Abstract
JOURNAL OF ASIAN ARCHITECTURE AND BUILDING ENGINEERING 2021, VOL. 20, NO. 3, 356–367 https://doi.org/10.1080/13467581.2020.1787839 A reliable method for visibility analysis of tall buildings and skyline: a case study of tall buildings cluster in Jakarta Ayu Wandira Puspitasari and Jongwook Kwon School of Architecture, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, Republic of Korea ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY Received 18 February 2019 Visibility is an important factor for decision-making regarding the visual quality of the skyline of Accepted 29 May 2020 modern cities which dominated by tall buildings. The basic method of visibility is referred to the concept of targeted isovist that represents the visible portion of the target area of tall KEYWORDS buildings. This paper presents a reliable method of visibility analysis for tall building clusters, Tall buildings; visibility examining all unobstructed views of those clusters from surrounding streets and their impact analysis; skyline; on the shape of skyline, using Jakarta as a case study. The visibility algorithm was developed grasshopper; Jakarta with Grasshopper and building models were simultaneously simulated using Rhinoceros 3D. The results are presented with a color segment that represents the percentage of visible viewpoints and the visible area of a building’s facade. The results showed that building height configurations, the location of buildings, the relation to the street, and the distances of various viewpoints have a significant effect on the rate of visibility. Moreover, the level of visibility of tall building clusters determines the shape of the skyline. The proposed visibility analysis method is expected to be an essential tool in the planning and design of tall buildings in a clustered organization for shaping the city skyline of the future. 1. Introduction 2001; Turner et al. 2001; Garnero and Fabrizio 2015). However, the number of visibility studies of tall build- 1.1. Background ings was very limited, especially those with three- As the most prominent part of an urban landscape, tall dimensional (3D) representations. buildings easily alter the panoramic view of the city Modern cities usually have a central business district skyline. The impact of tall buildings on the environ- or mixed district that contains a group of tall buildings. ment, urban areas, and sustainability has been dis- It is a challenge for the designer to strengthen the cussed by many researchers (Haber 1977; Gonçalves skyline by creating focal points that will be visible 1997; Lee 2007; Hang et al. 2012; Ali and Al-Kodmany from all directions. Focal points in the vertical dimen- 2012; Cho and Kim 2015). Besides, the visual impact of sion created by tall buildings may provide visual refer- tall buildings and their skylines have also drawn sig- ences that improve spatial orientation and navigation. nificant attention (Lim and Heath 1994; Perez and Furthermore, the more visible a building is, the mem- Pazos 2014; Yusoff, Noor, and Ghazali 2014; ory of the place becomes stronger (Appleyard 1969). Samavatekbatan, Gholami, and Karimimoshaver 2015; The impact of a tall building in modern cities is Czyńska and Rubinowicz 2016). The tall buildings, significantly greater than that of an ordinary scale a building whose height dominates its surroundings, building. By virtue of their size and widespread visi- can modify a cityscape and the shape of a skyline. bility, such buildings have the potential to have Therefore, it is necessary to consider the compatibility a great impact on many different aspects, such as of the building with its surroundings, the visibility of environment, sustainability, and the skyline. Modern the building from different viewpoints such as main cities with clusters of tall buildings often afford wide streets, public areas, or other buildings, and the spatial visibility from all directions. Therefore, the placement layout of other tall buildings to ensure an attractive and construction of tall buildings should be carefully skyline. The characteristics of their locations, building planned to showcase visibility and retain the city sky- height arrangements, and other circumstances need to line. This paper elaborates on the visibility analysis be considered in a study of visibility analysis. Visibility using the new method and discusses the findings of studies have been utilized for a long time for land- the analysis. For this purpose, a group of tall buildings scape, architectural, and urban studies to calculate in the city center of Jakarta was selected as a case the view of a structure or element in the spatial envir- study. The analysis is carried out from different view- onment and most of them have been based on two- points, which is essential to determine the skyline of dimensional (2D) representation (Hanson 1994; Batty Jakarta. CONTACT Jongwook Kwon jwkwon@yumail.ac.kr School of Architecture, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, Republic of Korea © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group on behalf of the Architectural Institute of Japan, Architectural Institute of Korea and Architectural Society of China. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. JOURNAL OF ASIAN ARCHITECTURE AND BUILDING ENGINEERING 357 agrarian settlements and lower structures into the 1.2. Objectives of the research world’s ninth-largest city with extensive tall building The primary objective of this research is to propose construction (Strange and Dobrowolski 2016). New a visibility analysis method to assess the visibility of tall settlement typologies such as the apartment were buildings cluster by evaluating their visual quality on introduced to distinguish the urban elite from the the skyline. In order to reach this objective, we develop urban majority, along with other formal development an algorithm to analyze the visibility of 3D building projects such as office towers, shopping malls, mix- models of tall buildings cluster. The algorithm was used buildings, and elevated highways. Tall building created with Grasshopper, one of the most widely development has occupied a large area in urban space used programs by designers, which can be integrated and has placed irregular footprints over much of with Rhino 3D modeling tools and supported with Jakarta. These buildings are concentrated exclusively parametric environmental plugins. Ladybug is an in the Sudirman-Thamrin corridor, along Gatot environmental analysis plugin that has the ability to Subroto, and Rasuna Said streets. The so-called simulate visibility analysis in a parametric environ- “Jakarta Golden Triangle,” where the major administra- ment. To our knowledge, there is no research that tive, commercial, and financial centers and luxurious examines the combination of the aforementioned housing estates, condominiums, and hotels have sig- tools in an integrated visibility analysis of tall buildings nificantly changed both the appearance and the spa- and skylines. tial order of the metropolis. This objective helps us to determine the design There are two areas within the Jakarta golden trian- factors for designing tall buildings cluster by compar- gle where many tall buildings are gathered, the ing the visibility of two tall buildings cluster in the city Sudirman Central Business District and Mega center of Jakarta. For example, the form of the cluster, Kuningan (Figure 1). These development areas have the arrangement between tallest and other taller been designed to ensure that people can have all the buildings within the cluster area, and the strategic amenities within the complex to increase the efficiency location of the cluster area and viewpoint might have of urban land-use and to prevent traffic jams. This an impact on their visibility and the skyline. concept has been the trend from planners and devel- opers, particularly in Jakarta, which has heavy traffic. Under these circumstances, the inclusion of residential 2. Jakarta’s tall building development apartments integrated with offices, hotels, and recrea- Jakarta experienced rapid growth and development tional facilities within a single urban block project during the last decade, which has radically trans- strengthens their position in the property market and formed the urban landscape. The urbanization process economy (Kenichiro 2001). Geographically, Jakarta’s in Jakarta has transformed a vast area of former tall building clusters are located in the center of the Figure 1. Sudirman central business District and Mega Kuningan within Jakarta golden triangle area. 358 A. W. PUSPITASARI AND J. KWON city with a low topographic profile, surrounded only by taken advantage of isovist methods to generate man-made structures without any natural landscape a limited capability of human vision or the visual field features such as hills or mountains. However, the from a vantage point related to the context or specific attractive view of tall buildings can be seen as direction view, such as a landmark, park, etc. According a catalyst to improve the quality in the surrounding to the purpose direction of the view from the origin area. It should be controlled carefully so that beneficial point, the geometry of isovist can be distinguished as visual, function, and environmental qualities can be panoptic, constrained, and targeted (Lonergan and optimized (Prasetyoadi 2011). The visual aspects of Hedley 2016). Sudirman Central Business District and Mega Panoptic isovist is the capability of viewing a 360° Kuningan area also need to be studied as related to angle in all directions from the origin point with an the architecture, planning, and urban design context. omnidirectional gaze (Figure 3 (a) and (d)). The con- cept of the panopticon, derived from Jeremy Bentham’s theory, is a building structure with an 3. Visibility: the concept of an Isovist origin point able to view all directions (Semple 1993). Panoptic isovists are commonly used to assess Visibility has been studied in several distinct fields of the visual openness from all angles at once. A well- research, such as landscape, environmental, urban, and known application of panoptic isovist concept is architectural studies for many decades. Recently, visi- controlling crime in a city by using a complex closed- bility analysis has been extended from a two- circuit television (CCTV) in a public space (Fyfe and dimensional to a three-dimensional approach, and Bannister 1996). Yang, Putra, and Li (2007) have verified that 3D visibi- Viewpoints that have a limitation in viewing direc- lity indices are more effective than 2D indices. The tion, such as human vision, can be described as con- popular technique for undertaking visibility analysis strained isovist (Figure 3 (b) and (e)). An example of the in architecture and urban space is the concept of the use of a constrained isovist can represent the potential “isovist,” and for terrain and landscape studies it is the of the viewpoint of a camera to capture a landscape concept of a “viewshed.” Isovist was used as a basic object or fixed-location CCTV camera with a limited concept that corresponds with the context and the view and direction to the room. The visibility relation- purpose of this research. ship between the observer and observed objects Isovist, defined as the spatial environment space might be used to describe the capability to view in all representing the visual field from a vantage point, directions or limited angles, and also for some specifi - was originally presented by Tandy (1967) in the field cally targeted object. The targeted isovist only repre- of landscape studies and first conducted in architec- sents the visibility of target geometry and cannot tural studies by Benedikt (1979). Isovists could be visualize all space that an observer can see (Figure 3 represented in a two-dimensional or three- (c) and (f)). It only shows the visible portions of the dimensional model for quantifying the visible space, target space and the gaze path between the observer the resulting isovists in a single polygon representing and the target space. The shape of a target space can the total of all visible volume and space from a specific be a point, area, or volume. location. As shown in Figure 2, the visible space, isovist V has been generated from the set of line segments joining the vantage point x and radiates out from x to 4. Method the boundary-point v. Most previous research in visibility analysis employs There are many studies in architecture and urban the isovist to calculate the viewing capability in all space analysis using isovist to measure the visibility directions. Conversely, several recent studies have of the spatial environment for such locations as (a) (b) Figure 2. (a) The area of isovist Vx visible from the vantage point x. (b) The radials of line segments joining the vantage point x to the boundary v’. JOURNAL OF ASIAN ARCHITECTURE AND BUILDING ENGINEERING 359 Figure 3. Geometry of isovist perspective view: (a) 2D-panoptic, (b) 2D-constrained, (c) 2D-targeted, (d) 3D-panoptic, (e) 3D- constrained, (f) 3D-targeted (Lonergan and Hedley 2016). rooms, streets, buildings, or open spaces (Batty 2001; Guney et al. 2012; Lonergan and Hedley 2016). 3D Turner et al. 2001; Morello and Ratti 2009; Lonergan simulation is important in the visibility analysis of the and Hedley 2016). These studies show that the concept verticality of tall buildings because of adding the ver- of an isovist can be applied to dividing private and tical dimension, the field of view can be seen from public rooms, predicting the impact of a building on an a vantage point with a circular rotation and from the urban form, calculating the visible area from a street or ground to the sky. It can provide the insight of more city square, or for other purposes that use visibility real-perceived volumes in a 3D space. Based on the 3D analysis to interpret a discerned object and space in isovist method, Czyńska and Rubinowicz (2016) pro- the spatial environment. vided the visual impact size (VIS) to identify how much Other recent studies have applied similar ideas of is visible of the planned tall building from all locations visibility to the analysis of tall buildings. Various meth- in the city. However, the analysis program to perform ods for performing visibility analysis of tall buildings VIS method was developed by C++, and up to now, the have been developed recently. Rød and van der Meer executable program is not commercially available. (2009) used GIS-aided visibility analysis to assess the Reproducibility of program language might be difficult visual impact of a planned high-rise building. Based on for the architect to apply due to the short deadline the distance to the building, dominance can be mea- during the design phase and their limitation of pro- sured as the level of visibility of the building from any gramming language skills. observation point. The role of tall buildings in a cluster Due to the aforementioned limitations, this research can be perceived visually as the visual coverage and proposes the analysis tool for visibility study using cumulative visibility of tall buildings in GISc-based- Grasshopper and Rhino 3D that expected to be user- visibility analysis (Van der Hoeven and Nijhuis 2012). friendly and able to present the analysis in three- Karimimoshaver and Winkemann (2018) also intro- dimensional models. This comprehensive tool allows duced ArcGIS to calculate the visibility on the single for geometric creation, simulation, and visualization tall building by means of the measurement of the ratio within one interface (Roudsari, Pak, and Smith 2013). of the visible area of the building to the visual field. The features in the proposed method are providing The aforementioned programs are standalone several advantages for architects and designers in tall applications that do not support 3D modeling buildings visibility analysis, either in the design phase (Koltsova, Tunçer, and Schmitt 2013) to visualize the or evaluation of existing tall buildings. The step of visibility result in three dimensional. Moreover, it is visibility analysis method by Grasshopper and Rhino known that GIS work on the previous study was oper- as follows. ated in 2D. The current program is hard to offer solu- Step 1: Selection of tall buildings area and data tions for advanced 3D spatial analysis commercial and compilation needs to improve the inability to deal with structures There are tall buildings clustered in the central busi- such as building with any precision (Bishop 2002; ness district and mixed-district in Jakarta city, the 360 A. W. PUSPITASARI AND J. KWON Sudirman Central Business District and Mega and 3D modeling. Ladybug component was used in Kuningan. The location of those buildings is strategi- Grasshopper to evaluate the visibility of building geo- cally located within the golden triangle of Jakarta with metry from a set of viewpoints. The specification of a low topographic profile. The developers chose those viewpoints is where an examination of tall buildings areas to develop the premium-class tall buildings cor- can be viewed from the ground level (street). Tall responding with their vision. The growth of tall build- buildings and their skyline shape that views from the ings will increase their impact on all aspects, including street can provide information about how the city is the visual aspect. The object to be analyzed are the organized and as the lead directions within the city buildings with more than 100 meters in height, typi- (Attoe 1981). Therefore, the first vision to the tall build- cally defined as a tall building. The architectural height ings was obtained from the height of the human eye- and the location were derived from the CTBUH and level set at 1.5 m above the ground level. The second Emporis database. vision is that from which the skyline can be experi- Step 2: 3D Buildings model enced, that is, from high vantage views with the The tall buildings in the Sudirman Central Business assumption that the observers were viewing from District and Mega Kuningan areas were modeled using a height above 100 meters. The latter can be viewed Rhino 3D. The data map of the location, which has from the building’s floor, observation deck, or a camera been transformed from Open Street Map, includes drone. topography that has been neatly organized into com- In Figure 5, a set of viewpoints are generated from puter-aided design (CAD) files. Buildings have then a curve that represents the line of the street and been erected over terrain in accordance with its build- divided to create 3 points of intersections. Then, the ing elevation data. Each building geometry was cre- position of coordinate ‘z’ of these three points is set in ated as a surface, so it can convert into a brep 1.5 meters on first vision and 100 meters on the second (composition of multiple surfaces) for the input com- vision. The reason for placing the three viewpoints on ponent in Grasshopper. These building models were each street is to find the most precise results and the then shading in different colors to mark their elevation position with the most visible viewpoint on that street. (Figure 4). The precision of tall building modeling was In accordance with the street that surrounds the confirmed using direct field visits, aerial photography, cluster area, the distance to the area of tall buildings and the lasts Google street view images. cluster in Sudirman CBD from street #1 is 478 m, from Step 3: Visibility analysis street #2a is 905 m, and the distance to the area of tall The visibility analysis uses Grasshopper as a tool buildings cluster in Mega Kuningan from street #2b is that connects with Rhino 3D. This platform supports 667 m, from street #3 is 802 m, and from street #4 is an interactive operational setting between the analysis 599 m. Figure 4. 3D representation of tall buildings in Sudirman Central Business District and Mega Kuningan areas. Figure 5. The algorithm to set the position of viewpoints. JOURNAL OF ASIAN ARCHITECTURE AND BUILDING ENGINEERING 361 Figure 6. The input parameters of Ladybug view analysis component. Figure 6 shows the algorithm of visibility analysis Some of the input parameters, such as grid size and using the Ladybug ‘view analysis’ component. The distance from the base, are also arranged in a small algorithm requires the following inputs of geometry, number to achieve an accurate visibility analysis of context, and viewpoint: the test geometry. The outputs of the analysis that we use to generate (1) Geometry, the 3D building models that will be into data are view study result, view study mesh, average tested for visibility analysis and have been cre- view, and pt is visible. Several algorithms are needed to ated in Rhino. The concept of targeted isovist is process these outputs (Figure 7). The ‘Mesh Threshold used to represent the relationship between the Selector’ component was used to determine how observer and the target geometry, i.e., tall much the areas of the buildings are visible (Figure 7 buildings. (a)). The output of view study result should be con- (2) Context, the geometry that could block the view nected to the input of the analysis result and the out- from the viewpoint to the buildings. We input put of view study mesh should be connected to the the same building geometry that acts as input mesh so that the result of visible area can be a building tested for visibility and acts as obtained. We also input the level of perform to find a visual barrier. out how much area that only visible by one viewpoint (3) Viewpoints are set points from the main streets (level of perform set in 67%), visible by two viewpoints around the building areas to achieve the highest (level of perform set in 34%), and visible by all view- degree of reliability and to discern which street points (level of perform set in 0%). In Rhino, the level of has the most buildings in view. the visible area of 3D building models is presented in (a) (b) Figure 7. (a) Algorithm for the visible area by ‘Mesh Threshold Selector’ component (b) Algorithm for the percentage of visibility from each viewpoint. 362 A. W. PUSPITASARI AND J. KWON a different color. The most visible area of the building skylines was investigated and their visible area was façade from the street is marks blue, the worst visible is calculated using Grasshopper. The analysis only calcu- marked in yellow, and red marking indicated no visibi- lates the inter-visibility between observers to the tall lity. Furthermore, the percentage of visible view from buildings that unobstructed by other tall buildings each viewpoint can be obtained by changing the out- within a cluster. Based on the visibility analysis results, put of ‘view analysis’ component (pt is visible) with we can observe the most visible viewpoint to see the some algorithms as shown in Figure 7 (b). buildings. Step 4: Cross-section representation In the case of the Sudirman Central Business District The 3D visualization analysis results can be pre- area, from two streets where the viewpoints are tested, sented in a cross-sectional display of buildings. This the results show that the average view of the tall cross-sectional display shows the structure or shape buildings from street #2a has a higher than from street of the skyline. Through this, the composition between #1. Specifically, the buildings in Sudirman Central the high area as a focal point and the transition to the Business District viewed from street #2 can be more lower-scaled buildings as visual relief can be observed. visible if seen from viewpoint 3 (vp2a-3). On the other A cross-sectional representation was drawn from the hand, street #1 which has a lower average view is viewpoints that have high-quality visibility. caused by the height of the building in the front line of the observer’s distance is relatively close. Furthermore, if the observer moves along street #2b 5. Findings and turns to street #3 and street #4, they can experi- This research compared the visibility analysis of tall ence the view of tall buildings in Mega Kuningan area. buildings in the Sudirman Central Business District The result shows the average view of the buildings in and Mega Kuningan areas. The level of visibility from Mega Kuningan is high from street #3 with a high viewpoints and the average view from streets to the visible viewpoint from vp3-2 then followed by street Sudirman Central Business District and Mega Kuningan #4 from vp4-3 and street #2b from vp2b-3. The view- are presented in Figure 8 and Table 1. In this research, points which have a lower percentage of view are the visibility of tall buildings in a cluster related to their vp2b-1, vp3-3, and vp4-2. Figure 8. The visible viewpoints to the buildings from the ground and a high vantage view. Table 1. The percentage view of tall buildings in Sudirman CBD and Mega Kuningan from the ground view (street). Sudirman CBD Mega Kuningan Street #1 Street #2a Street #2b Street #3 Street #4 Jend. Sudirman Jend. Gatot Subroto Jend. Gatot Subroto H.R. Rasuna Said Prof. Dr. Satrio Area (Vp1) (Vp2a) (Vp2b) (Vp3) (Vp4) Percentage view: 13.2 10.4 9.4 20.3 18.2 Viewpoint 1 (%) 7.1 14.7 14.6 22.0 14.5 Viewpoint 2 (%) 11.4 17.0 20.3 17.7 19.0 Viewpoint 3 (%) Average view (%) 10.57 14.03 14.77 20.00 17.23 a 2 Visible area (m ) 322,228 355,084 198,622 237,975 229,069 Visible area from; all viewpoints JOURNAL OF ASIAN ARCHITECTURE AND BUILDING ENGINEERING 363 Another result from a comparison between the vis- images were obtained from the visibility result of all ibility of buildings in Sudirman Central Business District viewpoints from the ground. The green and blue colors and Mega Kuningan can be seen from the color seg- indicate that the visibility of the building can be seen ment of the percentage of visible viewpoints. Table 2 by two to three viewpoints and the yellow is visible shows the view quality of tall buildings in both tall from one viewpoint. The average view from the street buildings’ clusters from all three tested viewpoints on #2a to the tall buildings in Sudirman Central Business each street. The images are presented in the elevation District and the average view from the street #3 to the perspective view and cross-sectional display. These tall buildings in Mega Kuningan is higher than the Table 2. The quality of tall buildings cluster from the visibility result of all viewpoints from the ground. SUDIRMAN CBD Street #1 Jend. Sudirman Vp1-1 Vp1-2 Vp1-3 (13.2%) (7.1%) (11.4%) Street #2a Jend. Gatot Subroto Vp2a-1 Vp2a-2 Vp2a-3 (10.4%) (14.7%) (17.0%) MEGA KUNINGAN Street #2b Jend. Gatot Subroto Vp2b-1 Vp2b-2 Vp2b-3 (9.4%) (14.6%) (20.3%) Street #3 H.R. Rasuna Said Vp3-1 Vp3-2 Vp3-3 (20.3%) (22.01%) (17.67%) Street #4 Prof. Dr. Satrio Vp4-1 Vp4-2 Vp4-3 (18.2%) (14.5%) (19.0%) Location: Jakarta Visibility level of buildings surfaces: Tested viewpoints: 3 VP/Street no visibility-none viewpoints medium visibility-2 viewpoints Viewpoint height: 1.5 meters low visibility-1 viewpoint high visibility-all viewpoint Cross-section Perspective view Cross-section Perspective view Cross-section Perspective view Cross-section Perspective view Cross-section Perspective view 364 A. W. PUSPITASARI AND J. KWON Table 3. The percentage view of tall buildings in Sudirman CBD and Mega Kuningan from high vantage view. Sudirman CBD Mega Kuningan Street #1 Street #2a Street #2b Street #3 Street #4 Jend. Sudirman Jend. Gatot Subroto Jend. Gatot Subroto H.R. Rasuna Said Prof. Dr. Satrio Area (Vp1) (Vp2a) (Vp2b) (Vp3) (Vp4) Percentage view: 14.6 12.9 11.5 21.2 19.5 Viewpoint 1 (%) 9.5 16.6 16.5 24.2 18.3 Viewpoint 2 (%) 13.4 17.5 21.6 19.6 20.9 Viewpoint 3 (%) Average view (%) 12.50 15.67 16.53 21.67 19.57 1 2 Visible area (m ) 359,800 381,164 218,020 253,744 250,730 Visible area from all viewpoints other. This is indicated by the area of the buildings that significantly not different from the analysis of the first can be seen from two to three viewpoints on the vision (the ground), which is from street #3 (vp3-2) in street. Different from the view from the street #1, Mega Kuningan and street #2a (vp2a-3). only a few buildings can be seen by two to three Based on the visible viewpoints, the shape of the skyline viewpoints, almost of tall buildings in Sudirman area can be observed. Table 4 presents a comparison of skyline only visible by one viewpoint. The reason is that the tall variation in two areas of study. The skyline of Sudirman buildings in Sudirman area are close to the street #1. Central Business District and Mega Kuningan, see from the From the presented color, the quality of the focal most visible viewpoint (street #2a and #3), respectively, point of the tall buildings cluster has been obtained. shows that the building height transition is dropping away The highest part of the cluster is identified as the focal from the highest point of the skyline. While tall buildings are point of the tall buildings cluster. It can be seen in the seen from other streets (street #1, #2b, and #4), which have cross-sectional display, from all viewpoints, the focal lower visibility, the skyline shape shows an irregular transi- point of the cluster in Mega Kuningan is clearly more tion between large-scale buildings and small-scale buildings. visible than in Sudirman. Moreover, some of the buildings that have a similar height The analysis of the second vision is from high van- and stand closely make a monotonous part of the skyline. tage views with heights above 100 meters. From the The gradual transition and variation of buildings height are results in Table 3, the highly visible viewpoints are required to create the skyline looks more attractive (Al- Table 4. Variety of the skylines of tall buildings cluster in Jakarta viewed from a significant viewpoint on streets around the cluster. SUDIRMAN CBD MEGA KUNINGAN Street #1 Jend. Sudirman (Vp1-1) Street #2b Jend. Gatot Subroto (Vp2b-3) Street #2a Jend. Gatot Subroto (Vp2a-3) Street #3 H.R. Rasuna Said (Vp3-2) Street #4 Prof. Dr. Satrio (Vp4-3) Location : Jakarta Building height: Area : Sudirman CBD and Mega Kuningan 250m+ 150m+ Set view : cross-section 200m+ 100m+ JOURNAL OF ASIAN ARCHITECTURE AND BUILDING ENGINEERING 365 Kodmany 2012). This work shows that the viewpoints vp2a-3 identifiable and appear as a cluster from all directions. and vp3-2 are the best positions for observers or visitors to For instance, tall buildings in Mega Kuningan are explore Jakarta skyline both from the ground and high placed far from the edge of the city’s main street views. with a circular layout. It allows buildings to be visible from the street and recognized from the different angles. 6. Discussion Moreover, the focal points created by grouping tall buildings into cluster intensifies the skyline and pro- In this research, the visibility study as an important vides a focused attention. Hence, the visibility of focal factor regarding the visual quality of tall buildings point from any vantage point is important. The focal cluster on the skyline was analyzed using point can be identified from the visibility of the highest Grasshopper. The method has been proposed to eval- buildings among other tall buildings within the cluster. uate the design of tall buildings cluster related to the The top of the building is the part that must be visible context by their visibility. The design factor of tall enough to provide the visual references of the signifi - buildings cluster can be determined through the cant places and landmarks. study cases of two central areas of tall buildings cluster in Jakarta. Several previous research has analyzed the visibility 7. Conclusion study of tall buildings in their impact on the skyline and offered in various methods. Most of these studies The proposed method is mainly using Grasshopper only analyzed a single tall building or a collective of and integrated with Rhino 3D for modeling the tall single buildings that geographically dispersed. buildings. The use of Grasshopper tools allows for an Whereas the analysis on the group of tall buildings in analysis of the buildings geometry, algorithmic simula- a specific area also important since they have a greater tion, and visualization of the result within one inter- impact on the skyline. The design quality of tall build- face. This method reveals itself to be particularly ings cluster can be determined by visibility analysis efficient for visibility analysis on specific views or van- presented in this research. The method presented in tage points by using the Ladybug plugin. It is clear that this research can be a new way to examine the existing the level of visibility of tall buildings impacts the form and proposed design of tall buildings cluster, in regard of the skyline. The method presented in this research to improve the skyline of the city. This method is can be a new way of planning tall building construc- reliable, simple, and easy to use for architect to analyze tion singly or in a group in terms of analyzing visibility the visibility of tall buildings. and the skyline in the city. Based on the analysis results, the influence of The analysis result by using this method can inform some factors such as distance, the arrangement of the final strategy which describes the consideration of building heights, the layout, and the location of the design of tall buildings cluster which proposed to buildings from the street determined the quality of minimize the negative impact of development on the the view. This analysis identifies a viewpoint to see existing skyline. A skyline that is shaped by the height the buildings as much as possible related to the of tall buildings in a cluster should drop down from the configuration of the building’s position. The dis- highest part to the periphery. This configuration tance of viewpoint to the buildings was relatively always has high visibility and helps mediate with the far to obtain the best visibility of the buildings in surrounding lower heights. Tall buildings should vary both Sudirman Central Business District and Mega their height to add to a lively and diverse skyline and to Kuningan. Although there is a viewpoint with avoid a uniform or repetitive response to the skyline. a greater distance, it cannot be considered to be The ordering of building heights should conform to visible if there are many buildings outside the visual a vision cone to maximize visibility. Tall buildings pro- cone or blocking other buildings behind. In one line posed outside a cluster can weaken its strength and of sight, the buildings with higher facades that are the legibility of the skyline. located behind other buildings can still be visible The main purpose of this method was to assess the from the viewpoint. However, that does not mean concept of the tall buildings within the city’s center in the building-scape in this area can only be visible terms of visibility and their contribution in forming from one street side. It is still possible to be seen by the city’s skyline. This research focuses on tall build- the observer from any direction even with low ings within a group and their view from the street visibility. and high vantages. Although this research is ade- Tall buildings that spread out from the cluster to the quate to evaluate the visibility of tall buildings and street edge or merge with neighboring clusters may the skyline of which they are a part on existing build- hurt the visibility quality and the area’s identity. Thus, it ings, this method certainly can be used during the is better that tall buildings should be confined to design phase to propose buildings in a cluster to a circular or square area so that it will be clearly cultivate a highly visible view from all directions and 366 A. W. PUSPITASARI AND J. KWON enhance the skyline. Although the observer’s targeted Architecture and Building Engineering 14 (3): 641–648. doi:10.3130/jaabe.14.641. view is tall buildings, further work on the application Czyńska, K., and P. Rubinowicz. 2016. “Visual Impact Size of the proposed visibility analysis tool can be Method in Planning Tall Buildings.” Education for expanded to the effect of other circumstances to Research, Research for Creativity, Wydział Architektury the tall buildings. The other circumstances that recog- Politechniki Warszawskiej, Warszawa: Vol 1, pp. 169–174. nized in the visual field, such as waterfronts, trees, or Fyfe, N. R., and J. Bannister. 1996. “City Watching: Closed Circuit Television Surveillance in Public Spaces.” Area, 28 open spaces, can act as visual obstacles and interrupt (1), pp. 37–46. the visibility of tall buildings or it may act as a visual Garnero, G., and E. Fabrizio. 2015. “Visibility Analysis in Urban relief to the observer. Spaces: A Raster-based Approach and Case Studies.” Environment and Planning. B, Planning & Design 42 (4): 688–707. doi:10.1068/b130119p. Disclosure statement Gonçalves, J. C. S. 1997. The Environmental Impact of Tall Buildings in Urban Centres, Ma dissertation. London: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. Environmental & Energy Studies Programme, AA Graduate School. Guney, C., S. A. Girginkaya, G. Cagdas, and S. Yavuz. 2012. Funding “Tailoring a Geomodel for Analyzing an Urban Skyline.” Landscape and Urban Planning 105 (1–2): 160–173. This research was supported by Basic Science Research doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2011.12.016. through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Haber, G. M. 1977. “The Impact of Tall Buildings on Users and funded by the Ministry of Education [NRF- Neighbors.” In Human Response to Tall Buildings, edited by 2017R1D1A3B03033404]. D. Conway, 45–57. Stroudsburg: Dowden, Hutchinson, & Ross. Hang, J., Y. Li, M. Sandberg, R. Buccolieri, and S. Di Sabatino. Notes on contributors 2012. “The Influence of Building Height Variability on Pollutant Dispersion and Pedestrian Ventilation in Ayu Wandira Puspitasari is a Ph. D candidate at the School of Idealized High-rise Urban Areas.” Building and Environment Architecture of Yeungnam University. She received a bache- 56: 346–360. doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2012.03.023. lor's degree in 2012 and graduated with a master's degree in Hanson, J. 1994. “‘Deconstructing’ architects’ Houses.” 2013 at the Diponegoro University, Department of Environment and Planning. B, Planning & Design 21 (6): Architecture. Her main research interest consists of tall build- 675–704. doi:10.1068/b210675. ings, urban design, and the application of Grasshopper. Karimimoshaver, M., and P. Winkemann. 2018. “A Framework Jongwook Kwon is a professor of Architecture at Yeungnam for Assessing Tall Buildings’ Impact on the City Skyline: University in Korea. He graduated from Texas A&M University Aesthetic, Visibility, and Meaning Dimensions.” with a Ph.D. and published many papers on the planning and Environmental Impact Assessment Review No 73: 164–176. design of high-rise buildings. doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2018.08.007. 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Journal
Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering
– Taylor & Francis
Published: May 4, 2021
Keywords: Tall buildings; visibility analysis; skyline; grasshopper; Jakarta
