Site Analysis Symbols
Introduction
The Site Analysis process involves effectively representing your research and findings. Typically this takes the form of some sort of map or diagram.
You can learn more about this in the ‘Diagramming your findings’ section of our Site Analysis Guide:
Architecture Site Analysis Guide – Data Collection to Presentation (firstinarchitecture.co.uk)
So in order to help you enhance your drawings, we have put together this great selection of site analysis symbols. It is super easy to download and will save you time spent on searching or making such symbols.
This set draws inspiration from Kevin Lynch’s book – ‘The Image of the City’ which describes making mental maps of the city using five key elements that are used to represent the city.
The five elements are:
- paths: means through which people move throughout the city
- edges: organizing features that break up areas
- districts: areas with common features
- nodes: points of intersection, concentration and orientation
- landmarks: easy to recognise objects used for orientation
The city centre of Boston and the surrounding areas. Mapbox, OpenStreetMap.
If you wish to read the book, click on the link below:
Image_of_the_City.djvu (miguelangelmartinez.net)
Kevin Lynch’s city image elements. Picture by Lucas Lindsey.
What’s included in the Site Analysis Symbols – Set 2?
All the key site analysis symbols all in one place.
Over 200 symbols to add to your site analysis diagrams!
The set features:
Assortment of Lines (straight, zig-zag, wavy)
Assortment of Shapes (circles, triangles, squares)
Assortment of Arrows
All of the above can be used to represent:
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Site Boundaries
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Existing Buildings
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Main roads
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Paths
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Zoning/Districts
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Obstructions
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Nodes
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Districts
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Edges
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Public access
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Vehicular access
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Pedestrian access
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Views – Aspect/Prospect
Sun + Sun path
Clouds
Vegetation (trees and hedges)
Transport Icons
Landmark Icons
North arrows
Sound icons
People
OS Map icons
The download is available in 3 formats:
Illustrator (.ai file)
Photoshop (.psd file)
AutoCAD (.dwg file)
Each category of symbols is organised in layers, with each symbol ready to be copied into your site analysis drawing.
Some symbols are individual objects, whereas others are a Group of objects. These are easy to edit and change to your liking.
Example Diagram
Here is a site diagram we created to show what you can achieve using our Site Analysis Symbols:
Illustrator Tips
Scaling
To uniformly scale a symbol in Illustrator:
Hold down the Shift key while using the Transform tool.
To scale a symbol as well as the stroke, be sure to do the following:
Select the symbol
Choose Object > Transform
Select Scale tool
Check the ‘Scale strokes and effects’ box
Changing grouped Symbol Colours
Some of the symbols are grouped objects. To change the colour of these:
Select the symbol
Choose Object > Ungroup
Change individual objects to desired colour
Maintaining Vectors
In order to preserve the vector quality of the symbols:
Individually copy the symbols from the Illustrator file
Paste into Photoshop as a ‘Smart Object’
Interested in getting some more Site Analysis Symbols?
Check out our hand drawn Site Analysis symbols set, available in various formats here:
Useful Site Analysis Symbols Download First In Architecture
Site Analysis Symbols CAD, Revit, ArchiCAD – First In Architecture
Conclusion
We hope these symbols help you create some cool visuals as you analyse your sites!
Thank you for reading!
Your Comments
Did you enjoy learning about Kevin Lynch and his way of visualising the city? Let us know in the comments below.
Also, feel free to share your creations with these symbols.
Thank you!
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