Site analysis primer
Architecture always requires thorough site analysis and is crucial in the first step of starting a project. After receiving the survey and geotechnical reports, you generally have enough information to start evaluating the climatic, geographical, historical, social, legal and infrastructural context within your site. As a result of receiving all this information, you begin to research, analyze and synthesize the data in order to make calculated decisions that will inform the next steps in the design process. Using your collected data and information, you will figure out that certain site conditions will have greater influence over design parameters when applying the findings in order to begin the schematic design and programming phase.
When presenting the site analysis, it should include a visual representation of the site in the form of on-site photographs, sketches, site mapping and overlaid diagrams. Site analysis diagrams are the tools that begin to illustrate the origins of the design process, what is possible, and what are the conditions that influence decision making.
Typically the people who are involved in the site analysis will vary based on project size, design team size, and a site’s relative proximity, but the process will always benefit from being collaborative. The majority of projects you will encounter can and will require consulting with land surveying services and engineers, both geotechnical and civil, who can provide answers to questions surrounding topography, soils, hydrology, utilities, zoning and land uses. Your analysis should also include consideration and input from the community members in which the project is based and thus impacting the most.
Creating a site analysis diagram is essentially mapping information. There are many different types of site analysis diagrams. They can be narrative, subjective or objective. If your goal is to tell a story or present the findings of your information at face value, it can essentially be formatted to fit your needs. Depending on your specific format it will reveal the relationships of your findings in different ways — take the time to utilize a method of diagramming that best reveals the characteristics of your site and guides you into your design process.
Site analysis will most likely continue throughout the design process as new questions and ideas arise. The process of translating your data collection into visual information reveals patterns that could not have been understood otherwise. Starting with your base survey drawing or plan view image while superimposing your data collection on top, you can begin to take note of how various characteristics of the site interact or influence each other, revealing how relationships are formed between different qualities. Superimposing or extruding multiple data sets over your base site drawing is just one way of diagramming that may emphasize that the characteristics of the site do not exist in a bubble, but all play into one another.
As with any map, the decisions made in terms of what information is included and excluded gives importance to information. You can create visual hierarchies to further distinguish which details of your site analysis findings hold significance moving forward in the design process. This can be done through line weight or repetition of information.
There is no format for producing a site analysis diagram — you will find that historically different methods of producing site analysis diagrams have been used to serve the interests of various influential voices or motives of a given project. Some site analysis diagrams are more schematic, potentially for the purpose of simplifying information, although this can be reductive; others take on a more experiential or representational style, which can be effective in reaching a more spatially or visually oriented viewer.
As an architectural designer, you have the ability to use all aspects of a project to further articulate the concepts of the eventual architecture you’re aiming to produce. In preparation for beginning the design phase of a project, it is crucial to familiarize and understand the context in which you’re designing to the best of your abilities. In observing the material conditions and history of a site, sitting with these characteristics and their implications, you can begin to ground an architectural project in reality.
The questions that are answered through the process of site analysis will lead you into the programming/schematic design phase, inform the decisions made throughout the remainder of the design process, and, if done successfully, should reflect the needs of the community the project sits within. You may very well find that the site assigned is not well suited for the project at hand. There is no better indication for the success of an architectural project than its ability to meet the needs of those who utilize and are most impacted by it.
Stay tuned for our upcoming project’s site analysis.