It’s all here, crowd flow, wayfinding, evacuation, placemaking, urban simulations – wherever people gather or move, we can measure and plan for it

Are you trying to predict or enhance footfalls, assess or resolve congestion issues, maximise operational efficiency, create vibrant spaces or enhance visitor experience? Our Smart Space team specialise in optimising design choices and operational planning of airports, transit hubs, sports and leisure venues, hospitals, event spaces, and urban realms.

People need to be at the heart of your project. Their destination, direction, comfort and security, as they travel through buildings and urban environments, is critical to success. We offer a suite of innovative simulation tools and visualisation technologies to predict and manage the way people interact, or will interact with existing environments or those about to be designed.

The benefits can be far reaching, from improving productivity and contributing to wellbeing (RUH Pharmacy), to achieving cost savings (Thomas Deacon Academy), maximising revenues (St Giles Circus) and streamlining operational management. (Grand Hyatt Hotel Chicago / 10KSA).

Modelling a range of options early in the design process

We use our proprietary simulation tools such as our BIM-integrated ‘SmartMove’, to measure and model behaviours. Its real-time simulation capability can help optimise spaces and processes during early stage design concept optioneering, as well as operational planning stages.

SmartMove is our specialist circulation modelling service. We use it to assess how people interact with your buildings, processes, and environments, giving us evidence to assess the performance of designs and operations. Being able to test the placement of gates, doorways, corridors, key attraction points and many other factors, long before a design is finalised can save on costly errors, and better still, create opportunities to enhance the user’s experience and ultimately deliver better commercial outcomes for the client.

At the High Line in New York, we have been called back in to manage our own success. Our original design has proved so successful that there is now a need to further refine the operations to avoid overcrowding. Our work to analyse its use and crowd flow will inform the strategy moving forward.

We innovate new tools to meet new challenges

When faced with unfamiliar challenges we develop new technologies. Our SmartSensor and SmartCounter tools use image processing and bluetooth sensing to capture data on how buildings are used by people. So whatever your unique challenge, such as ‘How do we get more from the capacity of our buildings?’ or, ‘How do we exit a crowd of 80,000 comfortably, in just 8 minutes after the game?’, we can develop a solution to account for your special conditions.

Our people movement services include:


  • Crowd flow simulations
  • Pedestrian planning
  • Site-wide and city-wide modelling
  • Process and logistics modelling
  • Drop-off and parking strategies
  • Wayfinding and accessibility
  • Crowd-traffic interactions
  • Risk assessments / optioneering
  • Emergency evacuation