The COVID-19 pandemic that has struck the world since March 2019 has established an unusual modus operandi for all of us. During this transient situation, some of the activities have been severely altered, especially those which are performed in indoor spaces such as classrooms, restaurants, or libraries. As physical distance is mandatory in most countries, the capacity of these places has been severely reduced, causing unsustainable economic and logistical issues. This work aims to analyze the possible ways of distributing seats in symmetrical spaces for different uses and room sizes. For that purpose, the classical seat arrangement in rows and columns is compared with an equilateral triangle-based seat pattern, which is proposed as a better solution in most cases. Results show that a greater number of seats is achieved in most situations using the proposed patterns, with mean increases of 13% and peaks from 25% to 50% in some specific circumstances. A discussion about an optimized layout, shape and size of the furniture used in multiple seat tables is included. The outcome shall generate a positive impact on schools, colleges, restaurants, libraries, and similar built environments where seating capacity is crucial.

中文翻译：

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在 COVID-19 的背景下提高建筑环境中的房间承载能力

自 2019 年 3 月以来席卷全球的 COVID-19 大流行为我们所有人确立了一种不同寻常的作案手法。在这种短暂的情况下，一些活动发生了严重的变化，尤其是在教室、餐厅或图书馆等室内空间进行的活动。由于大多数国家都强制要求保持物理距离，这些地方的容量已严重减少，造成不可持续的经济和后勤问题。这项工作旨在分析在不同用途和房间大小的对称空间中分配座位的可能方式。为此，将经典的行列式座椅布置与基于等边三角形的座椅模式进行比较，这在大多数情况下被认为是更好的解决方案。结果表明，在大多数情况下，使用建议的模式可以获得更多的座位，在某些特定情况下，平均增加了 13%，峰值从 25% 增加到 50%。包括有关多座桌子中使用的家具的优化布局、形状和尺寸的讨论。结果将对学校、学院、餐馆、图书馆和类似的座位容量至关重要的建筑环境产生积极影响。