Deep Learning Spatial Signature

Inverted GANs for isovist representation in architectural floorplan

Mikhael Johanes1, Jeffrey Huang2

1,2École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
1{mikhael.johanes|jeffrey.huang}@epfl.ch

The advances of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have provided a new

experimental ground for creative architecture processes. However, the analytical
potential of the latent representation of GANs is yet to be explored for architectural
spatial analysis. Furthermore, most research on GANs for floorplan learning in
architecture uses images as its main representation medium. This paper presents an
experimental framework that uses one-dimensional periodic isovist samples and GANs
inversion to recover its latent representation. Access to GANs’ latent space will open up a
possibility for discriminative tasks such as classification and clustering analysis. The
resulting latent representation will be investigated to discover its analytical capacity in
extracting isovist spatial patterns from thousands of floorplans data. In this experiment,
we hypothetically conclude that the spatial signature of the architectural floor plan could
be derived from the degree of regularity of isovist samples in the latent space structure.
The finding of this research will enable a new data-driven strategy to measure spatial
quality using isovist and provide a new way for indexing architectural floorplan.

Keywords: Machine Learning, Isovist, Latent Representation, GANs Inversion, Spatial

Signature.

INTRODUCTION floorplan in architecture uses images as its primary

Generative adversarial networks (GANs) are the
current generative machine learning model that
gained popularity in the architecture community
due to their capacity to learn and generate novel
data from a given set of examples (Goodfellow et al.,
2014). GANs are composed of two competing neural
networks, generator G and discriminator D.
Generator is trained to generate synthetic data from
an input noise z drawn from a latent space with a
prior distribution. Gaussian and uniform
distributions are the most chosen prior distribution
for the latent space. Several experiments have been
done on using GANs for architectural purposes
(Chaillou, 2019; Newton, 2019; Huang et al., 2021).
However, most research on the GANs for learning
representational medium as most GANs are
developed for the image-oriented domain. This
research is different from previous work by
introducing isovist representation as its input data to
bypass the figurative 2D representation of
architectural floorplan and provide a more
perceptual reading of the architectural space
(Benedikt, 1979).
Once trained, GANs provide a mapping from the
prior distribution of latent space to the data
distribution of training data. However, the reverse
mapping from the data to the latent space is not
directly available. GAN inversion is a technique to
recover the noise vector z in the latent space of a
trained GAN from a given input data to provide such

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mapping (Creswell and Bharath, 2019; Xia et al.,
2022). This research is particularly interested in the
discriminative capacity of GAN’s latent space to map
isovists samples that are taken from approximately
4000 architectural floorplans (Kalervo et al., 2019).
Isovist is defined as a set of areas visible from a
given point of view in an environment to provide a
model of distribution of space (Benedikt, 1979).
Isovist representation offers a numerical description
of spatial configuration such as area, perimeter
compactness, and occlusivity from which certain
architectural quality can be mathematically derived.
(Ostwald and Dawes, 2020). To provide a machine
learnable isovist, we represent isovist as a discrete
periodic function that characterizes a panoramic
view of space (Figure 1). The advancement of
machine learning provides a new way to leverage
the statistical pattern from the isovist representation
without high-level formalization in recognizing and
classifying architectural space (Sedlmeier and Feld,
2018; Johanes and Huang, 2021 ).
This research explores the latent representation
of isovist in GANs model to provide an unsupervised
inference of visuospatial quality derived from the
geometry of the floorplan. We begin by customizing
and training a GAN model to learn the discrete
periodic representation of isovist training samples.
Then, an inverse GAN projection is performed to
embed a given isovist with its latent representation,
and the relation between the structure of GANs‘
latent space with the generated isovist is explored.
Our experiment shows that GANs‘ latent space can
be used to infer a scalar measure of spatial signature
distinctive for its isovist representation and provide
a framework for indexing and measuring the
experiential similarity of architectural floorplans.
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ISOVIST REPRESENTATION
IN GAN’S LATENT SPACE
Isovists can capture spatial patterns as they encode
the geometry of a floorplan into a set of local
perceptual moments (Psarra, 2009). Several spatial
qualities such as degree of interestingness, pleasure,
beauty, spaciousness, complexity, and clarity have Figure 1
been derived from basic isovist shape descriptions Isovist periodic
(Franz and Wiener, 2008). Isovist essentially captures function
the spatial qualities that are morphologically
defined. Isovist periodic function thus translates the
shape of the isovist into discrete quantitive values for
the machine to learn to identify, extract and
compare the embedded spatial qualities (Johanes
and Huang, 2021). Spatial classification using isovists
and machine learning has been done in urban and
architectural contexts with relatively limited data
(Leduc, Chaillou and Ouard, 2011; Sedlmeier and
Feld, 2018). This research aims to expand the
research of unsupervised deep machine learning of
isovist in an architectural context by leveraging
GAN's latent space discriminative properties using
an inversion technique.
GAN inversion (Xia et al., 2022) is a technique to
recover the latent vector of a given input data so that
it can be reconstructed back by GANs and provides
insight into the interpretation of GAN’s latent space.
In providing GAN inversion, an additional encoder
network can be trained by using the generated
output x and latent vector z as training data
(Perarnau et al., 2016). However, our experiments
with the encoder technique did not yield good
results for isovist data. The bad results could be
attributed to the highly diverse isovist samples,
making the training difficult for the encoder. The
best results we obtained are by using the
optimization method (Karras et al., 2020), in which an
individual latent vector is initialized and optimized
to reach the target reconstructed isovist.
The research on the exploration of GANs latent
space with low dimension latent space and 1D
output data is rarely available as most developed
models concentrate on the image-related domain.
The common focus of the research is to find
 directions in the latent space that are correlated with
human interpretable generated image
transformation such as translation, zooming, and
adding or removing elements (Voynov and Babenko,
2020). The developed techniques usually require
human interpretation to evaluate the image's
semantic content. Such techniques are challenging
to implement in this experiment as the semantic
content of isovists is not as interpretable as images.
Figure 2 Alternatively, we explore the correlation
Gaussian prior between the structure of prior distribution of GANs
distribution in high- latent space with generated isovists. The density of
dimensional space samples of Gaussian distribution in high dimensional
is concentrated space is concentrated a hypersphere surface with a
around a radius of the square root of its dimension d, as shown
hypersphere's in Figure 2 (Kilcher, Lucchi and Hofmann, 2018). As
surface such, trained GANs with Gaussian prior will generate
the most meaningful samples if the input latent
vector length, defined as Euclidean norm, is near the
radius of the hypersphere. This effect is more
apparent for high-dimension latent space, used by
most GANs that generate images (White, 2016). An
interpolation to the center of the latent coordinate
will generate unintelligible results as the center has
the lowest sampling density in this hypersphere
(Kilcher, Lucchi and Hofmann, 2018).
In our experiment, the latent space dimension
d=16 is relatively low to generate 256 discrete
features of the periodic isovist sample. A low
dimension of latent space is possible due to
exponentially fewer features in isovists than in 2D
images. The relation between latent space and
generated data is easier to establish in a low-
dimensional latent space, as the visualization is often
more straightforward. This research aims to discover
patterns out of latent space structure such as
dimension axis and Euclidean norm.
The intuition is that in relatively low dimensional
latent space, the density of the sampling point will
be closer to the center of the coordinate, and there
is a possibility that the samples that are generated
around the center will converge into what we can
call mean samples (Kilcher, Lucchi and Hofmann,
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2018). The smaller the Euclidean norm of the latent
vector, the closer it gets to the mean samples, which
can be interpreted as generic isovists. We, therefore,
aim to explore this hypothetical pattern to
determine the degree of regularity of isovists from
GANs latent space and propose a framework for
extracting this information for indexing and
searching purposes.
While the isovists sample is considerably much
simpler than 2D image, the variation in the dataset is
very high, which can be tricky for GANs training. We
implement progressive growing GANs (Karras et al.,
2018) using 1D convolutional layers to stabilize the
training and improve the variability of the generated
isovists. In order to avoid mode collapse and
measure the performance of GANs in the learning
distribution of the dataset, a number of statistically-
different bins (NDB) are used (Richardson and Weiss,
2018). This metric provides a domain-agnostic
technique to compare the distribution of the
training samples to the generated samples. The high
NDB score will indicate the discrepancy between the
training and learned samples, thus measuring the
GAN’s ability to learn the entire dataset distribution.
GANS INVERSION
ENCODING EXPERIMENT
The framework of GANs inversion isovist experiment
consists of (a) isovist sampling, (b) GANs training and
inversion, and (c) latent space interpretation and
architectural encoding (Figure 3). The dataset
preparation and isovist sampling are performed
using Grasshopper scripts by parsing the dataset's
SVG files, stochastically sampling the isovist from the
floor area, and turning it into a periodic function with
256 discrete features. The sampling collects 5m
radius isovists with a density of one sample point per
1 m2. The resulting dataset is comprised of a 300k
training set and a 34k evaluation set of isovist
samples. A spatial representation of isovist can be
recovered from the function by plotting it in a polar
coordinate.
A 1d convolutional implementation of progressive
growing GAN is implemented in a Python
environment using the Pytorch machine learning
framework based on a simplified version of ProGAN
(Liu, 2021). We use 16-dimension latent space to
generate 256 features of the periodic isovist
function. The model learns to generate isovist
progressively from low resolution to full resolution,
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which stabilizes and allows the model to learn the
full distribution of the dataset. We measure the
learning results using an NDB score with 10000
samples and 100 bins to test. At the end of the
training, a lower than 1% statistically-different bins
between training and generated samples is
achieved.
Latent space interpretation
The trained GANs provide a starting point for the
subsequent latent space exploration and inversion.
The relatively low dimensional allows the
exploration of individual axis zi of the latent space
(Figure 4). The diagram shows the interpolation of
the individual axis from −√𝑑 to √𝑑 that crosses the Figure 3
middle point of the latent space. As predicted in the GANs inversion
previous section, the interpolation to the center of experiment
the latent space will generate, however, still framework
intelligible, an average isovist that looks almost like
a rectangular. The interpolation shows inward
convergence toward the center and divergence as it
moves away from the center. A further interpolation
beyond the √d does not significantly change the
generated isovists, which is consistent with the
prediction that most meaningful samples will be
generated around the hypersphere's surface (White,
2016). The finding provides a foundation for
machinic intuition in quantifying a degree of isovist's
regularity according to its latent feature's distance to
the center of the latent space.
GANs inversion
The position of the latent representation of the
isovist in the trained GAN's latent space provides
hypothetical discriminative properties to measure
the regularity of an isovist. An optimization
technique is used to recover latent vectors from a set
of input isovists. For image data, the optimization is
performed by minimizing the reconstruction loss of
the generated output, a combination of pixel-wise
means squared error (MSE) distance with perceptual
loss (Karras et al., 2020). The lack of perceptual neural
network models for isovist representation forces us
to rely upon a single reconstruction error. After
Figure 4
Interpolation of the
latent space for the
individual axis of
the latent space

Figure 5
Inverting latent
vector from input
isovists

several experiments, we obtained the best results
using mean absolute error (MAE) as a reconstruction
loss instead. We adopt some techniques from (Karras
et al., 2018): ramping up noises during the
optimization and using a scheduled learning rate for
a more stable result. The latent vectors are initialized
from the latent space's center coordinate, and the
optimization is performed in batches to improve the
efficiency of the projections.
The inversion process can recover the latent
vector from a set of input isovists to some degree, as
shown in Figure 5. The lack of perceptual loss and
highly diverse isovists make the isovist's perfect
inversion almost impossible to achieve. However,

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the reconstruction of the isovists still shows that the
recovered latent vector can generate most geometry
of the isovists. Therefore, the recovered latent vector
is being used as embedding for the isovists, and the
relation between the latent vector and isovists in the
architectural plan is explored.
Architectural encoding
The exploration of the latent space indicates that the
Euclidean norm of the latent vector to the center of
the latent space provides discriminative properties
for the isovist's distinctive quality. We sort the
projected latent code from the evaluation floorplan
dataset based on its Euclidean norm and plot the
isovists from both ends of the latent representation
to clarify our hypothesis (Figure 6). The mapping
reveals that most isovists with the largest Euclidean
norm for their latent vectors lie in relatively unique
vantage points such as near small windows,
between two openings, next to the walls, or in the
balconies. On the other hand, the isovists whose
626 | eCAADe 40 – Volume 2 – Co-creating the Future
encodings have minimum Euclidean norms mostly
sit in the center of the main spaces, capturing the
common situation of the plan.
The generated isovists show the contrast
between these two sets of isovists. The isovists in
which the latent space sits near the center of latent
space resonates with the notion of 'spatial center
'introduced in (Franz and Wiener, 2008) as the
common referencing point to depict the overall
morphological feature of spaces. Quite the opposite,
the isovists whose embedding is located far from the
center of the latent space seem to represent the
floorplan's salient spaces.
The common spatial signature provides an
analog to architectural typology where the typical
pattern among collective architecture is established.
We develop a framework to index architectural plans
based on this latent space signature, representing
the regularity of architectural moments among
different floorplans, thus providing a novel way to
index architectural space.
Figure 6
Architectural
mapping of isovist
latent signature
Figure 7
t-SNE visualization
of latent encoded
floorplan

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TOWARD MACHINE’S INTUITION
OF SPACE
The sampling probability of the latent space should
match the corresponding statistical density in the
training data (Karras, Laine and Aila, 2021).
Intuitively, the use of normal distribution of the
latent space will assume uniformity of generated
examples near the center of the latent space.
However, in high-dimensional space, the sampling
density is relatively concentrated on the surface of a
hypersphere and leaves the center of the latent
space almost empty. Our experiments utilize a
relatively lower-dimensional latent space than the
image generating GANs, thus facilitating the latent
space structure interpretation.
The experiment reveals a glimpse of the unique
latent space structure of 1d convolutional
progressive growing GANs trained by hundreds of
thousands of isovist samples collected from
thousands of housing floorplans. Euclidean norm of
the latent vector of the generated isovists indicates
a degree of variability which can be translated into
spatial measures. The mapping reveals that both
unique and regular spatial signatures can be
recognized by sorting the projection of isovists of a
floorplan according to its Euclidean norm. The found
spatial signatures are potentially usable for spatial
indexing and recognition and provide a direction of
discovery machinic intuition of space that is data-
driven and statistical. Figure 7 shows the t-SNE
visualization of architectural floorplan classified by
its spatial signature encoding. The developed
signature encoding provides a promising
typological reading of architectural moments that
drives the clusterization and ordering of the
floorplan.
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
While most research on GANs of architectural
floorplans has been focused on images and its
generative capacity, this research expands the use of
GANs for isovist representation learning. The
unsupervised nature or GANs training acts as a tool
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for self-organizing mapping of isovists data in the
latent space. Accessing and interpreting this latent
space will give insight into this structure and
facilitate different discriminative tasks. This research
investigates GANs' latent space's discriminative
properties to provide a method to measure spatial
quality using isovist and explore a new way to index
an architectural floorplan.
The current stage of the research explores an
experimental framework for isovist sampling, GANs
inversion, and latent space interpretation in isovist-
based architectural analysis. The discovered spatial
signature from the GAN’s inverted latent embedding
is used to encode architectural plans and provide
spatial indexing means. The experiments show a
correlation between the latent embedding’s
Euclidean norm of the isovists with its architectural
properties in the floorplan. The measure indicates a
degree of regularity of the isovists and suggests a
basis for the development of unsupervised discovery
of spatial signature.
Future work is to examine further the semantic
pattern embedded in the GAN's latent space and
develop different mapping strategies to facilitate the
discovery of such patterns in the architectural
floorplan. Research on the unsupervised discovery of
richer semantic properties of the latent space is
needed to improve the utility of this method. The
quality of generated isovists and the inversion
techniques also needs to be improved. Furthermore,
as the research on GANs interpretability is still
improving, disentanglement of isovists feature in
GANs' latent space could also define the future
direction of the research.
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