Transcript PhD Workshop 5th International Space Syntax Symposium

Doing Research with Space Syntax:
a Morning Workshop for Doctoral Students
5th International Space Syntax Symposium
University of Delft, June 13th 2005
10.00 a.m. - 12.00 noon
Professor Julienne Hanson, UCL
Dr Kayvan Karimi, SSL
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Welcome and Introduction
• Welcome to this pre-symposium workshop, and thank
you for coming along early to attend;
• First of a pair of linked workshops;
• This will cover generic issues common to most forms of
Doctoral research;
• For the afternoon session, 1.30 p.m. -3.00 p.m., we will
split into two parallel sessions;
• Kayvan will run a workshop on urban form and I will run
one on domestic space;
• Address detailed research design at these events.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Route Map
• What this morning’s workshop will cover:
– Welcome and Introductions, who the Workshop Leaders
are (15 minutes);
– The Challenges and Rewards of Doctoral Research
(Breakout & Feedback, 30 minutes);
– The PhD Process (Discussion, 30 minutes);
– Making the Best Use of Space Syntax (Discussion, 30
minutes);
– Question and Answer Session (15 minutes).
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
A Brief Biography - Julienne
• Studied Architecture in the
early 1970s;
• M.Sc. AAS 1975-6;
• Foundations of ‘space syntax’,
1976-8, also began teaching on
AAS;
• ‘The Social Logic of Space’,
1978-1984;
• Ran 2nd year design studio at
the Bartlett during the 1980s.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Teaching and Learning
• Course Director, AAS,
– 1980-1985
– 1988-1991
– 1998-2002
• PhD, 1989, ‘Order and
Structure in Urban Space’;
• Vice Dean (Teaching) and
Director of Studies at the
BSGS, 1990-1996;
• Architectural education,
‘teaching the teachers of
architecture’.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
New Opportunities in Research
• Readership in Architectural and
Urban Morphology, 1996-2001;
• Charged with putting the Bartlett ‘on
the map’ in respect of housing;
• ‘Decoding Homes and Houses’,
1996-1998, summarising 20 years
personal research & scholarship;
• Professor of House Form and
Culture, 2001 to now.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Funded Research Portfolio
• Difficult to get housing research
externally funded in the UK.
Market led;
• EPSRC EQUAL & SUE;
• Housing Corporation / TPT;
• Working with end users of
buildings to research their needs:
– Older and disabled people;
– Children;
– Ethnic minorities.
• Configuration & experience.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
M.Sc. Housing Futures
• Innovative course, running for
the first time this September;
• Learning together & from one
another;
• Holistic approach:
– Constructability;
– Sustainability;
– Performance.
• Raising design quality
through evidence-based
research & good practice.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Doctoral Supervisions
• Graduated 16 Doctoral
students, mainly but not
exclusively with a space
syntax focus;
• Another 13 in the pipeline, at
all stages on the way to a
PhD;
• External Advisor or Examiner
for 8, from the UK, the USA
and Europe;
• 10+ Post Docs and Academic
Visitors have come to UCL in
recent years, to study with me.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Research Style
• Creating a virtuous circle:
– Interdisciplinary;
– User-centred;
– Practical, aimed at design
outcomes and interventions;
– Methodologically innovative,
combining:
• the formal spatial
morphological analysis of
samples of house plans;
with
• detailed first hand
ethnographic studies of
material culture; and
• accounts of people’s
housing and life histories.
Professor Julienne Hanson
usercentred
briefing
str ategic
design
guidance
analysis
of housing
layouts
Inclusive
Design of
Housing a nd
Neighbourhoods
performance
indicators,
best pr actice
guidelines
spatial
ethnography
user-cented
post
occupancy
evaluation
Dr Kayvan Karimi
A Brief Biography - Kayvan
• Studied Architecture in the 1980s;
• Practised architecture and urban
design 1987-1993;
• PhD in ‘urban morphology’, 199398, Bartlett; also working with
Space Syntax Laboratory on
research and consultancy projects
• Began working full-time with
Space Syntax Laboratory 1997
• Director at SSL 2004.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Teaching and Learning
• BArch, MArch 1982-88;
• PhD, 1998, Ph.D. In Architecture, UCL:
Continuity And Change In Old Cities; An
Analytical Investigation Of The Spatial Structure
In Iranian And English Historic Cities Before
And After Modernisation
• Honorary senior researcher, the Bartlett,
UCL, 2000
• Assistant Professor, The Graduate Faculty
of Environment, Tehran University, 200002
• Guest lecturer, MSc in Advanced
Architectural Studies, Bartlett, 1997-2005
Professor Julienne Hanson
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The Old City of Shiraz (c.1900);
the main elements of the traditional city superimposed
on the global integration mapof the old city
Dr Kayvan Karimi
1. Fr
(Co
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3. Re
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Professional practise
• Architecture and urban
design, 1986-1992, several
city master planning and
historic centre regeneration
projects in Iran.
• Consultancy with Space
Syntax Limited 1997-2005,
more than 100 urban and
complex building projects
using space syntax
methodology.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
SSL Project Portfolio
• Urban & Building Design
• Planning & Policy Guidance
• Property & Safety Analysis
• Impact Assessment
• Baseline Surveys
• Research
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
SSL Clients
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
SSL Research Projects
• AGORA, Cities for People, 2003-05:
Development of an audit methodology
for European cities to identify, analyse
and re-design ‘Capital Routes’ with
research and design teams from
Barcelona, London, Malmo and Utrecht
for European Commission under
Framework 5 Research Programme.
• Tourist Flows in London, the dynamics
of tourist movement in London for
London Development Agency (LDA),
2004-2005.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
What is a PhD?
Invite Definitions from Workshop Members
(time check - 10.15 a.m.)
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
The Professional Researcher
• 3 tier system UK/Europe:
– Bachelor, Master &
Doctorate.
• Licence to do research;
• Teach others, profess the
subject;
• Supervise others, guide their
work to a successful
conclusion;
• Lead research teams, initiate
projects, get the job done.
Professor Julienne Hanson
• What the PhD stands for:
– Leading authority in your
subject;
– Command of the subject,
knowing what is known in your
field;
– Expanding the boundaries,
making a useful contribution;
– Mastery of technique;
– Effective communicator;
– Member of an international
research community.
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Not Just a Measure of Intelligence
• Personal qualities are demanded as well as
academic ones, especially when the going gets
tough:
– Skills and intelligence;
– Dedication, passion and commitment;
– Maturity and self-awareness.
• Achievement, life-long satisfaction;
• Job of work not a life’s work;
• Nevertheless, academic reputation, time lag, so
make sure you can live long term with your chosen
research topic.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Breakout Session
• Split into smaller groups, getting to know one another,
sharing experiences;
• 20 minutes to introduce yourselves and share
experiences in response to two key questions:
– Each person in the group to come up with 3 ideas about “What
do you find most rewarding about doing a PhD?”;
– And ‘What 3 most important challenges do you face in
achieving your PhD?”
• Agree the most important 3 rewards and challenges of
all, for each breakout group;
• Rapporteur from each group to report back on group
consensus to the workshop (a couple of minutes each).
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Feedback From the Groups
Classify into Topics and Themes
(time check - reconvene at 10.35 a.m.)
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Highs and Lows of Doctoral Research
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Exploration;
Excitement;
Challenge;
Involvement;
Passion;
Achievement;
Reward.
Professor Julienne Hanson
• But almost everybody
also experiences
problems during the
course of a Ph.D;
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Academic;
Financial;
Personal;
Health;
Job.
Dr Kayvan Karimi
The PhD Process
(time check - 10.45 a.m.)
• Getting started, settling in;
• Reading around the subject, recognising
good research, data, samples, methods;
• Pilot study;
of impetus at the outset, but once you
• Main study; Lots
get to the later stages of the PhD it can
quite routine and it gets difficult to
• Data analysis; become
maintain enthusiasm. Bogged down in the
• Writing up; data. “Can’t see the wood for the trees.”
• Examination.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Finding Out How Far People Are Along
the Road to a PhD
(Show of hands from audience)
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
The Ideal Student’s Progress: First Year
• Before you arrive:
– Define field and topic;
– Write initial proposal;
– Background reading.
• First six months:
– Read around topic;
– Audit courses for research
training;
– Define problem.
• By month six you should
have defined your
problem.
Professor Julienne Hanson
• Months six - nine:
– Carry out a pilot study;
– Test assumptions, methods,
data analysis;
– Write up results;
– Refine / redefine problem,
methods, data analysis in
the light of empirical
research findings.
• In the UK, this work is
used for ‘upgrading’, i.e.,
showing that you are at the
‘right level’ for a PhD.
Dr Kayvan Karimi
The Ideal Student’s Progress: Second Year
• By the beginning of year
two you should have:
– Carried out a successful
pilot study;
– be ready to carry out your
main study.
• Throughout most or all of
the second year you carry
out the main empirical /
first hand / original study;
• May need to go away from
University on fieldwork.
Professor Julienne Hanson
• This may entail:
– Working with primary
and / or secondary data
sources;
– Using a variety of
research methods;
– Fieldwork in one or
more locations.
• By now you should be
working confidently;
• You may decide to
interleave data gathering
and data analysis.
Dr Kayvan Karimi
The Ideal Student’s Progress: Third Year
• First six months year 3:
– By now you should have
embarked on data analysis;
– Search data for crosscutting themes;
– Revisit the literature;
– Engage with explanatory
theories.
• Identify and test your
major and subsidiary
research findings;
• Interpretation of findings.
Professor Julienne Hanson
• Last six months of third
year to write-up:
– Write empirical chapters
first;
– Then literature review and
methodology;
– Then findings and
generalisations;
– Finally, the problem
definition.
• Viva could be four - six
months from submission.
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Invite Open Discussion from
Audience
(time check -11.00 a.m. finish)
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
What is Research?
• Characteristics of
research:
– Intelligence gathering
asks the ‘what’ questions;
– Research asks the ‘why’
questions.
• Three kinds of research
– Testing-out (easiest);
– Problem-solving
(medium difficulty);
– Exploratory (hardest).
Professor Julienne Hanson
• Research requires
analysis:
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Explanations;
Relationships;
Comparisons;
Predictions;
Generalisations;
Theories;
• Independent, critical
thought.
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Questions to ask before you start
• Relevance:
– Does the research address an
important question?
• Feasibility:
– Can you carry it out in the time
and with the resources you have
to hand?
• Coverage:
– Have you identified all the right
issues?
• Originality:
– Will you be making a
contribution to knowledge?
Professor Julienne Hanson
• Rigour:
– Will your data be accurate and
your findings sound?
• Objectivity:
– Will your results by fair and
unbiased?
• Drawbacks:
– Are there any?
• Ethics:
– Have you understood the ethical
implications of your research, and
has everyone involved given
informed consent to participate?
Dr Kayvan Karimi
The Four Elements of the Form
• A PhD is like a fugue or Tai Chi!
It has a ‘form’ which directs your
energy and governs the output.
• There is a general consensus that
by the time you finish your PhD
you should be able to:
– Explain the purpose of your
research;
– Describe how the research was done;
– Discuss and analyse the data or the
evidence;
– Present the findings from the
research;
– Arrive at some generalisable
conclusions.
Professor Julienne Hanson
• Context;
• Focus;
• Data;
• Contribution to
Knowledge.
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Context
• This is the field of study
within which you are
situated and which you
must know well, i.e., to a
professional standard:
– Developments;
– Controversies;
– Breakthroughs.
• In other words, you have
to be at the cutting edge of
your subject matter.
Professor Julienne Hanson
• Usually demonstrated
through literature review;
• Not done for its own sake
but to show you are in
control of your subject;
• Organise the material in
an interesting and useful
way:
– Evaluate contributions;
– Identify trends;
– Expose key strengths /
weaknesses.
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Focus
• Here you spell out exactly
what you are researching
and why:
– What is your problem?
– How can you address and
answer it?
– Are there key questions or
hypotheses to test?
– What evidence (data) can
you bring to bear on it?
Professor Julienne Hanson
• Thesis, supported by
theory, evidence, analysis
and interpretation in an
unfolding sequence that
advances understanding;
• Here you need a good
‘story line’ - this is what a
‘thesis’ is!
• Necessary and sufficient
but not excessive content;
• Criterion for inclusion is
“Does it advance my
argument?”
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Research Methods / Data
• You need to say:
• You need to show that your
methods were:
– What methods were used,
(technical name, where people can
find out more about it);
– When did the research take place,
(year, duration);
– Where did it happen, (location,
situation);
– Who or what was involved,
(population, sample frame, precise
numbers);
– How was access to subjects or
data obtained, (how were they
selected, sampling technique);
•
– Why these particular methods are
appropriate to research your
problem (past applications).
Professor Julienne Hanson
– Feasible (resources, time);
– Appropriate ( the best way of
gathering the necessary evidence);
– Suitable (the right material to
address the research question);
– Professional (rigorous,
consistent, coherent);
– Representative (valid and
reliable);
– Ethical (did not infringe people's
rights);
Good research evaluates the
weaknesses as well as the
strengths of its methodologies.
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Contribution to Knowledge
• You need to say why your
work is important:
– How it helps the
development of the subject;
– Significance of findings;
– Limitations on argument;
– What further research needs
to be done.
• How have the context and
focus shifted as a result of
your work?
Professor Julienne Hanson
• The assumption is that
your successors will be
starting at a different point
as a result of your work;
• Not so much a summary
and conclusions as:
– Findings;
– Generalisations.
• This is where the major
effort is made in drawing
the thesis together.
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Originality / Significance
• Francis 1976:
– Setting down new information
for the first time;
– Extending a previously original
piece of work;
– Carrying out an original
research project;
– Inventing a new method or
technique;
– Synthesising the ideas, methods
or techniques of others;
– Showing originality in testing
someone else’s ideas.
Professor Julienne Hanson
• Phillips, 1992:
– New empirical work;
– New synthesis that has not been
made before;
– Trying out in this country
something that has only been
done elsewhere;
– Applying an existing technique
to a new area;
– Bringing new evidence to an old
issue;
– Combining methods from
different disciplines;
– Opening up a new area for work
in an existing field.
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Macro, Meso and Micro Research
The fundamental relation between breadth and depth
in the conduct of research - research has a ‘shape’.
• Surveys (macro, large
scale, representative);
• Case studies (meso,
smallish scale, a few
well chosen examples);
• Ethnography (micro,
total immersion in the
detailed social world).
Too little data
for useful research
Narrow and deep
Professor Julienne Hanson
Broad and shallow
Too large a problem to
explore all dimensions
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Triangulation
using two or three different, independent methods to
plot where trends in the data lie
• Different methods of data
collection have different
strengths and weaknesses;
• To minimise the problems
that result from using just
one method, a researcher
should use two or more documents
methods of data collection
to test hypotheses and
measure variables.
Professor Julienne Hanson
observations
children's play
in the school
playground
interviews
Triangulation
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Ethical Principles Guiding Research
• Non-maleficence
• Do no harm
• Beneficence
• Do positive good
• Autonomy
• Show respect for rights
of self-determination
• Justice
• Treat people fairly
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Research Cultures
• Sciences:
– Large capital investment in
equipment and lab space;
– Designated lines of research;
– Supervisor exercises strong
control, ‘line management’ of
students on projects;
– Apprenticeship model;
– ‘Dogsbody’ work;
– Joint ownership of work, joint
papers;
– Low creativity, can student make
original contribution?
– Possible exploitation.
Professor Julienne Hanson
• Humanities:
– Few resource implications
entailed in research;
– Students come with topics;
– Student’s research has to
compete for attention with
supervisor’s own research;
– Supervisor as role model;
– Greater innovation;
– Student owns the work,
supervisor has an interest;
– High creativity. Can the student
pull it off?
– Possible neglect.
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Open Discussion
(time check - move on at 11.15 a.m.)
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Making the Best Use of Space Syntax
(time check - 11.15 a.m. to 11.55 a.m.)
• Is space syntax a
‘theory’ (way of
seeing) or a ‘method’
(toolbox of
representations and
techniques for spatial
analysis)?
• Both, but could be
used as either!
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Space Syntax & Theory Building
• It’s a paradigm shift. It changes our ‘way of
seeing’:
– Architecture as a discipline in its own right (rather than a
meeting ground for other disciplines such as building sciences
or sociology);
– The internal logic of space as a relational / configurational
system (no need to use built form typologies based on
appearances, or analogies from biology or linguistics);
– Random background process (local to global processes,
distributed design, emergent properties of evolving systems);
– Society as a spatialised phenomenon (space & transpace,
correspondence & non-correspondence, long and short models,
the law of sufficient embodiment).
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Space Syntax as a Toolbox
• More pragmatic approach that avoids the
complexity and uncertainty of a paradigm shift:
– A very wide choice of tools, all fit for purpose. Too wide?
– Triangulation almost impossible to avoid! Purely spatial data
and measures (integration at various radii), across a range of
different spatial representations (axial, convex, isovist) or
with observed events (land use patterns, pedestrian flows)
and increasingly with simulation (agent based modelling);
– Orientated to pattern, ‘pattern language’. Essential for
understanding architecture, which is all about about building
patterns in space / volume. Representations are (now) almost
all visual and therefore immediately accessible to / can be
assimilated by architectural intuition.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Why Use Space Syntax?
• Originality, significance:
– Setting down new information or data on configurational
analysis, through a new empirical study. At the moment,
every new study generates new primary data;
– Reworking an existing / previous study or architectural
criticism of a building or settlement, to include syntactic
analysis and shed new insight on an old issue or debate;
– Extending the range of examples / case studies in a
previously researched area within space syntax;
– Inventing a new variation on a space syntax method,
measure or technique, methodological innovation;
– Combining space syntax with methods from different
disciplines (triangulation) to make a new synthesis.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Why Use Space Syntax?
• Rigour and objectivity:
– Conforms to accepted definitions of scientific objectivity, in
that different people doing the same analysis should come up
with the same results. Need to set down the protocols used for
carrying out the analysis, levels of data resolution etc.;
– Possible to work across the range of spatial scales from the
individual dwelling to the city, bringing a unified approach to
the subject;
– Wide range of representations of space, measures and
modelling / simulation techniques. Too wide?
– No applicability gap. Research translates seamlessly into
intervention, important in an applied discipline like
architecture.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Why Use Space Syntax?
• Research scope and ambition:
– Allows researchers to engage in ‘problem-solving’ and
‘exploratory’ research as well as ‘testing-out’ of existing
ideas, methods and hypotheses (normal science);
– Provides a firm foundation for ‘explanatory’ research about
the relation between space and human behaviour or society
and culture, areas where it is often difficult to make
inferences, find interpretations or show relationships;
– Hard spatial data. Interpretations will often remain
speculative but as methods and statistics become more
sophisticated can begin to show a clear correlation between
spatial factors and social outcomes (pedestrian flows, crime).
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Limitations
– Increasing trend to abstraction. Over-reliance on sophisticated
graphic images. Feeling that its got to mean something! But
what? Disconnection from ‘real world’. Are we in danger of
forgetting that our subject matter is architecture and the built
environment and the people who produce and use it?
– Few mechanisms for data sharing apart from Space Syntax
Symposia, which are too far apart for most PhD students to
use as a way of getting ‘up to speed’. Difficult to find out what
is actually going on. Much public domain information is 3-5
years behind the game.
– Limited learning from research project to research project or
from design scheme to design scheme. Limited investment in
building the research databases that will allow comparative,
cross cultural and or longitudinal studies to be done.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
More Limitations
– The missing link between analysis and design. The
theory/methodology is robust in investigating given
conditions, but less straight-forward in dealing with future
conditions, if such conditions fall within the problem
definition of the research.
– Difficulty in getting access to spatial data, such as appropriate
cartographic materials or GIS information, as well as difficulty
in gathering first-hand observational data.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Open Discussion
(finish at 11.55 a.m. for 12.00 noon)
Wrap-up. Thank everyone for their
contributions and insights. Will ensure the
presentation is on the Symposium Website.
Reconvene for Urban Form (Kayvan) and
Domestic Space (Julienne) Workshops at
1.30 p.m.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi
Preparation for This Afternoon
• Over lunch, will all those attending ether
workshop this afternoon please prepare the
following:
– Be ready to briefly introduce yourself and your
research topic to the rest of the audience; and
– On a record card, please write down the most
important question or issue that you want to
bring to the table, and be prepared to share it
with your fellow delegates.
Professor Julienne Hanson
Dr Kayvan Karimi