# Room Reading — read me first

**Photographs of a room in. One keep / strip / alter diagram out, drawn in your own interior style.**
AI for Architects · Assignment 3 · draft v0.1 · 23 Sep 2026

## What it does

You photograph an existing room. Your AI (Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini) reads the photographs with `room_reading_instructions.md`. It lists what it can see, and marks everything as **seen**, **inferred** or **unknown**: it never guesses what's hidden. It writes a rough sketch plan and a register, with one row per wall, opening, fixed element and finish. **You** decide keep, strip or alter for each row. The script draws the diagram.

The diagram is your argument about the room. The register is how you show it's grounded.

## You need

- 6–10 phone photographs of one room, each with the direction you were facing ("north-east" is fine) and roughly where you stood.
- **One dimension you taped yourself**: a wall, a window or a door width.
- Your interior style card: `room_card.toml`, filled in once.

## Run it

| Where | How |
|---|---|
| Inside your AI (Claude, ChatGPT) | Add `room_reading.py` and `room_card.toml` to the project. The AI runs the script itself. |
| Google Colab | Upload `room_reading.py`, `room_card.toml` and `room.json`, then run `!python room_reading.py room.json --card room_card.toml` |
| Your computer | Python 3.11 or later, nothing to install: `python room_reading.py room.json --card room_card.toml` |

The script needs no internet and no extra libraries. It makes a PNG too if `cairosvg` is installed; otherwise open the SVG in a browser.

## What comes back

```
keep_strip_alter.svg   the diagram, a line drawing: opens in a browser or Illustrator, imports into Rhino
keep_strip_alter.png   the same, as a picture (if cairosvg is installed)
register_room.csv      one row per claim: you fill keep_strip_alter, verdict and note
room_checked.json      your room with your decisions, in the Existing Space format
run_report.txt         everything the script noticed
```

## Deciding

Open `register_room.csv`. For each row, write **keep**, **strip** or **alter** in `keep_strip_alter` and say why in `note`. Then run again with your decisions:

`python room_reading.py room.json --card room_card.toml --register register_room.csv`

- Anything you haven't decided is drawn grey. It is never drawn as keep.
- **Unknown** elements are hatched: the decision waits on an inspection.
- A **!** marks a possible hazardous material. It must be tested by a licensed assessor before anything is stripped.

## Going further

`room_checked.json` is an Existing Space file. The Existing Space tool (Class 7) reads it and takes the room to Revit and four more diagrams.

*Not a survey, not a hazardous-materials assessment, not structural advice.*