Visualising the structure of architectural open spaces based on shape analysis

Abstract

This paper proposes the application of some well known two-dimensional geometrical shape descriptors for the visualisation of the structure of architectural open spaces. The paper demonstrates the use of visibility measures such as distance to obstacles and amount of visible space to calculate shape descriptors such as convexity and skeleton of the open space. The aim of the paper is to indicate a simple, objective and quantifiable approach to understand the structure of open spaces otherwise impossible due to the complex construction of built structures.