Adam Heisserer

Computational design, data, and architecture.

Views Calculator

This is a Grasshopper script that identifies the areas of a building with views to the outside. A views calculation is often done manually, which can be extremely time-consuming for large projects with unconventional floor plans. Automating this process saves time and provides a way to quantify the quality of views in a building beyond the typical pass/fail criteria of LEED certification.

A line is drawn connecting the corner of each window to all visible wall vertices. When a line is tangential to a vertex, it is project on to the next wall.

The endpoints of each of these lines are then joined into a single polyline that designates the view shed from the corner of each window.

This process is repeated for each window corner and all view sheds are compiled with transparency, revealing the gradient in quality of views.

Translucent blue view sheds overlay a building floor plan, showing varying exterior visibility from window corners.
Translucent blue view sheds overlay a building floor plan, revealing exterior visibility gradients from each window corner.
Translucent blue view sheds overlay a floor plan, showing exterior visibility gradients from each window corner.
Translucent blue view sheds overlay a floor plan, highlighting exterior visibility gradients from each window corner.
Translucent blue view sheds overlay a floor plan, showing exterior visibility gradients from each window corner.
Translucent blue view sheds overlay three building floor plans, showing how exterior visibility gradients vary across different window positions.
Translucent blue view sheds overlay a floor plan, revealing gradient quality of exterior views from each window corner.