Isovist

The isovists and the fields of isovists are methods of analysis morphological of architectural spaces and urban. They were developed in 1979 by Benedikt.

A isovist corresponds to the space of visibility of an observer in an architectural or urban space.

Definitions

The concept of isovist is based on the concept of environment. A environment is an architectural space or an urban open space. It can contain a whole of walls. A wall is a surface which does not let pass the light or preventing an observer from correctly seeing what there is other side of this wall (in certain cases, it is possible to regard a pane as a wall).

A isovist is defined as the geometrical form containing the whole of the visible points starting from a point of view of in a given environment. A field of isovist is a whole of isovists in a given environment.

Measurements

The isovists and the fields of isovists are especially used in spaces in two dimensions, starting from plans of architectures or urban spaces. Following measurements can be applied to the isovists :

the Surface or the Perimeter of a isovist, which provides the visible quantity of space since a point of view of the environment,
the Circularité of a isovist,
different the moments from a isovist.

The fields of isovists make it possible to observe the distribution of measurements on the isovists in an environment.

In certain cases, it is possible that isovists is infinite forms, i.e. part of contour does not exist. It is the case, for example, of a isovist calculated in a street with an opening on the sky. It is possible to force the form of the isovists with a artificial horizon , i.e. the visible points beyond of a certain distance starting from the point of view are excluded from the isovist.

See too

morphological Analysis of urban open spaces

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