Abstract
The purpose of this study is to clarify the effect of space structure patterns around railway station buildings on the degree of visual access of the stations. A typology of open space structure patterns could be constructed based on analyzing different cases of study around the Tokyo metropolitan area. A geometrical analysis was applied on both theoretical analysis and a sample of real cases. The study focused on studying the effect of shape of plaza and type of link to main street. Merits and demerits of the different space structure patterns and the effect of size restrictions were clarified.
The results indicated that increasing the W/D ratio of the plaza increase the degree of visual access to the station. Stations with plaza orthogonally linked to main street were found to provide good degree of visual access. On the contrary, stations with plaza binary linked to main street were found to restrict the degree of visual accessibility. Additionally, the effect of factors such as location of plaza and direction of link were shown to affect the degree of visual accessibility.
