Conferences
13th NOVEMBER
Tim Stonor speaks at Architects’ Journal conference 'Designing Safer Environments'.
Space Syntax Managing Director Tim Stonor spoke at the Architects’ Journal conference ‘Designing Safer Environments’, held today at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London. Tim discussed the role that evidence-based design can play in reducing crime in urban areas, using examples of recent Space Syntax work on the Elephant & Castle Development Framework, the Croydon Metropolitan Centre Area Action Plan, and the Hampshire Town Centre Action Plan.
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12th JUNE
6th International Space Syntax Symposium Istanbul, Turkey.
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31st JANUARY - 1st FEBRUARY
International retail conference Brussels -
What's up in Town
Tim Stonor’s contribution to the conference focused on the powerful role that spatial layout plays in the shaping of movement and human encounter in retail environments, both inside and outside of buildings. Using examples including the regeneration of historic towns in the UK, a major retail centre in Tokyo and a retailing strategy for the entire city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Stonor showed how retail layouts can be designed in natural ways that enhance social and economic value. This, he argued, is the essence of successful retail and is at the core of sustainable retail development. “Natural retail design” means knowing how people take decisions when moving around urban centres and building interiors. Watching people go about their everyday activity is the key – seeing how they try to take simple routes between origins and destinations, and how these routes overlap in certain places teaches us that retail often works best when it is “on the way” to somewhere else. Relying on attraction alone is a recipe fraught with risk. Being accessible and attractive is key. Such evidence may sometimes fly in the face of “conventional wisdom” but not in that of history and, Tim argued, sound financial practice.
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