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This article focuses on the interactions between individual differences and building characteristics that may occur during multi-level wayfinding. Using the Seattle Central Library as our test case, we defined a series of within-floor and between-floor wayfinding tasks based on different building analyses of this uniquely designed structure. Tracking our 59 participants while they completed assigned tasks on-site, we examined their wayfinding performance across tasks and in relation to a variety of individual differences measures and wayfinding strategies. Both individual differences and spatial configuration, as well as the organization of the physical space, were related to the wayfinding challenges inherent to this library. We also found wayfinding differences based on other, non-spatial features, such as semantic expectations about destinations. Together, these results indicate that researchers and building planners must consider the interactions among building, human, and task characteristics in a more nuanced fashion.

Based on a targeted literature review, this vision paper emphasizes the importance of dementia-sensitive built space. The article specifically focuses on supporting spatial orientation and wayfinding for people living with dementia. First, we discuss types of wayfinding challenges, underlying processes, and consequences of spatial disorientation in the context of dementia of the Alzheimer’s type. Second, we focus on current efforts aimed at planning and evaluating dementia-sensitive built space, i.e., environmental design principles, interventions, evaluation tools, strategies, and planning processes. Third, we use our findings as a starting point for developing an interdisciplinary research vision aimed at encouraging further debates and research about: (1) the perspective of a person with dementia, specifically in the context of wayfinding and spatial orientation, and (2) how this perspective supplements planning and design processes of dementia-sensitive built space. We conclude that more closely considering the perspective of people with dementia supports the development of demographically sustainable future cities and care institutions.

Understanding how people interpret building circulation is a critical topic for architectural design and post-occupancy evaluation. However, few studies have examined relationships between architectural circulation and human wayfinding processes, such as spatial complexity and wayfinding difficulty. To assess these, we propose a cognitive-architectural description of circulation typology. Based on a prominent architectural case, the Amsterdam Municipal Orphanage designed by Aldo van Eyck, we explore a graph-based method to create systematically modified building layouts. We develop three distinct circulation types, linear, curved, and grid-based, which differ in their geometrical structure but are comparable in their functional and topological organizations. To identify the structural differences between these circulation types, we conduct an objective spatial analysis of layout visibility and examine subjective judgments of anticipated wayfinding difficulty. Based on the subjective judgments, the linear circulation is the easiest of the three and the grid-based the most difficult, while the curved circulation is intermediate. This is only partially in line with the results of the objective analyses. Hence, we conclude that further behavioural validation of wayfinding difficulties is needed to clarify our findings.

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While virtual reality (VR) is increasingly being used for behavioral studies and pre-occupancy evaluations, the correspondence of wayfinding behavior between real and virtual environments is yet understudied. In this chapter, we report a post-and pre-occupancy evaluation that compares wayfinding behavior in a real, existing building to three virtually simulated buildings: one replication of the real building and two architectural design variations of the same building. We focus on comparing the conditions with respect to their effect on a) the distance above a shortest, optimal path, and key wayfinding decisions, as well as b) absolute angular pointing errors. Preliminary results indicate that the virtual replica represented the real building, as the result patterns were generally comparable. Yet, the redesigns did not evoke a better wayfinding performance.

Urban planners are often challenged with the task of developing design solutions which must meet multiple, and often contradictory, criteria. In this paper, we investigated the trade-offs between social, psychological, and energy potential of the fundamental elements of urban form: the street network and the building massing. Since formal methods to evaluate urban form from the psychological and social point of view are not readily available, we developed a methodological framework to quantify these criteria as the first contribution in this paper. To evaluate the psychological potential, we conducted a three-tiered empirical study starting from real world environments and then abstracting them to virtual environments. In each context, the implicit (physiological) response and explicit (subjective) response of pedestrians were measured. To quantify the social potential, we developed a street network centrality-based measure of social accessibility. For the energy potential, we created an energy model to analyze the impact of pure geometric form on the energy demand of the building stock. The second contribution of this work is a method to identify distinct clusters of urban form and, for each, explore the trade-offs between the select design criteria. We applied this method to two case studies identifying nine types of urban form and their respective potential trade-offs, which are directly applicable for the assessment of strategic decisions regarding urban form during the early planning stages.