- Author
- Sun, C.
- Title
- Architectural Cue Model in Evacuation Simulation for Underground Space Design.
- Report
- Bouwkunde 132; NUR-code 648, 2009, 211 p.
- Keywords
- evacuation | simulation | design applications | computer models | validation | evaluation | architecture | human beings | experiments | human response | safety | human behavior | human performance | psychology | architects
- Identifiers
- reviews on cue-based evacuation researches; development of the computational model
- Abstract
- It was in the summer of year 1995 that I encountered the first-person shooter game DOOM for the first time. The feeling during fighting the demons in the fictional spaces is so touching that I noticed my body sometimes moving simultaneously with the Doomguy in the game, although I can only perceive the virtual space through a 14-inch screen. Two years later I entered College of Architectural and Urban Planning in Tongji University and started my architecture professional education. In the end of year 2004, I have an opportunity to talk with Prof Xu and Prof. Tang on one of the interesting research topics in their project to investigate the human being's evacuation behavior in the built environment, which is funded by the National Nature and Science Funds in China. This topic is about how the evacuee searches his route to the safety in the underground space. We all believe that abstract architectural space can influence the evacuees' behavior. However, a systematic investigation on abstract architectural space is challenging. Although I hadn't played DOOM for a long time, I notice that my experiences in the cyber architectural spaces urge me to start the research in this topic with the virtual reality (VR) technologies. In my idea, the virtual reality just gives architect an opportunity to investigate the abstract architectural space without other interferences existing in the real world. Fortunately, I started this research topic as my PhD project from year 2005 supervised by Prof de Vries, who has a lot of experiences in the VR-based researches. After I upgrade the virtual reality technologies in this research for several times, I do think that these technologies are promising. However, sometimes I have to answer the serious question from my colleagues in Tongji University, "Is the research based on the behaviors observed in a virtual environment valid?" My answer is somewhat tricky. I prepare the latest first-person shooter game in their PCs. After they have been absorbed in the game and experienced moving their own bodies simultaneously with the role in the game, they always can answer the question by themselves positively. Frankly, I do not think the current VR technologies have already been perfect in all kinds of human behavior researches. As revealed by the several VR technologies tried in this research, the researcher should customize his own VR facility and adopt some other techniques if necessary according to the features of his own behavioral research. In this research, as one kind of VR technologies, a special CAVEsystem is customized and used as the most suitable technique among all the experimental psychology techniques according to the features of the abstract architectural space, which is interpreted as the architectural cue in this thesis. In brief, as an architect of the post-DOOM generation, I believe that the developing VR technologies must be able to help the architects both in their designs and in their researches.