The Village and the City A Diagnostic Study of the Spatial Embedding Patterns

space syntax; villages; micro-economic activities; local centres; metric; choice; betweenness During the growth of cities villages are frequently absorbed into the fabric of that conurbation. But what are the consequences of this? To what extent and how well do these villages become part of the overall fabric of the city? What is the effect on the village and the wider city? How do these villages interact with the configuration of the city to create a rich spatial urban structure? This study focuses on the spatial distribution of the internal and edge commercial activity within the villages absorbed by Manama and Muharraq, cities of Bahrain, and their correspondence with the syntactic factors as a key factor for the subject. Fully understanding these interactions entails answering three critical questions: Does the commercial activity on the streets in the ten villages of Manama and Muharraq differ in configuration and scale? If yes, what is the level of the differences? How does the commercial activity in these villages relate to the structure of the city? Are the commercial activities related to the local or global structure of the city? Are the commercial activities in absorbed villages part of the context or are they distinguished? What are the spatial dimensions of the commercial activity of the village and how do they determine the means of creating a superior spatial structure i