memory. Especially noteworthy is Peponis? transcendence of the purely personal, experiential point of view, showing how history, institutions, and culture are spatially/structurally formative and so capable?once understood?of bringing architecture closer to its creative, life-enhancing potential.'

Michael Benedikt, Professor, Hall Box Endowed Chair in Urbanism, University of Texas at Austin, USA