The Background network is part of a theoretical conception of a generic city as being comprised of a foreground network of linked centres at all scales set into a background network of residential space. The background network is said to vary across residential of spatial areas whole spatial cultures, depending on the way in which that culture seeks to restrain and structure co-presence between, say, inhabitants and strangers or men and women. See: Generic city.
Background network
Sources
Hillier, B. (2001), A theory of the city as object: or, how spatial laws mediate the social construction of urban psace, In: Proceedings of 3rd International Space Syntax Symposium. pp. 02.21;
Hillier, B. & Netto, V. (2002), Society seen through the prism of space: outline of a theory of society and space, Urban Design International 7, 181-203. pp. 182;
Hillier, B. (1996, 2007), Space is the Machine: A Configurational Theory of Architecture. Space Syntax: London, UK.pp vi.