Since the Social Logic of Space was published in 1984, Bill Hillier and his colleagues at University College London have been conducting research on how space features in the form and functioning of buildings and cities. A key outcome is the concept of 'spatial configuration' - meaning relations which take account of other relations in a complex. New techniques have been developed and applied to a wide range of architectural and urban problems.

The aim of this book is to assemble some of this work and show how it leads the way to a new type of theory of architecture: an 'analytic' theory in which understanding and design advance together.