TravelAgent: Generative agents in the built environment

Ariel Noyman, Kai Hu and Kent Larson

Environment and Planning B, 2026, vol. 53, issue 2, 377-397

Abstract: Understanding human behavior in the built environment is critical for designing highly-functional, human-centered urban spaces. Traditional approaches, such as manual observations, surveys, and simple simulations, often struggle to capture the complexity and nuance of real-world human behavior and experience. Here we introduce TravelAgent, a novel agentic simulation platform that models pedestrian navigation, activity, and human-like decision-making in the built environment. TravelAgent is proposed to help design teams and decision-makers understand how different users might experience diverse built environments under varying environmental conditions. TravelAgent integrates Generative Agents, multi-modal sensory inputs, and virtual environments, enabling agents to perceive, navigate, and interact with their surroundings, with tasks ranging from goal-oriented navigation to free exploration. We share analysis from 200 simulations with 3364 decision points and task completion rate of ∼80%, across diverse spatial layouts and agent archetypes. We present spatial, linguistic, and sentiment analysis, and show how agents react and experience their surroundings. Finally, we suggest TravelAgent as a new paradigm for designing, simulating, and understanding human experiences in urban environments.

Keywords: urban planning; architectural design; human behavior; generative agents; simulation; agent-based modeling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirb:v:53:y:2026:i:2:p:377-397

DOI: 10.1177/23998083251360458

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