Building information modeling and gamification for educational facilities

The proposed paper explores and evaluates the integration of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Gamification, aimed at simulating end-users’ behavior within a Digital Built Environment and analyzing the effects of this approach on the design phase in order to support the decision-making process. The goal is a greater and active involvement of the client in the definition of design requirements, effectively taking into account, since early design phases, the needs of perspective users, simulating the interaction between end-users and the building before it is built. Success and quality of a building project heavily depend on the performance that it is able to provide: functionality and responsiveness to users’ needs are priority issues. In a context in which theories, techniques and technologies of gamification are gradually pervading the AEC industry, the proposed paper analyzes the potential of dynamic validation of design proposals, evaluated not only in terms of costs and constructability but also considering spatial and functional configuration choices and their impacts on the building use. Several researches are moving toward a new approach of pre-occupancy evaluation, taking into account the simultaneous and computable interactions between users, spaces and activities according to different scenarios. In this direction, the paper focuses on the integration of a game engine and a BIM authoring platform, in order to support decision-making processes in designing educational facilities. Particularly in this context, the transition from a functional design approach to a behavioral one is currently ongoing: innovative learning methods and new space uses become requirements of the spatial configuration (MIUR Guidelines, 2013). A case study has been carried out, aiming at simulating the activities by virtual AI agents within the Building Information Model of an existing educational facility: qualitatively realistic simulations have been achieved.