In this paper we propose a classification of crowd models in built
environments based on the assumed pedestrian ability to foresee the movements
of other walkers. At the same time, we introduce a new family of macroscopic
models, which make it possible to tune the degree of predictiveness (i.e.,
rationality) of the individuals. By means of these models we describe both the
natural behavior of pedestrians, i.e., their expected behavior according to
their real limited predictive ability, and a target behavior, i.e., a
particularly efficient behavior one would like them to assume (for, e.g.,
logistic or safety reasons). Then we tackle a challenging shape optimization
problem, which consists in controlling the environment in such a way that the
natural behavior is as close as possible to the target one, thereby inducing
pedestrians to behave more rationally than what they would naturally do. We
present numerical tests which elucidate the role of rational/predictive
abilities and show some promising results about the shape optimization problem
