Architecture Site Analysis Checklist Generator

For architects and architecture students. Choose your project type and depth and get a working checklist across all six layers of site analysis — regional and climate, zoning and legal, context, physical site, sensory, synthesis. Check items off as you go, then print it or copy it into your notes.
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How to Run a Site Analysis

1 — Desk study first. Zoning, parcel data, flood zones, soils, climate normals, topography and site history are all public records. Arrive with the factual layers done and questions written down.

2 — Visit for what records can't hold. The quality of light at 4pm, the neighbor's window that overlooks the garden, the freeway hum that GIS will never show. Walk the approach a client would take. Photograph from the corners and toward every view worth keeping or killing.

3 — Synthesize or it didn't happen. Raw data is not analysis. Layer it into constraint and opportunity overlays, a sun path diagram, a buildable envelope — and one page of conclusions that the parti will have to answer to.

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What Goes in the Site Analysis Diagram

One layer per idea. A base plan with north arrow, then: sun path and solstice shadows, prevailing winds by season, access and circulation, noise sources, views to preserve and views to screen, topography, setbacks — and the buildable envelope they leave behind.


Presentation matters because analysis is an argument: every arrow above should reappear later as a design move — the courtyard turned from the arterial, the glazing opened to the hills, the massing held under the envelope.

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Desk-Study Data Sources

Ten browser tabs replace a week of assumptions. Every row above is free.

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Frequently Asked Questions

‍What is site analysis in architecture?
The systematic study of everything that will shape the design before design begins — climate, zoning, context, physical ground and sensory character — synthesized into diagrams and conclusions the parti must answer to.

‍What should the checklist include?
Six layers: regional/climate, zoning & legal, neighborhood context, physical site, sensory observation, synthesis documents. The generator above scales them to your project type and depth.

‍What are mega, macro and micro?
Zoom levels: region (climate, ecology, corridors), neighborhood (uses, circulation, character) and parcel (topography, soils, sun, wind, easements).

‍How much happens before the visit?
Most factual layers are public records — zoning portals, FEMA, USDA soils, NOAA normals, USGS topo, historic aerials. Save the visit for light, sound, views and approach.

‍What goes in the diagram?
Base plan, north arrow, sun path, winds, access, noise, views, topography, setbacks, buildable envelope — one layer per idea.