Figure 2 - uploaded by Saif Haq
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Plan of City Hospital: three building are connected together to form a continuous mass. A north-western part, a south-western part and an eastern wing. The connecting central part also houses different functions.
Context in source publication
Context 1
... sample was 64.6% White, 10.4% African American, and the remainder other minorities. The two complex settings will be referred to as University Hospital and City Hospital (see Figure 1 and Figure 2). In the floor that was accessible from the street entrance, the participants completed the following tasks: open exploration, directed searches, pointing to unseen but previously visited locations, estimating distances and sketch mapping. ...
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There seems to be a growing consensus in the literature that topological variables, both in the environment and in sketch maps, are reliable indicators of wayfinding performance. Additionally, there are other suggestions regarding the use of topological variables to characterize and measure overall environments. In this regard, it has been reported...
Citations
... Tais pesquisas têm investigado similaridades ou diferenças entre os níveis de orientação de diferentes grupos de usuários, por exemplo, quanto ao grau de familiaridade com o espaço aberto (p.ex., LOCATELLI, 2007;MANO, 2016). Ainda, pesquisas têm utilizado a teoria da Sintaxe Espacial (HILLIER; HANSON, 1984) para analisar o desempenho dos ambientes em relação à orientação (HAQ, 1999;HAQ;GIROTTO, 2003), considerando o potencial de movimento e a acessibilidade visual das pessoas em diversos espaços no interior de edificações complexas. A maior ou menor facilidade de orientação espacial no interior de edificações complexas resulta das interações entre os indivíduos e a legibilidade das características dos espaços internos e a consequente representação mental em mapas cognitivos, além das diferentes habilidades espaciais e estratégias de orientação dos indivíduos (p.ex., CARLSON et al., 2010). ...
... A clareza e abrangência da construção do mapa cognitivo de uma edificação complexa depende, além da legibilidade (PASSINI, 1992), da experiência e do conhecimento do indivíduo sobre a área, ou seja, da sua familiaridade (DOWNS; STEA, 1973;KAPLAN;KAPLAN, 1983;PASSINI, 1992), que permite o registro na memória dos elementos físico espaciais mais vivenciados (HAQ; GIROTTO, 2003;PASSINI, 1992), e da habilidade do indivíduo em comunicar-se por tal método e em realizar o mapa (PASSINI, 1992). Mapas cognitivos mais claros e abrangentes, como resultado desses aspectos, indicam maior facilidade de orientação espacial do indivíduo, enquanto mapas com rotas e estruturas fragmentadas ou distorcidas tendem a indicar dificuldade de orientação espacial (p.ex., GOLLEDGE, 1999). ...
Este artigo faz uma reflexão, com base na revisão da literatura relevante sobre o tema, acerca do processo de orientação espacial e das características espaciais que facilitam ou dificultam a legibilidade no interior de edificações complexas, com base nas percepções dos usuários. Apesar das evidências sobre a importância da orientação espacial no interior de edificações complexas, esta ainda é pouco considerada no ensino de arquitetura e, consequentemente, na prática profissional do arquiteto. Essa reflexão evidencia que a sinalização no interior dessas edificações pode contribuir para a orientação espacial, mas não substitui a legibilidade do projeto arquitetônico. Ainda, aspectos como a configuração espacial de edificações complexas, as diferenciações estéticas e o grau de acessibilidade visual entre os espaços podem facilitar ou dificultar a legibilidade e, consequentemente, a orientação espacial. Portanto, a reflexão realizada salienta a importância da elaboração de projetos de edificações complexas que considerem a legibilidade de seus interiores, com base em resultados de pesquisas envolvendo as necessidades de orientação espacial de diferentes grupos de usuários.
... [26] reported the first study to relate wayfinding directly with intelligibility metrics following the space syntax theory. After that, there have been numerous applications of intelligibility based on the space syntax theory in indicating wayfinding in human movement [27,28]. ...
The importance of easy wayfinding in complex urban settings has been recognized in spatial planning. Empirical measurement and explicit representation of wayfinding, however, have been limited in deciding spatial configurations. Our study proposed and tested an approach to improving wayfinding by incorporating spatial analysis of urban forms in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Great Bay Area in China. Wayfinding was measured by an indicator of intelligibility using spatial design network analysis. Urban spatial configurations were quantified using landscape metrics to describe the spatial layouts of local climate zones (LCZs) as standardized urban forms. The statistical analysis demonstrated the significant associations between urban spatial configurations and wayfinding. These findings suggested, to improve wayfinding, 1) dispersing LCZ 1 (compact high-rise) and LCZ 2 (compact mid-rise) and 2) agglomerating LCZ 3 (compact low-rise), LCZ 5 (open mid-rise), LCZ 6 (open low-rise), and LCZ 9 (sparsely built). To our knowledge, this study is the first to incorporate the LCZ classification system into the wayfinding field, clearly providing empirically-supported solutions for dispersing and agglomerating spatial configurations. Our findings also provide insights for human-centered spatial planning by spatial co-development at local, urban, and regional levels.
... According to study by Zheng and Weimin (2010), there is a significant relationship between syntactic configurations of real spaces and the cognitive maps of respondents who participated in the research. In another study (Haq and Girotto, 2003) intelligibility was used as a measure to analyse cognitive maps. Furthermore, in reasearch by Kim and Penn (2004), cited by Canakcioglu (2015), the sketch maps of residents in a neighbourhood in London were compared with the existing layouts and found that the degree of local integration in cognitive maps is especially linked to the syntactic data of the actual environment. ...
According to environmental and behavioural theories, individuals in their early years of cognitive development enter a world full of environmental stimuli that motivate them to perceive and learn. As a result of many perception processes, people convert and transfer perceived information into cognitive patterns that inform their understanding of the surroundings in which they operate and navigate around them. This paper aims to better understand the processes involved in navigating the home-school journey for children and delve into the likely impact of gender and age group of children on their perception of the environment and attempt to identify some of the factors that may affect their spatial behaviour. In doing so, there is the intention to develop a new approach to investigating wayfinding for school age children during their home-school journey. The approach consists of combining the analysis of cognitive maps drawn up by children, observation of their travel routines and space syntax tools. After contextualising the research through a literature review covering issues such as children’s spatial perception, navigation, wayfinding, and imageability, the paper describes the methods used to carry out the research, presents the results of the research and discusses them in order to shed some light on children’s wayfinding on the school journey.
... Peponis et al. (1990), among the first to apply space syntax in healthcare investigations, found that there is a correlation between the integration variable and movement flows, that well-integrated spaces are more accessible. Haq and Girotto (2003) found that the variable of intelligibility is a good predictor of wayfinding and environmental awareness. Haq (2003) suggests the degree of accessibility of hospital entrances as an important indicator affecting wayfinding. ...
... The degree of accessibility of hospital entrances is considered an important indicator of hospital accessibility (Haq and Girotto 2003). Due to different means and ways of arrivals, different axial models should be considered (Simoncini et al. 2013). ...
Reaching the destination, users often encounter complex interfaces created between hospital spaces and the urban tissue. The literature highlights the influence of spatial configuration on the performance of external and internal spaces of healthcare settings. In this regard, studies related to Emergency Department (ED), mostly focus on internal spaces, without specific research on the accessibility of the structures themselves. By extending the research area to the entire system of territory-hospital-ED relations, the study conducted at the University Clinical Center of Kosovo (UCCK) in the city of Prishtina aims to investigate the effects of spatial configuration on the performance of spaces in the patient's journey to ED. The paper attempts to understand the causes that have shaped the spatial configuration of the city and the hospital over the years and their impact on ED accessibility. Through configurational theory of architecture, the paper quantitatively examines the interactions between the levels of this relational system at various spatial scales and time intervals. A methodological framework of spatial requirements and corresponding indicators was developed. It was observed that the declined syntactic values of the city affected the degree of the hospital accessibility, deteriorating the continuity of movement from the city to the hospital, followed by a subsequent disruption due to the change in the spatial configuration of the hospital and the relative position of ED. The outcome shows that configurational changes affect the continuity of movement sequentially in each segment of the patient’s journey towards ED, with interrelated consequences at all levels.
... This finding is in line with Soltanifard and Saberi (2018), implying that intelligibility as a spatial quality is higher where the space has high continuity, leading to increased spatial integration, and consequently, the space will have high intelligibility. Furthermore, an important strength point for this layout is the wayfinding process facilitated since the literature shows that intelligibility affects wayfinding and navigation performance (Haq & Girotto, 2003;Zabihi et al., 2021). Higher axial integration and connectivity show that circulation spaces in terms of accessibility function better in the figure-eight-shaped layout. ...
Investigating the spatial configuration can effectively interpret the circulation of an architectural plan layout. Student residences are among the most critical but neglected buildings in which the circulation system plays a vital role in efficient orientation and wayfinding. This study seeks to simulate and quantitatively assess the complexity of circulation spaces in student residence buildings in four different plan layouts. Space syntax analyses include the visual integration and connectivity drawn from Visibility Graph Analysis (VGA) maps for accessibility assessment, intelligibility calculated through all-line axial maps for wayfinding assessment, the field of view from the isovist map for visibility assessment, and agent-based analysis from the VGA map for the overall flow of occupants. Results revealed the strength and weaknesses of each layout. They indicated that the courtyard-shaped and figure-eight-shaped layouts could satisfy the highest degree of circulation efficiency. At the same time, the U-shaped and double-L-shaped plans had the weakest circulation. The study concludes by highlighting the practical implications for future strategies and the importance of syntactical analysis in the early stages of design.
... Moura, et al (2017) The intelligibility of pedestrian walkways is a significant measure indicative of wayfinding and environmental cognition within the urban setting (Haq & Sara, 2003). Continuity of pedestrian networks and directness to the destination may achieve intelligible space (Southworth, 2005). ...
The Klang Local Draft Plan 2035 has identified accessibility issues in some tourist locations and inconsistent pedestrian walkways that hinder pedestrian movement. Therefore, this paper aims to assess the spatial characteristics of pedestrian networks and the walkability in Klang to enhance visitors' walking experience. A quantitative design using a structured questionnaire based on walkability criteria and measurement framework was employed to achieve this. The research findings provide four key recommendations for improving the pedestrian environment, pathway network, pedestrian infrastructure, and maintenance. The significance of this study lies in its contribution to planners' and architects' efforts to create better pedestrian network access in urban areas. Additionally, it aligns with the 11th Sustainable Development Goal of creating sustainable cities and communities by enhancing road safety and providing access to affordable, safe, sustainable transport systems. Furthermore, this research can guide future urban research, walking and accessibility initiatives, and evaluations of proposals to revitalize historic towns and prevent unused urban spaces.
... A challenge with studying navigation in the real-world is that environmental features are hard to separate experimentally, and, as a result of their interaction, it is hard to deduce their impact on the difficulty of navigating an environment (Carlson et al., 2010;Montello 2007;Jeffery 2019b). A good example is Haq and Girotto's (2003) study, in which they examined wayfinding in two separate hospital buildings in the U.S. to understand the relationship between wayfinding and intelligibility. While they found that intelligibility was a good predictor of success in mapsketching and pointing tasks, these results did not translate into wayfinding performance. ...
... They conducted a further analysis of the layouts to understand the results, which revealed that the more intelligible environment was arranged around a very long corridor (with many decision points) along which most of the destinations were located. Small wayfinding errors would therefore result in participants having to retrace their steps, and thus incurring redundant decision point use and repeat decision points use (Haq & Girotto, 2003). In another wayfinding experiment found that analysing performance in only two environments was a significant limitation, because a host of unaccounted factors (e.g. the rectilinearity of the street network) could account for the differences in the studied measures (Long and Baran, 2012). ...
Despite extensive research on navigation, it remains unclear which features of an environment predict how difficult it will be to navigate. We analysed 478,170 trajectories from 10,626 participants who navigated 45 virtual environments in the research app-based game Sea Hero Quest. Virtual environments were designed to vary in a range of properties such as their layout, number of goals, visibility (varying fog) and map condition. We calculated 58 spatial measures grouped into four families: task-specific metrics, space syntax configurational metrics, space syntax geometric metrics, and general geometric metrics. We used Lasso, a variable selection method, to select the most predictive measures of navigation difficulty. Geometric features such as entropy, area of navigable space, number of rings and closeness centrality of path networks were among the most significant factors determining the navigational difficulty. By contrast a range of other measures did not predict difficulty, including measures of intelligibility. Unsurprisingly, other task-specific features (e.g. number of destinations) and fog also predicted navigation difficulty. These findings have implications for the study of spatial behaviour in ecological settings, as well as predicting human movements in different settings, such as complex buildings and transport networks and may aid the design of more navigable environments.
... This interaction occurred in an aisle with a 1-meter width and irregular pattern. This finding contradicts [45,46]. Thus, territorial behaviour was manifested in how residents occupied and modified transitional spaces. ...
... A graph is an abstract representation in which objects (spaces or paths) are represented as graph nodes and a relationship, or connections (doorways or intersections) are represented by a graph edge. Mathematical analyses of Space Syntax graphs has revealed strong correlations to observed social phenomena such as pedestrian co-presence in office spaces (Ermal and Peponis, 2008) and spatial cognition and navigation Haq and Girotto, 2003;Haq and Zimring, 2003;Montello, 2007). In axial line analysis, a plan is abstracted into the fewest and M.J. Dawes, J. Lee and M.J. Ostwald + MODEL longest lines of sight needed to fully surveil a design and has been utilised to investigate the properties of large scale urban environments (Agael & Özer, 2017) in addition to potential pedestrian movement and walkability (Ali et al., 2018). ...
... Intelligibility is a standard Space Syntax measure that documents how efficiently an occupant can gain an understanding of the configuration of a design by traversing its component parts (Haq and Girotto, 2003;Hillier, 1996;Peponis et al., 1990). Intelligibility is calculated as the correlation of connectivity, a local measure of significance, and integration, a global measure of significance. ...
The famous modernist architect Richard Neutra argued that movement through, and understanding of a building could be choreographed by controlling the visual stimuli that is available to a person. These claims are tested by quantifying the lines of sight and intelligibility of five of Neutra's residential designs. A computational method, weighted axial line analysis, is used to investigate lines of sight and movement in five of Neutra's house designs. The cumulative lengths of axial lines required to reach public and private spaces are compared, and centrality measures are calculated for each design that are weighted with line length data. Intelligibility metrics are calculated from these centrality measures. The first hypothesis, that visual stimuli in Neutra's architecture is greater when accessing public rather than private spaces is supported by the results. The second hypothesis, that Neutra's architecture is highly intelligible, is not supported by the results. This research tests two theories used to explain the works of a famous architect and it develops a new variation of well-known Space Syntax technique, to account for axial line lengths.
... One of the significant indices in the analysis of spatial configuration is intelligibility analysis. Intelligibility of settings is an important measure that is predictive of wayfinding and environmental cognition within environments (Haq and Girotto, 2003). The level of intelligibility is compared based on the average of intelligibility in the three case studies in Figure 6 and Table 4. ...
Purpose
Hospital landscape is not a useless space within hospital buildings anymore. It is considered as a supportive area providing mental and physical peace. However, the planting design of the hospital landscape and the way it should be in order to not disrupt wayfinding performance is neglected. This paper, which is a case study, aims at investigating the effects of planting design in Kerman hospitals’ landscapes on the users’ wayfinding using space syntax techniques.
Design/methodology/approach
This research focuses on the effects of planting design on the users’ wayfinding in hospitals. In so doing, library research, computer simulation and analysis with the University College London (UCL) Depthmap software, and comparison techniques are used. Based on axial maps, the measures of integration, connectivity and intelligibility are considered for analysing the wayfinding process of individuals.
Findings
The findings show that planting configurations in the hospital landscape can affect individuals’ wayfinding. Integrated and regular planting design in addition to combining planted areas with the hospital buildings can pave the way for intelligible space and easier wayfinding.
Originality/value
According to the authors’ knowledge, the current study is the first to use the space syntax techniques in the health-care landscape architecture in terms of planting design and wayfinding. As wayfinding is an important issue in health-care spaces, the study findings can greatly help the health-care building designers and the related organizations to pay attention to the hospital landscape as much as hospital indoors.
