Digital simulation modelling for a school re-opening during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic influenced the way buildings are used and experienced. In particular, educational facilities were among the most affected by the pandemic in terms of use processes. This paper presents a methodology developed to re-organise spaces in a school building, a real case study, to allow safe re-opening. Social distancing and availability of learning spaces were taken into account to simulate the use of the educational facility according to the emergency protocols. Based on a digital survey of the existing building, a building information model was generated and used as a basis for the spatial analysis, crowd and agent-based simulations. Additionally, interactive games and training videos were developed as communication tools to inform end-users about the new rules to be respected inside the building. The digital approach adopted for the analysis of use processes as well as for communicating the results to the end-users allowed them to experience the school fruition processes within a virtual environment before the school re-opening. Future works could deal with the application of the same methodology in other schools, as well as in different contexts, going beyond the specificity of the pandemic emergency, and for other types of buildings.