Orientation, Prospect and Aspect Part 1

The AD3.1 (semester 1) design project was based in Venice. To start the project we split ourselves into groups and shared the site analysis/desktop study between us. My group were given the heading 'Orientation, Prospect and Aspect'. This involved looking at how Venice was built up and was developed, with the idea being that the potential development sites on the islands of Giudecca or Murano could follow these architectural trends.


To start with we selected three areas of Venice: 'Typical Venice', 'Murano' and 'Giudecca'.

We then traced these areas on AutoCAD to make clear diagrams, which also served as a solid and void study:

It was clear from these diagrams that the area in typical Venice is far denser than both Murano and Giudecca. The only thing traced in the diagram is the buildings yet the canal is clearly defined in the centre. The buildings are built right up to the waters edge, as this is where people in the city want to live - they want to be as close to water as possible. The dominance of solid over void is apparent, as is in some areas of the main (south) island of Murano. Further away from this island however, development gets more sparse. Giudecca is the least built up of the three areas. It seems to be that the most developed sites in Giudecca are on the north of the island, facing Venice; and the least developed are on the south side, facing the lagoon. 

An interesting diagram we then produced shows buildings and the land out of context. Note that the buildings follow the line of the land, north-west to south-east, and aren't orientated to any specific sun path, for instance.

This will benefit the design process because I know (that if I design by water) that the buildings are usually built right up to the edge, as this is where most people want to live.


We then looked at density visuals taken out of plan format, to assess typical views from a point in each area of Venice. Of course these are only typical views, but we felt they were useful so the observer could establish a general visual language for the areas.

The red highlights buildings closer than 5m, orange highlights buildings closer than 10m and the yellow represents buildings further than 10m. The diagrams clearly display that the shallow depth of view in central Venice means there is little room for development. Murano has room for growth further away from the canals and Giudecca has the most scope for development, shown by the deep field of view (quantity of yellow) in the diagrams.

The diagrams also highlight the heights of buildings - showing taller developments in central Venice (favourable locations for people to live) and shorter buildings on Giudecca, typically warehouses and low-rise apartments.