Algorithmic definitions of street network centrality sub-shapes: The case of superblocks

Abstract

The shape and distribution of the most integrated streets, collectively called the integration core, is critical to the characterization of local and global street network types in the space syntax literature. The description of the shape, position, and distribution of integration cores relative to the underlying street networks, however, has remained largely intuitive. We propose analytic and algorithmic definitions of integration core types. We then study empirical and experimental superblock designs with rectangular boundaries, as a particular kind of urban spatial syntax. The analysis leads to a clear understanding of the different ways in which the local street network, internal to the superblock, is structured and interfaced with the perimeter. When used as part of an automated sorting and query process applied to a universe of experimentally generated designs, our definitions and algorithms provide new insights about the interplay between the local generators of street network differentiation and the emergent syntactic structures of the superblock as a whole.