空间句法括了一套空间配置的分析理论和技术。它最初被设想巴特利特，伦敦大学学院的比尔·希利尔朱利安汉森和他的同事们在20世纪70年代中后期到80年代初作为一种工具，以帮助建筑师模拟他们的设计可能产生的社会效应。空间句法研究背后的原始动力是要理解

空间与社会之间的关系（而不是空间和个别主题）（希利尔和汉森，1984）。然而，空间和社会之间的关系是一种双向的：

一个社会不仅创造和使用其空间系统（定居的居民点，城市街道或复杂用途的建筑），而且一群居住其中的人直接受到空间的影响。 

特别是，一个非常强大的方式或构成通过空间影响其使用者的就是它影响行人的出行。 任何空间都足够复杂，可以描述成为一种空间构成，不同层级空间的形式，有些更具有主导性和战略性有些则处于次要地位。 这些战略性主导性的，一般来讲具有更易于访问的空间，往往会比其他孤立的空间更加吸引行人出行。这一点在Bafna空间句法中做出了很好的介绍（Bafna，2003年）。

One of the key methods of analysis used in space syntax research is  a graph-based technique that is able to identify and represent this varying pattern of more-to-less strategic spaces. Although such techniques were not originally developed as tools for predicting pedestrian movement, it has been found that there does exist a powerful relationship between movement and spatial structure and so this graph-based analysis may be used to predict relative rates of pedestrian flow. It is this predictive ability of space syntax analyses that has caused it to be adopted  as a design tool by many architects and urban planners. 

The terms space syntax betrays its early analogies to linguistic theories. It was felt that, just as there is a limited combination of words, which can be assembled into a meaningful sentence, there are a limited number of meaningful spatial configurations. 
Although it is possible to generate (using generative algorithms) a near-infinite number of, for example, building plans, only a small number of these bear any relationship to real-world designs (Hillier, 1996). The linguistic analogy is that although it is possible to randomly generate grammatically correct sentences, only a small number of these would make any sense. The conclusion is that configurations of 
spaces have not only a grammar, but also  a ‘syntax’: the pattern of relationships 
between spaces. It is this pattern of spatial relations that permit configurations to be 
meaningful and it is hypothesized that people have an innate ability to ‘read’ or 
comprehend these meanings. It is this aspect of attempting to understand how the 
meaning of spatial environments is communicated that connects space syntax to other 
academic fields interested in environmental cognition. How is it that a spatial 
configuration becomes meaningful? How are meanings transmitted? How are the 
understood? What range of meanings is encapsulated? 
By starting to ask such questions, the centre of space syntax research starts to shift 
its emphasis from society as a whole (i.e.  the origins of space syntax) to a line of 
enquiry that is firmly focused on the individual. And this, in turn, can be seen as the 
start of the journey which leads to a potential convergence with disciplines such as 
                                                          
2
 A configuration, in space syntax terminology, is a set of spatial relations in which each 
relationship affects, and is affected by, all others; the modification of any single spatial 
relation, will have an affect on the whole configuration. Usually, a configuration is of such 
complexity that words do not exist to describe it in the way that words such as ‘adjacent’ and 
‘between’ can be used to describe a more simple spatial relationship. 
3psychology that have their origins in the relationship between an individual and their 
context. Along this journey, there have been certain significant landmark events.