A Justified Plan Graph Analysis of Social Housing in Mexico (1974–2019): Spatial Transformations and Social Implications

Space Syntax researchers have asserted that the spatial configuration of the planning of a work of architecture, such as a house, reflects how social properties are inscribed in its design. In social housing, the social inscriptions through space, which promote a particular way of dwelling, are not initially determined by the inhabitants. However, through appropriation, inhabitants mold the space to their liking, challenging preconceived ways of dwelling. Therefore, this research aims to determine what kinds of social structures the spatial configuration of social housing are promoting and how the inhabitants' transformations have altered the spatial experience. Mexico's housing sector developed from a “welfare approach” in the nineteen seventies and eighties to a “market rationale” since the nineties. During this time, different dwelling perspectives were inscribed in the spatial configuration of the homes. Using the justified plan graph (JPG) method, six social housing dwellings from these two time periods, Welfare State and market rationale, are spatially analyzed, both in their original design and in the resulting design from their inhabitant's modifications. Graph analysis is used in this paper for providing spatial insights into social housing design and its users' transformations, while pointing to further research needs.

A Combined Grammatical and Syntactical Method

This chapter presents a method that combines Shape Grammar and Space Syntax approaches to offer a rigorous way of understanding an architectural style and then producing variations of that style. The two approaches have only rarely been connected in the past, and the relationship between them has never been fully developed. The method commences with a justified plan graph (JPG) grammar and illustrates the grammatical interpretation of the structure of this syntax. The JPG technique is then followed by a massing grammar, which adds a consideration of architectural form. A significant strength of this method is that it encapsulates both the formal and functional properties of architecture. As part of the introduction to this method, the chapter employs two generic grammars, drawn from the combined method, along with their abstraction, measures, and configurations.

Syntactical and Mathematical Measures of Spatial Configuration

This chapter presents a detailed explanation of the construction and analysis of a justified plan graph (JPG) of a building plan. It introduces the classic syntactical and mathematical measures derived from a JPG and discusses their interpretation in terms of the original architectural plan the results are derived from. Thereafter, an alternative weighted and directed JPG is introduced which uses four measures: centrality, degree centrality, centrality closeness, and betweenness. The mathematical measures introduced in this chapter are applied in Section 3 of this book to examine two syntactical and grammatical applications. Throughout the present chapter, three “Palladian” villas—Villa Saraceno, Villa Sepulveda, and Villa Poiana—are used as examples to explain and demonstrate the concepts.

A Justified Plan Graph (JPG) grammar approach to identifying spatial design patterns in an architectural style

This paper presents a hybrid approach that selectively merges aspects of both the theories of Shape Grammar and Space Syntax to investigate spatial design patterns. The paper describes the development of a generic Justified Plan Graph (g-JPG) grammar. This grammatically nuanced, syntactically derived approach is then demonstrated through a more specific JPG (s-JPG) grammar to identify spatial design patterns in the rural domestic architecture of Glenn Murcutt. The results are then discussed in terms of Murcutt's architecture from four perspectives: grammatical transformation of syntax, epistemological questions, similarity or disparity and finally in terms of JPG variations. The findings of this paper suggest that the combined analytic approach facilitates the exploration of both the grammatical and syntactical genotypes of sets of architectural designs.