Four years ago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s City Form Lab launched Urban Network Analysis (UNA), a city-modeling software that facilitates a mathematical analysis of relationships among elements in a complex system, like a city. The unique feature of UNA is that it incorporates activities within buildings into its analysis.
This toolbox has been popular with planners and geographers, but it requires ArcGIS10 software with an ArcGIS Network Analysis Extension.
In April, City Form Lab expanded this software’s utility by introducing UNA for Rhino 3D, a modeling software for architects, engineers, and designers.
“Our toolbox helps planners and architects analyze these relationships and quantify how intensely different routes are likely to be utilized, how visible or connected public spaces are, or how conveniently one can get from one space to another,” says Andres Sevtsuk, the principal investigator at City Form Lab and developer of the UNA tool.
In layman’s terms, the software predicts where people are likely to go once they’ve decided upon an activity, like, say, going to an ATM machine or a park. The software provides users with some idea about which ATM or park that would be. As for movements to and within buildings, UNA takes into account employee head count, a building’s value, the surrounding population, and so forth.
This app’s toolbox also computes how urban design can affect—or even dictate—pedestrian movement. Sevtsuk notes, too, that the software can be scaled to account for the diversity of movement in different cities and towns.
Sevtsuk is encouraged by the sheer amount of spatial data available about urban areas, particularly in the U.S., where “you can go to any sizable city website and download data that is necessary to calibrate any of these models.” He’s confident that this software can be used to predict movement in public or semi-public spaces such as building lobbies or shopping centers.
Related Stories
| Mar 26, 2013
Will Google Glass revolutionize the construction process?
An Australian architect is exploring the benefits of augmented reality in the design and construction process.
| Mar 6, 2013
Hospital project pioneers BIM/VDC-based integrated project delivery
The Marlborough (Mass.) Hospital Cancer Pavilion is one of the first healthcare projects to use BIM/VDC-based integrated project delivery.
| Feb 25, 2013
AISC seeks proposals for development of BIM best practices guide
The American Institute of Steel Construction seeks assistance from BIM users in identifying and documenting best practices to facilitate the long-term standardization of BIM in structural steel construction.
| Feb 8, 2013
AAMA and WDMA release updated industry review, trends forecast
Windows and doors report predicts slow growth in commercial construction; analyzes historic data from 2006-11 and forecast data through 2015.
| Jan 31, 2013
Newforma releases next generation Project Analyzer software
Newforma, a project information management software company, announced that a new version of its design project management software, Newforma Project Analyzer, has been validated by leading architecture and engineering firms and is now commercially available.
| Jan 25, 2013
Applied Software Earns Autodesk MEP Systems Engineering Specialization Designation
Designation underscores firm’s success in supporting and educating customers in MEP design and BIM.
| Jan 9, 2013
Panasonic and Bluebeam preview new architect app at CES 2013
Panasonic and Bluebeam Software collaborate to develop and introduce the 4K tablet and software to the design and construction industry.
| Jan 3, 2013
Top BIM/VDC articles of 2011-2012
A compendium of BD+Cs top building information modeling and virtual design + construction articles from 2011-12.
| Jan 2, 2013
Global data center market to ‘slow’ to 14.3% this year
Total global investment in data centers is expected to slow down somewhat this year but still increase at a respectable 14.3%, according to DCD Intelligence.