A syntactic architectural design methodology: Integrating real-time space syntax analysis in a configurative architectural design process

This paper presents a computational toolkit developed for configurative architectural design, i.e. a computational design process, equipped with real-time space syntax analyses in a parametric CAD environment, which begins with defining the desired spatial configuration in form of a bubble diagram. The syntactic design methodology put forward by this toolkit is aimed at bridging the gap between space syntax as an analytic theory of architecture and architectural design practice. The toolkit has been made in an attempt to investigate the possibility of deriving at plan layout patterns through sketching spatial configuration using an 'interactive bubble diagram' that represents a spatial connectivity graph. In other words, we have worked on a way of reaching at concrete plan layouts from an abstract connectivity pattern as a graph. Beginning the design process with a graph allows for real-time feedback of Space Syntax measures such as integration, choice and difference factor. Besides, by choosing every space as a 'root', designers can immediately view their configurative ideas, literally from different points of views in automatically drawn justified graphs. In this paper, we give an overview of a syntactic design process as a graph theoretical approach to architectural design and report our preliminary results.