The possibilities of computer simulation also extend to issues inadequately covered by normative analysis and in particular to dynamic aspects of design such as human movement and circulation. The paper reports on a framework for addressing two related problems, (a) the simulation of fire escape from buildings and (b) the simulation of human movement on stairs. In both cases we propose that current evaluation techniques and the underlying design norms are too abstract to offer a measure of design success, as testified by the number of fatal accidents in fires and on stairs. In addition, fire escape and stair climbing are characterized by great variability with respect to both the form of the possible designs and the profiles of potential users. This suggests that testing prototypical forms by typical users and publishing the results as new, improved norms is not a realistic proposition for ensuring a global solution. Instead, we should test every design individually, within its own context. The development of an affordable, readily available system for the analysis and evaluation of aspects such as fire escape and stair safety can be based on the combination of the technologies of virtual reality and motion capture. Testing of a design by a number of test people in an immersion space provides not only intuitive evaluations by actual users but also quantitative data on the cognitive and proprioceptive behaviour of the test people. These data can be compiled into profiles of virtual humans for further testing of the same or related designs.

After a brief review of the underlying technology for the implementation of the inference engine, the paper demonstrates an actual design session using a bi-directional thermal simulation tool. Specifically, a use-scenario is described in which the designer explores the tradeoffs between various design variables (glazing area, glazing type, and floor mass) in view of the resulting energy performance of a typical residential building. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential and limitations of the bi-directional approach toward active convergence support for performance-oriented design development.

A Real Scale Model of the basic unit was built by the students of the course Spatial Design Ability dictated by the LEE. The model was first evaluated empty and then a furnishing solution was proposed, built and evaluated. These evaluations were done by another group of students of the Faculty of Architecture and Planning using the Psychological Impressions Measuring Test (IMIP) developed by Luis La Scalea (1991). This test was designed to measure people’s psychological impressions produced by a space, and consists of a semantic differential structured by eleven pairs of opposing adjectives set on a scale of seven levels. The results of this first evaluation were analysed used to modify the prototype which was evaluated again in order to produce a final layout.