PRESCRIPTIVE AND ACTUAL OCCUPANT LOAD OF BUSINESS PREMISES IN FINLAND BEFORE AND DURING COVID19

Abstract: The purpose of this thesis was to study the correspondence of occupant load factors determined by the guidance document of Finnish National Building code and the real occupant loads measured from shopping malls. The correspondence of occupant load factors determined according to Finnish National Building Code were compared with the occupant load factors determined in other national and international building codes. In addition, the impact of Covid19 pandemic to the evacuation was studied. The data was collected from shopping malls that were located around Finland. The years where the data was asked were 2019 and 2020 so that comparison before and during the pandemic could be carried out. As a result, it was observed that the occupant loads that were determined with the occupant load factors overestimated the occupant load in shopping malls quite significantly. When the correspondence of occupant load factors was examined, it was observed that the occupant load factors are determined much more specifically to specific building use in other countries than in Finland. Therefore, occupant load factors that were determined in the guidance document of Finnish National Building Code did not correspond very well with the real occupant loads. Lastly the impact of Covid19 pandemic to the evacuation was studied. Firstly, it was noted that even though the occupant loads in shopping malls decreased a lot when the pandemic began, they recovered in a couple months close to the levels before the pandemic. It was also observed that if the occupants are physical distancing during the evacuation, it will increase the evacuation time specially if they get stuck in the queues on their way out of the building.