Lifts and Lobbies Hot Spots
New modelling released today by leading design and engineering firm, Arup, reveals the importance of detailed planning so more people can safely and efficiently return to work in city office buildings as more businesses progressively reopen when necessary SOPs are observed, while many corporations also ramp up operations by stages.
The modelling focussed on managing lift passenger numbers and queuing, factoring in physical distancing regulations.
“Without good data and planning, there could be potentially unsafe congestion in lobbies or many frustrated people queuing onto the street,” said Arup’s Buildings Leader in Malaysia, Fazidin Faisal.
He said lifts are the bottleneck for accessing commercial buildings and most cannot be structurally reconfigured. Other strategies need to be considered.
“Building owners, managers, and tenants will need to limit numbers in each building, stagger arrival and exit times, and manage queues,” Fazidin said.
He outlined a case study of a 30-storey commercial building with 20 lifts and approximately 340 people working on each floor.
With physical distancing, the average lift car will hold only four people instead of the usual 19. Depending on how many people are trying to access the building at the same time, they could be queuing for a long time, leading to lost productivity as well as annoyance.
“The scenario modeling shows that having 50% or even 75% of people coming in on any particular day, and staggering their arrival times, would make a big difference,” Fazidin said.
If 50% of people come to the building on a given day and all arrive at around the same time, they will be queuing for more than an hour. However, if they are organised to arrive every 15 minutes, in a designated time slot, space could be provided comfortably in the lobbies and queues could be reduced by 70%.
Arup’s 3D MassMotion software can provide technical analysis for planning how people can safely enter, queue and move around lobbies.
“Realistically, most workplaces probably cannot accommodate everyone with safe distancing,” he said. “But without careful planning, there will be issues before people even get to their office floor, which we believe are avoidable.”
Fazidin said there are many important considerations such as signage, supervision and cleaning to make operations safe and efficient, while helping feel their building is still welcoming.
Andrew Pettifer, Principal at Arup, and Eric Rivers, Associate Principal at Arup talks about how companies can transition back to the workplace. Click here to read the full article.
Arup
Arup is the creative force at the heart of many of the world’s most prominent projects in the built environment and across industry. Working in more than 140 countries, the firm’s designers, engineers, architects, planners, consultants and technical specialists work with our clients on innovative projects of the highest quality and impact. www.arup.com
Arup in Malaysia
Arup’s presence in Malaysia goes back to the 1960s when we were involved in shaping some of the country’s early landmarks in Kuala Lumpur and Penang. Since then, we have grown in size and broadened our disciplines, delivering engineering and advisory services necessary to every stage of a project in the evolving urban landscapes across states.
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