Statics of space syntax: Analysis of daylighting

Abstract

Space syntax involves a set of techniques for analyzing the spatial configurations of various spaces at building and urban scales. Religious spaces, such as prayer halls, are examples of buildings where observers experience space mostly from a single point of view. Furthermore, traditional space syntax is mainly used in the analysis of visibility and space cognition in terms of isovists and graph-based measures. The other aspects of space cognition, such as day lighting, artificial lighting, and glare, are carried in the isolation of the space syntax analysis. This paper proposes the scaling of the space syntax field for the inclusion of other parameters, such as daylighting, and integration of the associated performative measures to space syntax analysis of the mosque typology to aid in the studying of overall space cognition based on comfort and environmental parameters. We present a case study on a typical mosque layout using multi-objective optimization. The analysis presented in the paper has implications for the architectural designs of spaces with respect to glare management and daylight potential. Moreover, it is unique and builds on our previous work for the exploration of comfort, visibility, and proximity thresholds for stationary observers. Keywords: Space syntax, Daylighting, Mosque, Cognition, Multi-objective optimization, Genetic algorithms (GA)