Brasilia, Brazil, 29 March - 3 April 1999
All That Meets The Eye: Overlapping isovists as a tool for understanding
preferable location of static people in public squares
Maria Beatriz de Arruda Campos
The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies
(Torrington Place Site)
University College London
Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT
England
tel (44) (0)171 813 4364
fax (44) (0)171 813 4363
email bcampos@FreeNet.co.uk
www http://www.spacesyntax.com
The current state of knowledge claims that the gradual occupation of public
spaces follows an outside to inside movement with people sitting where
they have the best view. An analysis of a sample of 12 squares in the
City of London revealed different patterns of static occupancy.
This paper argues that the pattern of occupancy derives from the internal
spaces multiple visual connections to the surrounding area. A new analytical
method was developed involving point isovists from the intersection of
axial lines (topological changes) from which intersection points any part
of the public space could be seen. For each square, the isovists were
overlapped resulting in convex spaces with different degrees of exposure
and ranked accordingly. Overlapped isovists maps were statistically analysed
against the recorded mean number of static people for each area. The analysis
revealed that in 9 out of 12 squares people's preference for sitting spaces
was inversely related to the increasing degree of overlapping isovists.
Only one case revealed a clear preference of static people for highly
visually connected places. The paper will discuss in detail these results
and investigate distinctive patterns for morning and afternoon periods.
The paper will also discuss preferable location according to people's
activities and evaluate the results in relation to the possible extrapolation
of patterns of space use of public squares.
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