Perception-based approach to enhancing fire evacuation performance in educational building

During a fire incident, ensuring the safe and swift evacuation of building occupants to the exterior is of paramount importance. Evacuation can be compromised by panic-induced behaviors and misguided movements of individuals within the building, leading to suboptimal outcomes. Often, human behaviors during evacuations are overlooked, and factors influencing human behavior are not adequately considered. Current regulations typically address evacuation route specifications solely based on distance, disregarding cognitive aspects that significantly influence evacuation performance. However, approaches that consider both distance and users' cognitive capabilities are recognized as crucial for planning evacuation routes to enhance evacuation performance. This study treats evacuation as a wayfinding problem and develops a perception-based approach aimed at improving evacuation performance. This study approaches evacuation as a wayfinding problem and aims to develop a perception-based approach to improve evacuation performance. Experience and mental structure in humans develop proportionally with age. Children are more vulnerable compared to adult individuals in terms of fire safety. Therefore, this study was conducted on middle school students, corresponding to the concrete operational stage defined by Piaget, who are the youngest age group capable of establishing metric relationships with space. The study aims to propose architectural design recommendations that contribute to enhancing evacuation performance by identifying factors influencing perception and wayfinding, using cognitive data obtained from middle school students, in the planning of fire evacuation routes in educational buildings designed in I, L, and U configurations, currently implemented by the Ministry of National Education. An analytical method, Space Syntax, and cognitive mapping method, which reveals cognitive data related to space in the user's mind, were used in the study. Firstly, the spatial readability of I, L, and U plan types was investigated using the Space Syntax program. Subsequently, three-dimensional animations of nine different interior arrangements were prepared based on the current situations of I, L, and U plan types and factors influencing perception and wayfinding selected within the scope of the study, including color, shape, signage, landmark factors. The experimental study was conducted with 66 middle school students from a private school in Konya, a city in Turkey, who had not received education in any of these plan types. Students were asked to draw cognitive maps on blank A4 paper after watching the animations prepared for them, and the effects of factors on the perceptibility of fire escape routes were determined for I, L, and U plan types. Comparison of the analysis data obtained from the Space Syntax program with the cognitive map data obtained from middle school students evaluated the effects of spatial infrastructure and organization on children's perception and wayfinding in educational structures of I, L, and U plan types. The impact of visual stimuli, informative signage, and signaling tools on the perceptibility of fire escape routes was obtained through experimental applications conducted on existing and proposed interior layouts by comparing cognitive maps. According to the results, it was determined that the spatial readability was highest in U plan type and lowest in I plan type according to spatial layout analysis of educational structures. It was observed that the presence of emergency exit doors at the ends of the floor plan, easily visible from the main staircase and in close proximity to spaces with different characteristics, increased middle school students' wayfinding success. However, the symmetrical nature of spaces on the floor plan was found to make it difficult to find the location of the fire staircase. The use of visual stimuli, informative signage, and signaling tools in floor plans positively contributed to middle school students' perception and wayfinding of fire escape routes in educational structures with I, L, and U plan layouts. The most effective factor in I plan type educational structure was color, signage and signboards in L plan type, and landmark factor in U plan type. Additionally, the ranking of the effects of visual stimuli, informative signage, and signaling tools showed that color was the most influential factor, followed by the landmark, signage and signboards, and shape. This study has developed a perception-based approach to improve evacuation performance during emergencies in middle school educational structures with I, L, and U plan layouts based on data obtained from middle school-aged users. By identifying factors that increase the readability of fire escape routes, it is anticipated that evacuation can occur faster and more easily.