Modelling the impacts of crowds on occupants in the built environment—A static, rule-based approach to human perception and movement

A building occupant’s experiences are not passive responses to environmental stimuli, but are the results of multifaceted, prolonged interactions between people and space. We present a framework and prototype software tool for logically reasoning about occupant perception and behaviour in the context of dynamic aspects of buildings in operation, based on qualitative deductive rules. In particular, we focus on the co-presence of different user groups and the resulting impact on perceptual and functional affordances of spatial layouts by utilising the concept of spatial artefacts. As a first proof of concept of our approach, we have implemented a prototype crowd analysis software tool in our new system ASP4BIM, developed specifically to support architectural design reasoning in the context of public-facing buildings with complex signage systems and diverse intended user groups. We evaluate our prototype on the Urban Sciences Building at Newcastle University, a large, state-of-the-art living laboratory and multipurpose academic building. Our findings are that the ASP4BIM-based prototype supports a range of novel query services for formally analysing the impacts of crowds on pedestrians that are logically derived through the use of qualitative deductive rules, that complements other powerful crowd analysis approaches such as agent-based simulation.