Spatial configuration and passenger behavior at complex buildings İstanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport

Abstract

The behavior of the passengers in complex buildings may be affected by the spatial configuration of the building, also the functional demands of each individual. This research investigates complex buildings’spatial configuration and visibility characteristics’ impact on the choice of the service facilities that are related to the behavior of the passengers at an airport. The functional demands of an airport do not only rely on passenger activity and finding the gate. Passengers use the travel-related functions but also the retail facilities, and food/drink services at an airport according to their needs. The location of these facilities has the potential to attract people during their time until their flight. The optimized locations of these facilities may generate well-operated management by answering the functional demands and a time saver for the passengers. The general aim of the research is to point out the dependents of the choice of these facilities related to the syntax parameters such as some of the food services can locate in the highest visibility areas and some of them locate in very deep spaces and some of them lose customers because of the configuration of the airport. The method of the research involves the behavioral pattern of the passengers through the food/drink services and their relationship with the spatial structure of the airport. However, the whole wayfinding dynamics of the airport generally, is led by the arrows and signs through the destination, the random movement through the food/drink facilities will show the actual influence of the spatial structure on the behavioral patterns. The spatial characteristics will be discussed with visual connectivity, isovist measurements (e.g., circularity, occlusivity, isovist perimeter), and how they are related to the actual passenger populationat these facility zones at an airport. The common area of departures and domestic flights of the airport will be used for the research to investigate how people are using these spaces according to their locationand visibility potential. In the case study, the selected nodes will be counted in the gates, and the numeric data of the passengerswill be compared with the syntax measurements to achieve a correlation also detecting the ignored facilities because of the spatial structure that is meant to develop more optimized facility service to the passengers. The research includes a syntactic analysis at İstanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport’s Domestic flights facility area to investigate the usage of these areas. The human movement through the airport leads the users to create a path regarding their activities, therefore the spatial configuration of the airport has a significant impact on the routes of the passengers and the choice of the facility within their functional needs.