Computational models for measuring spatial quality of interior design in virtual environment

Abstract

This paper presents a computational model designed to analyze and to assess quality of architectural space. The model consists of two parts: first part is a model of subdivided enclosed spaces, which is an approximation of spatial layout regarding the enclosure and the circulation path. Second part is a model of spatial quality assessment using three spatial parameters and two distinct approaches. The first approach of this assessment is visual distance and the second approach is viewing angle. The assessment valued by these approaches then combined to obtain spatial quality ranking of each of the subdivided enclosed space. Previous studies on spatial assessment showed the relationship between visual distance and spatial quality can be modeled through mathematical approaches. Our work proposes an improvement on the method of spatial mapping model and spatial quality assessment. Experiments have been conducted on interior design and we developed spatial evaluation using three parameters: visual openness, privacy and physical accessibility. Furthermore, we conducted a comparison study of privacy assessment on design variances. Finding shows some distinctive results on the assessment approaches that can lead to more elaborative spatial quality evaluation. The outcome on spatial quality assessment can facilitate spatial quality evaluation of interior design in early stages of design development.