Collaborator: Craig Zimring

Postoccupancy evaluations of large buildings often reveal significant wayfinding problems caused by poor floor-plan layout. Predicting wayfinding problems early in the design process could avoid costly remodeling and make better buildings. However, we lack formal, predictive models of human wayfinding behavior. Computational models of wayfinding in buildings have addressed constructing a topological and geometric representations of the plan layout incrementally during exploration. We propose to combine this with a schema model of building memory. We argue that people orient themselves and wayfind in new buildings using schemas, or generic expectations about building layout. In this paper we offer preliminary thoughts toward developing a computational model of wayfinding based on this approach.

1992 Predicting wayfinding in buildings – a schema-based approach, Gross, M.D. and C. Zimring, in Y. Kalay and L. Swerdloff, eds., Evaluating and Predicting Design Performance. New York: Wiley, pp. 367-378.

1991 Searching for the Environment in Environmental Cognition Research, Gross, M.D. and C. Zimring, in Evans and Gärling, eds. Environmental Cognition and Action, Oxford University Press. pp. 78-95.

1990 Buildings, Memory, and Wayfinding, Gross, M.D. and C. Zimring, Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) Conference, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, pp. 85-93.