Star model

Star model is a technique for seeing cities in terms of normalised angular choice (NAchoice) and normalised angular integration (NAintegration) all at once and at the same time to explore what the variables mean in terms of urban spatial structure. The high and low points on the vertical axis are the mean NAchoice (high) and mean NAintegration (low) for each city, and left and right points on the horizontal axis are their maximum NAintegration (left) and maximum NAchoice 9right). Each measure is a standard score varying about 0, with the negative minimum at the centre and the positive maximum at the edge.
So mean and max NAintegration show the ease of accessibility in the foreground (max) and background (mean) networks in the usual syntactic sense, while mean and max NAchoice index the degree of structure in the system: the mean NAchoice the degree to which the background network forms a continuous grid with direct connections, rather than being broken up into separate sub-areas, while maxNAchoice represents the degree to which the foreground grid structures the system by deformations and interruptions of the grid.


Hillier, B., Yang, T., Turner, A., (2012) Advancing depthmap to advance our understanding of cities. In: Greene, M and Reyes, J and Castro, A, (eds.) 8th International Space Syntax Symposium. Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile: Santiago, Chile.