Computer vision-based analysis of buildings and built environments: A systematic review of current approaches

Analysing 88 sources published from 2011 to 2021, this paper presents a first systematic review of the computer vision-based analysis of buildings and the built environments to assess its value to architectural and urban design studies. Following a multi-stage selection process, the types of algorithms and data sources used are discussed in respect to architectural applications such as a building classification, detail classification, qualitative environmental analysis, building condition survey, and building value estimation. This reveals current research gaps and trends, and highlights two main categories of research aims. First, to use or optimise computer vision methods for architectural image data, which can then help automate time-consuming, labour-intensive, or complex tasks of visual analysis. Second, to explore the methodological benefits of machine learning approaches to investigate new questions about the built environment by finding patterns and relationships between visual, statistical, and qualitative data, which can overcome limitations of conventional manual analysis. The growing body of research offers new methods to architectural and design studies, with the paper identifying future challenges and directions of research.