Chapter 1. LITERATURE RIVIEW 1.1 SOCIAL LOGIC OF SPACE In the social logic of space the authors set out a new theory of space as an aspect of social life. Since it was first published in 1984 the theory has been developed into an extensive research programme clubbed under what is now known as ‘space syntax’ theories and tools. The book describes and analyses the different kind of spatial patterns produced by buildings and town, and then examine what it is about different types of societies that leads them to adopt different spatial forms. 1.2 SPACE IS THE MACHINE “…Architecture, through the design of space, creates a virtual community…If space is designed wrongly, then natural patterns of social co-presence in space are not achieved. In such circumstances, space is at best empty, at worst abused and a source of fear.” (p. 141, can architecture cause social malaise, space is the machine). Space Syntax as a theory proposes that spaces can be configured into individual components, analysed as a network of choices made by the people occupying them and then represented as maps and graphs. If built environments are considered to be organized systems, then their primary nature is configurational, principally because it is through spatial configurations (patterns) that the social purposes for which the built environment is created are expressed. In Space Is the Machine, Hillier uses spatial configuration as a principle to provide a comprehensive theory of architecture and