The pandemic has accelerated the acceptance of virtual environments and sparked a transformative wave in architectural design. Once a futuristic concept, virtual reality is a powerful tool that can be used to reshape how architects design, collaborate, and engage with clients. VR is not just a design tool but a catalyst for innovation, empowering designers to create immersive, user-centric spaces by bridging the gap between artistic imagination and real-time simulations. The pivotal role of VR needs to be seeded at the juncture of education, inspiring and motivating students by showcasing the various roles of VR in the design process. Let’s look at some examples of how VR is integrated into education to show how VR is taught as a game changer in exploring design.
Design Iterations
One key role of virtual reality in architecture and design is its ability to facilitate design iteration and collaboration. An example from a final-year interior architecture project displayed how VR has become essential in exploring design. The project was about ‘Cats and Liminal Spaces + Objects’, as cats tend to prefer spaces or objects that have a quality of being in between. Liminal spaces, in this context, refer to spaces that are transitional or in-between, which was a key concept in the project.
To test the idea of cats and humans cohabitating in space, the design is explored in VR, using Twinmotion, to understand the varied relationships of scales and systems. VR was used to test the students’ designed interior environments regarding architectural scale, atmosphere, ergonomics, and anthropometrics, facilitating an accelerated iteration of design exploration.
Dr Vickram Thevar, the academic who led the final-year project, explained, “VR provided a virtual environment to simulate the students’ design in real-time. This helped immensely in troubleshooting and understanding issues with the design, such as materiality, scale, and the workability of certain areas. VR has the added advantage of situating the students within their design, thus enabling them to feel psychological aspects of their design they might not have otherwise felt up to the construction stage.”
Storytelling
Besides being used in iterative design, VR has revolutionised how architectural designs are presented. The VR experience was also used to enable others to experience interior spaces in an immersive and interactive manner beyond the capacity of 2D drawings and 3D physical models. It allows a design to be ‘walked through’, offering a deeper emotional connection to the project and a more engaging experience for the audience. It enhances spatial storytelling and fosters a sense of engagement and connection.
Sustainable Design
As the primary driver of iterative design learning, VR is not just about design but performance optimization. It allows architects to fine-tune building systems and materials, minimising the carbon footprint and maximising energy efficiency. This forward-thinking approach ensures that buildings not only meet but exceed the needs of their occupants, providing a sense of reassurance and satisfaction to the audience, fostering a feeling of security and contentment.
For example, in the IT Application to Sustainable Design module, students used VR to simulate how natural daylight interacts with an architectural space. Two VR software, Enscape and Prospect by IrisVR, were explored to produce the VR environments, and the Autodesk Revit model was used as the base 3D model to generate the VR content. With the merging of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Virtual Reality, stakeholders can immerse themselves in detailed 3D environments and virtually walk through models.
In studying how the space responds to the sun’s path, students were instructed to use VR and related software to visualise daylight conditions at different times, observing how the space is shaded and how natural light illuminates certain areas to improve the quality of the space and optimise energy use. Working in groups, students immersed themselves in the VR environment (3D building model) to conduct site observations, identify potential issues, and collaborate on proposing architectural solutions, which included ideas like façade design adjustments, altering windows or openings, and other creative concepts.
Ts. Khairool Aizat, the module instructor, described the value of VR, “for me, using VR offers an extended, more immersive, and flexible way to communicate and appreciate architectural design. Instead of relying solely on personal intuition, students can immerse themselves in a virtual environment, which enhances their spatial awareness and deepens their understanding of design.”
Challenges
While VR’s role appears positive in iterative design and building optimization, it remains challenging. The setting-up cost and technical know-how remained a challenge for adoption. With early adoption, the mannerism of navigation, which primarily revolves around handheld controllers, takes away navigation freedom compared to real life and may feel artificial to the user. Total sensory immersion (sense of smell, taste, touch) is not yet present in VR systems, although haptic feedback is gradually being introduced to VR.
VR has rapidly shifted how design is explored, collaborated on and presented. The journey remained long before a common acceptance of VR as the norm, but the power of VR and its new opportunities are undeniable.
References:
Ng, V. and Aizat, K. (2024). An Interview of the use of VR in IT Applications in Sustainable Design.
Ng, V. and Thevar, V. (2024). An Interview of the use of VR in Advanced Interior Architectural Design I.
Taylor’s University. (2024). Cats and Liminal Spaces + Objects, a final year design project of Chu Er Xuan.
Taylor’s University. (2024). IT Applications in Sustainable Design.
