Thesis

Virtual Reality (VR) is fast becoming an effective mode for productivity and communication across multiple design fields including architectural design.

The integration of VR in architecture has however posed several challenges such as:

1. Current VR products do not fully support the architectural workflow

2. VR interactions and common hardware controls available are difficult to learn and adapt to

3. Human-VR Interaction (HVRI) methods and techniques are not optimised for an architect and their architectural design process.

Existing studies highlight the need for developing more ‘natural’ interactions for the architect – to develop an HVRI system that better integrates into architectural practice. There is, however, limited research that concerns with observation of an architect’s behaviour in a VR environment. This study aims to investigate how an interactive VR system may be designed to facilitate an architect in her design process. For this, the study involved an observational, participatory study - to empirically identify an architect’s requirements for an HVRI system.

The paper explores and discusses opportunities for utilising and optimising existing VR interaction patterns and techniques for architect-centric user requirements. It also generates design suggestions that can be implemented to develop an interactive VR system that better enables architectural design processes.