Compare methods

	Syntactic Step Depth	Space Syntax Analysis
Field	Urban Studies	Architecture
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1984	1984
Originator	Bill Hillier & Julienne Hanson	Bill Hillier, Julienne Hanson
Type	Topological measure of depth and integration between spaces	graph-based spatial assessment method
Seminal source	Hillier, B., & Hanson, J. (1984). The Social Logic of Space. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9780521367844	Hillier, B. (1984). The Social Logic of Space. Cambridge University Press.
Aliases	Topological Step Depth, Mean Depth (Space Syntax), Justified Graph Depth, Syntactic Integration	spatial configuration analysis, graph-based space analysis
Related	4	3
Summary	Syntactic step depth is the space-syntax measure of how topologically far apart spaces are — how many turns, transitions or moves separate one space from another, regardless of metric distance. Formalised by Bill Hillier and Julienne Hanson in The Social Logic of Space (1984), it is computed from a justified graph in which every space is a node and every direct adjacency an edge, and a single step is one move between connected spaces. Aggregated into mean depth and normalised into an integration value, step depth becomes the workhorse of configurational analysis, predicting which spaces will be most used, most accessible and most central in a building or city.	Space Syntax Analysis is a quantitative method for assessing spatial configuration in buildings and urban environments through graph-based representations. Developed by Bill Hillier and Julienne Hanson in the 1980s, it quantifies how spatial layout affects human movement, visibility, and social interaction.