Just around the corner from where you are: probabilistic isovist fields, inference and embodied projection
McElhinney, Sam and Psarra, Sophia (2014) Just around the corner from where you are: probabilistic isovist fields, inference and embodied projection. Journal of Space Syntax, 5 (1). pp. 109-132. ISSN 2044-7507
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This paper concerns the development of a new computational stochastic analysis in order to gain insight into situated vision in spatial environments. It is structured in three parts. The first two parts present the theoretical framework for the new model, based on the following propositions: firstly, that isovists are bound configurations containing one or more areas of spatial points that are intervisible; secondly, that observers are capable of embodied projection in space, anticipating how relations seen from a position can be seen from other regions that are one step away from the current position, and building expectations about other spaces visible from these regions; and thirdly, that we need a method that describes isovists not as static units but as dynamic seeds for a global framework of knowledge. The final part of the paper presents the new method with the following functionalities: a. continuous-time stochastic discretisation of space for isovist root selection and isovist generation; b. quantification of geometric isovists properties based on successive isovist intersection; c. high resolution of isovist analysis; d. four quantitative isovist measures. These measures are discussed in hypothetical layouts and in the context of Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House. The paper contributes a dynamic modelling technique to the discussion of diagrams and their capacity to represent embodied vision as actualised and virtually embedded possibilities, rather than as static structures.
This journal issue is entitled 'Models and diagrams in architectural design'.
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