Social Housing Renovation Simulator

In the UK there was a big fire in a residential tower block which had been renovated only a year ago. Many people were asking why sprinkler systems hadn't been installed, or why flammable materials were used instead of more expensive flame resistant materials.

In order to understand how these decisions could be made, I thought I'd try to build a model or a simulator.

The first couple of versions just randomised the chance of a fire and how many people would die, based on known data. Then later iterations added the different renovations that could affect the chances. Then I added a nice uft-8 box drawing, because I'm old school, and feel that this art form has been neglected.

To answer the question of why wouldn't you prioritise fire safety, I added factors such as how easy it is insulate tower blocks or keep them dry. If you renovate a cold, damp and mouldy tower block and it remains cold, damp and mouldy, then the renovation work was pointless.

Anyhoo, it is here

I feel at this point it is stable and does what I kind of envisioned it to do. But my mind is boggling, new features bubbling to the surface. Whilst I accept that it is very crap, its no Sim City '86, neither is it as sophisticated as anything written this century and will probably never be.

However, further features would be as follows:-

• Add windows as something to buy
• Add draftiness as an attribute
• Add landscaping as something to buy
• Add aesthetics as an attribute
• Select which UK region the tower block is located in
• Make the residents pay rent each month
• Somehow calculate the possible rental income from the renovations
• Tidy up the weightings for each attribute sum so that things like sprinklers quash all chance of a fire going out of control.
• In the event of a fire, assign blame and points of failure, such as illegal cladding over certain heights
• Generate a list of names of the dead, which doesn't go away
• Collect data from users about what they have chosen
• Set challenges for renovation budgets
• Option of doing things on the cheap, which causes danger or incorrectly installed features
• Add gas risers in stairwells
• Add additional fire escapes
• Calculate deaths based on residents of flats on each floor
• Deal with running costs and fire inspections such as combustible material in hallways
• Use css
• Make it look pretty on mobile devices