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Understanding how people interpret building circulation is a critical topic for architectural design and post-occupancy evaluation. However, few studies have examined relationships between architectural circulation and human wayfinding processes, such as spatial complexity and wayfinding difficulty. To assess these, we propose a cognitive-architectural description of circulation typology. Based on a prominent architectural case, the Amsterdam Municipal Orphanage designed by Aldo van Eyck, we explore a graph-based method to create systematically modified building layouts. We develop three distinct circulation types, linear, curved, and grid-based, which differ in their geometrical structure but are comparable in their functional and topological organizations. To identify the structural differences between these circulation types, we conduct an objective spatial analysis of layout visibility and examine subjective judgments of anticipated wayfinding difficulty. Based on the subjective judgments, the linear circulation is the easiest of the three and the grid-based the most difficult, while the curved circulation is intermediate. This is only partially in line with the results of the objective analyses. Hence, we conclude that further behavioural validation of wayfinding difficulties is needed to clarify our findings.

This paper presents a topography-sensitive cognitive model for analysis and prediction of pedestrian movement in urban settings. Topography affects visibility and therefore the spatial awareness of pedestrians. It also accentuates the role of physical effort during travel and route selection. The existing models fall short in their reference to these issues.A thorough description of the proposed model is followed by a validation -the model was tested against two existing models in three case studies in Haifa and Jerusalem, Israel. The proposed model outperformed the others in the steeper parts of the case studies. Future model development is discussed.

The spatial arrangement of socio-economic facilities in the city is shaped by the interaction of many individuals in the context of a particular physical structure. The urban physical environment displays characteristics of networks (graphs) where nodes and edges are embedded in space. For decades, the analysis of urban network structure represents an attractive model for describing urban phenomena. This paper presents novel means of understanding how socioeconomic activities are distributed in urban environment, what forces influence their spatial patterns and how urban structure and functions are mutually dependent. We investigate the functional aspect of urban spatial networks; specifically we study the spatial distribution of food and drink public facilities in the historical district of Tel Aviv-Yafo Israel. These places, café s, coffee shops, restaurants and others are known as 'third place' in urban sociology and play an important role in establishing a sense of place. We propose a novel graph analytic framework in which the third places are incorporated by means of visual accessibility. The development of this framework emerged from the concept of Integrative Visibility Graph (IVG), a quantitative method, based on visibility analysis of urban structure and its functioning. Several centrality measures from complex network theory are applied to the proposed graphs in order to evaluate structural position of third place locations in the urban network. Our findings illustrate a strong correlation between street centrality values and third place distribution.

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Geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA) is a primary remote sensing tool utilized in land-cover mapping and change detection. Land-cover patches are the primary data source for landscape metrics and ecological indicator calculations; however, their application to visual landscape character (VLC) indicators was little investigated to date. To bridge the knowledge gap between GEOBIA and VLC, this paper puts forward the theoretical concept of using viewpoint as a landscape imageability indicator into the practice of a multi-temporal land-cover case study and explains how to interpret the indicator. The study extends the application of GEOBIA to visual landscape indicator calculations. In doing so, eight different remote sensing imageries are the object of GEOBIA, starting from a historical aerial photograph (1957) and CORONA declassified scene (1965) to contemporary (2018) UAV-delivered imagery. The multi-temporal GEOBIA-delivered land-cover patches are utilized to find the minimal isovist set of viewpoints and to calculate three imageability indicators: the number, density, and spacing of viewpoints. The calculated indicator values, viewpoint rank, and spatial arrangements allow us to describe the scale, direction, rate, and reasons for VLC changes over the analyzed 60 years of landscape evolution. We found that the case study nature reserve (“Kózki”, Poland) landscape imageability transformed from visually impressive openness to imageability due to the impression of several landscape rooms enclosed by forest walls. Our results provide proof that the number, rank, and spatial arrangement of viewpoints constitute landscape imageability measured with the proposed indicators. Discussing the method’s technical limitations, we believe that our findings contribute to a better understanding of land-cover change impact on visual landscape structure dynamics and further VLC indicator development.

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