The Isovist Grammar: Automating Isovists and Isovist Fields With Visual Rules

Isovists and isovist fields are used to analyze spatial factors of an architectural design according to connective qualities of spaces. Still, the automation of isovist calculations requires significant translation from the visual to the numerical. This research presents a shape grammar that formalizes the visual framework of isovist calculations through visual means. More specifically, the graphical calculation of isovists is formalized by the graphic definition of rules, allowing for a mapping from the manual drafting of an isovist field to the digital automation of the same logic, providing a general framework for producing isovist fields visually. The isovist grammar is implemented in Shape Machine, a visual rewriting system that automates shape rule applications to verify and test the visual calculations. The results and discussion suggest how this allows for the furthering of isovist techniques to inform the analysis and synthesis of architectural designs.