Site Analysis

Essential Considerations for Site Analysis in Architecture Design;

Site analysis is one of the important stages in the architecture design process where students are supposed to collect data about the site and its surrounding for further design consideration as the design outcome must be in response to the data collected from the site. 

Site analysis generally comes after the completion of literature studies and case studies in the architecture design process. so in this article, we are going to discuss the essential considerations for a fruitful site analysis.

1) Site Mapping: 

Being an architecture student some times you have to do a lot of work on your own and site mapping is one of the early works in the site analysis stage when your teacher does not provide you the specified boundary for the site and instead of that they just gave you the big chunk of land in that you have confined your site. In such cases, site mapping plays a very vital role in the design process so it's very important to map the site properly and accurately. 

Nowadays with the help of advanced tools like google earth, wikimapia, and google maps, you can easily confine your site with proper length as well as area in addition to that other required information also can be interpreted by using ArcGIS Software and later can be exported to draughting software like AutoCAD and ArchiCAD. Once you did the site mapping means now you got the data regarding your site location, dimensions of the site, and angles as well. Mapping also includes the demarcation of connecting road pathways and other means of transportation that are directly connected with the site. In the case of roads, demarcation must be proper with illustrations on the typology of roads like one way or two or how many lanes roads like that must be included in your site mapping sheet with proper road width dimensions.

Regarding the drafting or development of the plans for site mapping, there are some architectural standard scales that must be followed by the students to get the proper legibility of the site.

• 1:50 
• 1:100
• 1:200
• 1:500
• 1:1000
• 1:2000

2) Site Orientation: 

After the mapping now you have to find out the orientation of the site which means you have to check which side of your site follows which direction you can do this by physically visiting the site using a magnetic compass or in case if are not interested to visit the site then you can do it by using any of the application like google earth, google map. Wikimapia etc after that you have to clearly demark the north direction in your site mapping sheet and it is mandatory to demark on all the sheets where ever you are developing plans whether site plan or floor plans etc.

3) Topographical Analysis: 

In this particular section students are supposed to collect the data to understand the nature of the site in this section the first task is to analyze the nature or type of the site whether the site is plane land or contoured site or a sloppy site, 

after the identification of the type of site, students are supposed to analyze and demark the following in the sheet;

• demarcation of connecting road level with respect to the site
• demarcation of site slope (highest point & Lowest point)
• The site section is mandatory to include
• in the case of a contours site, a detailed survey plan is required 
• any existing or man-made water body or lake or any other structure 
• site surface type (loose surface or tight surface)
• Site surface texture (means surface covered with grass or shrubs or anything else)
• Type of soil
• soil bearing capacity (SBC)
• identification of seismic zones for the design of earthquake-resistant buildings 

4) Climatic Analysis: 

In this section of the study, students are supposed to collect data in relation to the components of climate like; 

• identification of the climatic zone 
• identification of all seasonal data (winter, summer, autumn, etc)
• Maximum and minimum temperature with respect to season and month 
• Maximum & minimum rainfall data with respect to season and month 
• Seasonal wind direction 
• Local wind direction 
• Macro or microclimate influencer component (artificial or natural water body, existing forest nearby the site)
• Sunpath angle with respect to the site
• Humidity data 

5) Utilities: 

Under this section students are supposed to collect the data in terms of what facilities are available on the site or near the site like; 

• Water supply line 
• Sewage line 
• Electricity supply
• Transportation facilities and road networks from transportation hubs like the nearest railway station, airport, bus station, or any other
• Fire station and police station in terms of security and safety 

6) Vegetation: 

In this section of the study, students are supposed to collect data regarding existing site vegetation in terms of like 

• what are the native species of the region? 
• what is the existing status of trees and plants? 

7) Architectural and surrounding Context: 

In this section, students will collect some of the theoretical and philosophical data like what is the architectural styles in the surroundings? and develop an understanding of the surrounding context 

• surrounding building types and their architectural styles (modern, local, or any other)
• surrounding building conditions
• association of any heritage value to the site or nearby the site 
• association of any religious value to the site or nearby the site 
• association of any seasonal or occasional activity nearby site  
• any additional value which helps and supports you to design and is required to be considered while designing 

8) Sensory components