Visibility Graph Analysis (VGA) is a space syntax method for quantifying some socio-spatial properties of the built environment by mapping the floor plan into a grid. Presently, VGA mainly relies on mean values of the measures while the individual room-to-room (“interspatial”) relations are not considered or achievable by the common VGA software – depthMapX. A new software package, Viraph, is developed using a weighed Dijkstra algorithm to calculate depths. The floor plan is mapped into convex areas to increase the speed of calculation. The interspatial relations are calculated by averaging the point-to-point depths in-between. The effectiveness of Viraph is demonstrated through a case study, which compares the houses from the late Victorian era with Wright’s Prairie style with a detailed analysis of Francis Little House (designed in 1902). In summary, Viraph has showed a significantly higher calculation speed for VGA, and capability of capturing some socio-spatial relations of the styles by measuring the interspatial depth. Viraph’s improved speed for measurement has made VGA analysis more accessible for general design researchers and practitioners. Further this paper shows that the added feature of measuring the interspatial depth opens a new perspective for enhancing traditional space syntax analysis.

中文翻译：

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Viraph：探索可见性图及其分析的潜力

可视化图分析（VGA）是一种空间语法方法，用于通过将平面图映射到网格中来量化已构建环境的某些社会空间属性。当前，VGA主要依赖于度量的平均值，而通用VGA软件depthMapX则未考虑或无法实现各个房间之间（“空间”）的关系。使用权重的Dijkstra算法开发了一个新软件包Viraph，以计算深度。将平面图映射到凸面区域以提高计算速度。通过平均它们之间的点对点深度来计算空间关系。通过案例研究证明了Viraph的有效性，该案例将维多利亚时代后期的房屋与莱特的草原风格进行了比较，并对弗朗西斯·利特兰（Francis Little House）（1902年设计）进行了详细分析。总而言之，Viraph对VGA显示出明显更高的计算速度，并具有通过测量空间深度来捕获样式的某些社会空间关系的能力。Viraph改进的测量速度使VGA分析更易于一般设计研究人员和从业人员使用。本文进一步表明，测量空间深度的附加功能为增强传统空间语法分析开辟了新的视角。