Space syntax techniques were developed by Professor Bill Hillier and colleagues at University College London 
(UCL) in the 1980s to analyze spatial configurations.  Based on the theory of graph, space syntax techniques 
measure the relative connectivity of different spaces in the built environment such as a city.  By analyzing the 
accessibility at local street level, the space syntax is able to simulate the likely effects of different street 
patterns.

Researches at UCL have implemented the space syntax techniques in various spatial analysis software.  
Although all those software is available free of charge for academic use, none is open source software.  Some 
even have to run inside a proprietary GIS such as MapInfo or ArcView.

With the advent of GRASS 6 and its much improved vector map processing capabilities, it became feasible to 
implement the space syntax techniques in an open source GIS.  This paper intends to document an 
experimental implementation of the space syntax techniques in GRASS 6 that relies particularly on its vector 
network analysis modules through scripting.