Ensuring the safety of building occupants during emergency evacuations is a critical aspect of building design. The spatial configuration and functional layout of buildings significantly influence overall evacuation efficiency. However, accurately assessing evacuation performance based on spatial characteristics remains challenging. This study proposes a weighted network analysis approach to evaluate the evacuation efficiency of buildings. It establishes the “Space-to-Network” diagram translation principles for converting spatial configurations into graph-based representations, defines analytical indicators for evacuation-weighted networks, and introduces a systematic methodology and workflow. A case study demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach, showing that the average relative deviation from evacuation simulation results is less than 10%. The method is particularly well suited for evaluating designs during the early stages. This research offers a novel perspective for evacuation analysis and provides a concise and reliable tool for the quantitative evaluation and performance optimization of building evacuation space.

Primary school teaching buildings represent a typical category of densely populated public architecture, where the safe evacuation of occupants is essential to ensuring their safety. The spatial organizational structure plays a pivotal role in determining overall evacuation efficiency. However, systematic research linking spatial organization with evacuation performance remains limited. This study addresses this gap by analyzing 102 real-world cases of primary school teaching buildings, identifying common spatial organizational patterns, and developing a spatial structural framework based on fundamental units and their organizational relationships. A hybrid methodology integrating weighted network analysis and evacuation simulation is employed to quantitatively evaluate the relationship between spatial organization types and evacuation performance, ultimately proposing three design principles—Integrity, Balance, and Stability—to guide evacuation efficiency optimization. The findings provide a methodological reference for evacuation research in public buildings and offer practical design guidance for optimizing primary school facility layouts.