Space is one of the four traditions in geography research , and building space is an important type of space in people ’ s daily life.Geographers ’ focus on urban form is an important way to pay attention to space . Space syntax theory is an important genre in the study of urban form .In its fledgling years ,it has focused on explo-ring the relationship between space and architecture/urban.Therefore,it has gained fruitful results about building space study oversea ,but it is relatively scarce in China .The paper summarized the foreign study of building space through three aspects-penetration and isolation , guidance and implied ,exchange and sharing .We hope it can pro-vide reference for domestic building space study ,and provide a useful inspiration in how we see the relevance of space and society in urban planning .