Abstract
Over the past decade online reality (VR) has emerged as a highly immersive medium for creative and technical disciplines despite its widespread adoption as an entertainment platform. Various factors, ranging from rapidly advances in computational power for ever diminishing formfactors and price points through to increased integration into daily life (such as social media, video content, and video games), have made VR more accessible to a larger audience daily. Though VR was once a novelty and emergent tool in architectural pedagogy, its value as a robust tool in design education has only been accelerated by the conditions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. Whereas many academic institutions and programs were able to rapidly transition to operating remotely, architectural educators faced an unprecedented challenge – how to teach a discipline so entrenched in collaboration, discourse, and creation of the built environment without one of their own? This condition gave rise to an opportunity for widespread integration of VR into the architecture curriculum. This paper presents a survey of various VR tools currently available for architectural educators, their core benefits, and challenges. Through examples of student work, the paper articulates best practices and opportunities for VR integration within the design studio curriculum. Conventional studio teaching remains a unique component of an architectural education which cannot be completely replicated with VR tools; however the authors posit several key benefits for the integration of online digital media into the studio context including greater design engagement, enhanced feedback, heightened phenomenological sensitivity, and technical resolution.
Presenters
Vincent HuiAssociate Chair, Department of Architectural Science, Ryerson University, Ontario, Canada Alvin Huang
Research Assistant, Ryerson University, Canada Tatiana Estrina
Student, Bachelor of Architectural Science, Ryerson University, Ontario, Canada
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2021 Special Focus: Considering Viral Technologies: Pandemic-Driven Opportunities and Challenges
KEYWORDS
Virtual Reality, Architecture, Pedagogy, Digital Media, Technological integration
