The Significance of Human Individual and Crowd Movement Research in Built Environment, with Emphasis on its Function in Retail Spaces

Abstract

Understanding the movements of crowds offers more and more opportunities in the field of architecture, in both active and passive methods of implementation. The study briefly describes crowd dynamics, the new field of research as well as the levels of investigation of human mass movements. Due to its expected large-scale spread, it particularly describes the need for and the possibilities of individual human body motion detection in retail facilities while emphasizing the architectural aspects of the rise of innovative commercial facilities. It details and compares the operational processes of modern-day queue-free “convenience” stores, Amazon Go with JWO technology, and Żabka Nano units operating according to AiFi, highlighting their architectural features.