An abstract representation of interior space is the foundation for any spatial analysis of human activity in such environments. It must capture high level concepts such as rooms, areas and corridors, but also allow for the discrete appearance of human behaviour (for example two people will not walk through the same corridor in the same way). Within the field of Space Syntax three such representations have been proposed, axial lines, convex spaces and visibility graphs. However none of these representations are both unambiguous and allow for aggregating results. Axial lines are reductions of the space into longest lines of sight and convex spaces are ”the largest and fattest convex spaces” possible. While both are meaningful abstractions, they are ambiguous and depend on the person creating them. Visibility Graphs on the other hand provide a uniform unit of analysis by dividing the space using a lattice grid into cells of equal size and connecting the cells if they are intervisible. This representation however does not allow for a meaningful aggregation of spatial human behaviour data, given its very precise nature. We propose a new representation, one which clusters adjacent cells of the visibility graph based on different metrics and thus provides both aggregatable areas and a robust method of creation. We explore how these various metrics and properties of the visibility graph create different types of clusters and specifically examine connectivity and Visual Mean Depth on various types of spaces, from simple shapes, to complex multi-floor buildings. Finally, we demonstrate how this aids the analysis of human activity in indoor spaces by focusing on a large sample of observed activity in office spaces. We argue that this new representation provides a robust but also meaningful foundation for the analysis of indoor space.


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    Title :

    Partitioning indoor space using visibility graphs: investigating user behavior in office spaces


    Contributors:
    Koutsolampros, P (author) / Sailer, K (author) / Varoudis, T (author)

    Publication date :

    2018-09-01


    Remarks:

    In: Proceedings of 4th International Symposium Formal Methods in Architecture - 2018. : Porto, Portugal. (2018)


    Type of media :

    Paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



    Classification :

    DDC:    629




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