Finding the Logic of Location: an Analysis of the Distribution Pattern of Urban Activities in the City of Colombo with Space Syntax

The self-organized order of the types, scales, and locations of different activities in urban areas has throughout been a matter of concern for planning. In order to regulate ‘unplanned’ distribution of activities in urban areas, planning authorities used different tools, of which zoning is still the most popular. However, except under heavily regimented conditions, zoning has continuously failed to withstand the forces that empowered urban activities to find their preferred locations in an urban area. Hence, planners need more strategic approaches than conventional methods in order to deal with the location dynamics of urban activities. In this regard, a comprehensive understanding on space appropriation by urban activities and the methods in which such understanding can be effectively integrated into planning strategies, are essential in planners. In a context where the available theories were limited in serving for this purpose, the Space Syntax method provides planners with a more convincing method to analyze and simulate spatial dynamics of urban areas, relating to ‘spatial integration’, which is an attribute that emerges from the overall configuration of the physical environment. Using this method, this study explored the potential relationship between the location choices of different urban activity types, and the level of spatial integration of their current locations within the core area of the city of Colombo.