Application to a case study: Fire safety in historical theaters

Historical theaters represent a representative case-study in Building Heritage fire-safety issue, because of environmental factors (e.g.: structures vulnerability, fire source presence, artistic value of building, building layout) and occupants’ features. (mainly: high occupants density, level of familiarity with architectural spaces). This chapter compares different solutions to the wayfinding issue in similar scenarios, by means of an Italian significant case-study. Experimental drills and simulation activities are used in order to define the effectiveness of innovative wayfinding systems (both "active" and "passive") in comparison to the current evacuation facilities. Results show how the proposed systems enhance motion speeds, evacuation times, and the percentage of people choosing the correct evacuation paths because they are effectively able to supply people needs in evacuation and interact with their behaviours. At the same time, solutions involve easy-to-apply building components, that are introduce no architectural modifications to the original building layout and features.