Graph Theory | Genesis Lab

Designing with Space Syntax A configurative approach to architectural layout, proposing a computational methodology

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Authors: Pirouz Nourian, Samaneh Rezvani, Sevil Sariyildiz

Abstract:

This paper introduces a design methodology and a toolkit developed as a parametric CAD program for configurative design of architectural plan layouts. Using this toolkit, designers can start plan layout process with sketching the way functional spaces need to connect to each other. A tool draws an interactive bubble diagram and a set of tools reveal feasible geometric interpretations of the proposed bubble diagram in terms of plan layout graphs. Offering real-time Space Syntax analyses at the same time, the tools provide feedback on the spatial performance, which is translatable into the likely social performance of the plan layout patterns.

Easiest paths for walking and cycling; Combining syntactic and geographic analyses in studying walking and cycling mobility

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Authors: Pirouz Nourian, Sevil Sariyildiz, Frank van der Hoeven

Abstract:

In this paper we discuss fundamentals of a new computational approach to configurative analysis and synthesis and present a number of advancements we have made in the direction of computational analysis of walking and cycling mobility. We have scrutinized the notion of distance and addressed it in correspondence with the notion of geodesic or optimum path. We present a new all-inclusive pathfinding algorithm for walking and cycling and show how this pathfinding algorithm can be used as a new basis for a number of conventional network indicators such as closeness and betweenness centrality measures-taking into account the physics of walking/cycling mobility as well as the cognitive aspect of human navigation. To this end, we revisit the meaning of distance and introduce a new notion of geodesic, which we call ‘easiest path’, i.e. a path that is reasonably short, flat and at the same time cognitively simple. Using this new geodesic, we reconstruct betweenness centrality indicator and introduce two new accessibility measures as ‘proximity to any’, ‘vicinity of all’ and a method of zoning as to walking and cycling accessibility. We show how suitability of locations as to their walking/cycling access can be modelled in a way that is immediately understandable for both citizens and urban designers/planners. Models are implemented as a toolkit, available as a freeware application..

SYNTACTIC ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN METHODOLOGY; Integrating real-time Space Syntax analysis in a configurative architectural design process

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Authors: Pirouz Nourian, Samaneh Rezvani, Sevil Sariyildiz

Abstract:

This paper presents a computational toolkit developed for configurative architectural design, i.e. a computational design process, equipped with real-time space syntax analyses in a parametric CAD environment, which begins with defining the desired spatial configuration in form of a bubble diagram. The syntactic design methodology put forward by this toolkit is aimed at bridging the gap between space syntax as an analytic theory of architecture and architectural design practice. The toolkit has been made in an attempt to investigate the possibility of deriving at plan layout patterns through sketching spatial configuration using an ‘interactive bubble diagram’ that represents a spatial connectivity graph. In other words, we have worked on a way of reaching at concrete plan layouts from an abstract connectivity pattern as a graph. Beginning the design process with a graph allows for real-time feedback of Space Syntax measures such as integration, choice and difference factor. Besides, by choosing every space as a ‘root’, designers can immediately view their configurative ideas, literally from different points of views in automatically drawn justified graphs. In this paper, we give an overview of a syntactic design process as a graph theoretical approach to architectural design and report our preliminary results.