Territorial Gradients Theodoros Dounas Theodoros.dounas@xjtlu.edu.

cn The paper presents preliminary research and analysis of special cases of spaces and boundaries. Analysis of space usually concentrates in peaceful productive uses, without taking into account special cases of spaces where control and the regulation of a person's freedom become a priority. Such cases are military installations, prisons, mental hospitals, or even urban spaces during a riot. These spaces carry strong hard boundaries that intensify the use the space carries. These cases carry a strong social significance even though usually they appear disconnected from the rest of society: the hard boundaries these spaces carry create both their disconnection and the intensity of their uses/functions. Our analysis is based on the control of territorial gradients: spaces that exist between hard boundaries, where Control becomes the primary intensive use, even if the declared use is other. Territorial Gradients can be perceived in terms of gradual change from one situation of control to another. For example the perimeter fence in a military installation is a boundary that carries two territorial gradients, one from inside and one from the outside, with the fence being the hard line connecting the two gradients. In urban configurations territorial gradients exist in both open air spaces and urban densities during urban riots or periods of social unrest where normal functional cities are transformed in battlefields

Our specific case studies are two -fold : Military installations inside or close to urban centers in Greece and the center of the city of Athens during the riots of December of 2008. Even though initially these examples appear different and distant, the means for controlling both are the same. Their similarity lies in the resistance to control that is built by social groups, either in military camps or in urban configurations. Territorial gradients as analytic devices certainly pose more questions than provide answers in the subject of intensive use of space. By analyzing and learning how these spaces can be created or destroyed one can learn how to create urban design and planning strategies either for making control easier or difficult inside urban configurations. In terms of characteristics that are analyzed are lines of sight, patrols, aerial and ground observation, dispersion of crowds in open air spaces, lines of police or military formations, viewed always from the creation or destruction of boundaries. One of the unique space characteristics rarely analyzed before in scientific research are the territorial gradients created by the boundaries of darkness and light during the night. The means of analysis for our cases studies are space syntax theory and practice coupled with social observations of energetics, topology, and control matrices. The perceived goal of the analysis is to present at the end a preliminary computational model describing territorial gradients in situations where space is treated as a weapon.