VIRTUAL REALITY IN DESIGN TEACHING

Ar.Suvarna Lele
Practicing Architect and Visiting Lecturer

What is virtual reality?

.Virtual Reality is a way for humans to visualize, manipulate and interact with
computers and extremely complex data.
Types of VR
_ Immersive-_ (mouse, keyboard, screen, microphone etc)
_ Non-immersive- (HMD, Data glove, 3D Mouse etc)
Virtual Reality & Architecture
The concept of virtual architecture has only recently emerged with the ability of
computer-imaging technology to accurately simulate three-dimensional reality.
The technique of simulating three-dimensional reality is known as virtual reality.
This technique is invaluable to modern architects, as it allows them to simulate
most scenarios that they will encounter during the design, construction, and
eventually the life of the structure they are attempting to build. Virtual reality
allows architects to essentially create their structures and test them without
wasting any of the resources necessary to complete the structure in reality. The
links included herein relate to virtual reality as it applies to architecture.
With computers architects can design space both for physical and non-physical
media. A conscious integration of cognitive and physical space in architecture
can affect construction and maintenance costs, and the impact on natural and
urban environments. This paper is about the convergence of physical and
electronic space and its potential effects on architecture. People regularly use
non-physical, cognitive spaces to navigate and think. These spaces are
important to architects in the design and planning of physical buildings. Cognitive
spaces inform design - often underlying principles of architectural composition.
They include zones of privacy, territory and the space of memory and visual
thought. They let us to map our environment, model or plan projects, even
imagine places like Heaven or Hell. Cyberspace is an electronic extension of this
cognitive space. Designers of virtual environments already know the power these
spaces have on the imagination..
Significance Of VR
In construction education, classroom teaching still remains the preferred mode of
teaching. Complex designs and details developed by designers in today’s world
make it imperative to use physical models for better understanding. Such is true
in the case on steel structures where steel joint details can be very complex, and
raster 2D and 3D drawings become inadequate as teaching tools. The new
information age has brought in concepts like virtual reality. Desktop or immersive
virtual reality can be used for better understanding of such complex designs. the
user can rotate, zoom or pan the 3D detail for better understanding. The user
interface for the tool is in HTML and is web compatible, which makes it a
valuable aid not only in teaching in the classroom but also an effective self-
directed tool for open learning via the web.
During the past ten years computers in architecture have evolved from machines
used for analytic and numeric calculation, to machines used for generating
dynamic images, permitting the creation of photorealistic renderings, and now, in
a preliminary way, permitting the simulation of virtual environments
The application of computer technology to the practice of architecture has had a
cross disciplinary effect, as computer algorithms used to generate the "unreal"
environments and actors of the motion picture industry are applied to the
prediction of buildings and urban landscapes not yet in existence.
Buildings and places from history are archeologically "re-constructed" providing
digital simulations that enable designers to study that which has previously (or
never) existed. Applications of concepts from scientific visualization suggest new
methods for understanding the highly interrelated aspects of the architectural
sciences: structural systems, environmental control systems, building economics,
etc. Simulation systems from the aerospace industry and computer media fields
propose new non-physical three-dimensional worlds. Video compositing
technology from the television industry and the practice of medicine are now
applied to the compositing of existing environments with proposed buildings.
Whether based in architectural research or practice, many authors continue to
question the development of contemporary computer systems. They seek new
interfaces between human and machine, new methods for simulating
architectural information digitally, and new ways of conceptualizing the process
of architectural design. While the practice of architecture has, of necessity, been
primarily concerned with increasing productivity - and automation for improved
efficiency, it is clear that university based studies and research continue to go
beyond the electronic replication of manual tasks and study issues that can
change the processes of architectural design - and ultimately perhaps, the
products.
Architects and designers use multiple media to explore and express design
solutions. The physical model remains one of the most important media to
represent the architect’s work that cannot completely be substituted by computer
graphics.
Architects are in the business of designing spaces through the manipulation of
real and virtual surfaces. During this design process, they need to continually
evaluate the spaces they are creating among themselves and with their clients.
They do so by using various techniques of representation of space. A partial list
of these techniques include the perspective sketch, line drawings (plans,
elevations, sections, isometric views), scale models, photo montage, computer
animation and samples of actual building material.
Scale model and their limitations
Architects use different methods of representation at different stages of the
design process, depending on what specific decisions need to be made. This is
because representations are generally only good at telling one part of the story
well. As the project evolves, decisions about different aspects of the design are
made, at each point using a suited form of representation.
There are many phases in the development of an architectural project, from the
"conceptual" to the "detail and finalizing" phase. At the beginning of the project,
in the conceptual phase, the designer and the client discuss initial design ideas
using rough sketches representing the basic geometric forms of the project. As
the ideas mature, the project enters a new phase and gradually develops a
vocabulary of forms. The conceptual geometric shapes become spaces made of
surfaces and openings, and a first sense for the interior space takes shape.
At this juncture, the designer and the client need to make decisions about the
way the spaces will "function" and "feel". More specifically, they need to evaluate
(1) the sizes of the individual spaces, (2) the relative configuration of the spaces
to each other and (3) the qualities and attributes of the individual spaces. These
are spatial evaluations which, to be made perfectly accurate, would require that
one be present in them. Ideally one would actually experience them as real
places by walking through them. Clearly however, this solution is not realistic. It
is inflexible, expensive and time consuming. As a result, architects have had to
rely on representations of these spaces.
Historically, the representation technique around which these decisions have
taken place is the scale model. Generally constructed entirely of one building
material, such as cardboard, this scale model includes only the main architectural
space elements, such as the walls, the openings, the floor, the ceiling and a
removable roof (for better observation of the interior). If there are stairs in the
project, they are often simply represented as ramps. The simplicity of the model
and the lack of distinction between building materials helps decision makers
focus on the main aspects of the space.
Scale models have been predominant tools for representing the feel of interior
spaces for many years. However, there is a significant shortcoming in the use of
scale models. They are small. As a result, to evaluate the "feel" and "function" of
the space, users have to imagine or project themselves into the miniature model.
While most of us are quite capable of imagining ourselves in these scale models,
it is quite a different experience from actually being in them. How can it be certain
users get an accurate sense for their own scale when they imagine themselves
inside the model? And to make things worse, the problem is further compounded
when the user has to imagine moving through the spaces.
Fortunately, advances in technology have brought considerable improvements to
the problem of scale and movement in scale models. The first such improvement
was the introduction of miniature cameras into the scale models. Typically, these
cameras move about at eye height in the model, and their image is transmitted to
a television monitor. More sophisticated versions have an apparatus which
allows participants themselves to control the movement of the camera around
and about the model (Bosselman 1987, Sasanoff 1967). With this new technique,
the task of understanding the spaces is greatly simplified because it removes the
need to imagine oneself in small scale. As a result, evaluations about the
modeled spaces have become more reliable.
evaluations about the modeled spaces have become more reliable.
While the use of mini-cameras was being developed, parallel advancements in
the field of computer graphics and animation began replacing the role of the
physical scale model. Computer models are more flexible because they can be
modified at very little expense. For many years, this technology suffered from
limited graphic rendering and computer speed. Early computer models consisted
of line drawings, and the "hidden line" was not hidden. Faster computers made it
possible to display solid shading of polygons, and still faster and better programs
added advanced rendering techniques, such as ray tracing, transparency and
shadows. While these sophisticated renderings take a lot of time to compute,
when transferred onto video tape, they offer convincing walkthroughs (batch
computer animations).
As the power of computers increased, the rendering time decreased. Soon, given
a simple model, it became possible for a viewer to change their viewpoint in a
computer model in near real time, that is , 10 to 20 times per second. One such
program is Virtus Walkthrough(TM). By sacrificing high rendering detail for
speed, it allows viewers to move their viewpoint throughout the model in real time
on the Macintosh platform. More sophisticated platforms, such as the Reality
Engine, which runs on the Silicon Graphics workstation, are fast enough to
render very high realism scenes in real time.
There is no doubt that both the advancements of technology in the mechanical
field (mini-camera) and the computer field (real-time walkthrough) has improved
the task of representing interior spaces. They allow viewers to better understand
how the modeled spaces would feel because they have placed the position of the
viewpoint inside the model, they allow the viewer to choose how they want to see
the spaces, and they facilitate viewers in understanding how it would feel to
move through the space.
However, this viewing perspective has created a new problem which did not exist
before, and it has displaced a second. The problem it has created is that it has
reduced the 3 dimensional spatial information of the scale model onto a 2
dimensional medium. In effect, the specificity of spatial information which was
available in the scale model, now has to be interpreted from a 2 D
representation. It has also displaced the problem of scale, rather than resolve it.
While we take much of this for granted, we perform an important transformation
of scale when we look at television monitors. We understand that the actual size
of objects seen on the monitor have no relationship to the size of the monitor
itself. The view of a building which only fills half of the screen is understood to be
many tens of feet tall.
Furthermore, the participant is only remotely coupled to the model because they
control their viewpoint using a kind of joystick device. They are more coupled to
real settings and to a certain extent to scale models because they change their
viewpoints by moving their head and their body.
For the reasons listed above, monitor-based representations are far from perfect
for describing the "feel" of proposed architectural spaces. To make them closer
to perfect, they would have to offer a more convincing illusion of depth, a more
appropriate sense of scale and a greater coupling between the process by which
people explore spaces in simulated and real environments.
 Figure 1.1: Venn Diagram
Relating Physical Architecture to Virtual Architecture.
Physical architecture is the embodiment and expression of societal values in
physical form (like bricks and mortar). It is that which is traditionally studied in
schools of architecture and for which designers become licensed professionals.
We witness physical architecture as buildings, parks, plazas, cities, suburbs, and
landscapes. Like physical architecture, virtual architecture, "...need(s) to be
designed. The world and the experience that one can have in it must be
consciously shaped" (Best, Idiot�s Guide 2). However, virtual architecture is that
which embodies and expresses values of society in electronic form, with
polygons, vectors, and texture maps. Lacking physicality, it does not exist on a
geographic site as traditionally understood. Rather, it is accessible via computer
and human-interface technology anywhere one has access to the Internet.
Example of Physical Architecture
The Gothic cathedral Notre Dame de Charters is an excellent example of
physical architecture (Figure 1.2). It is a physical building in a specific context,
with a well-defined entry off of an urban plaza. It uses physical materials of stone,
metal, wood, and glass, as well as light, to order forms and elements in space to
create meaning. From the plaza outside, a procession begins as one enters the
building, passing through a clearly marked threshold into the interior of the
cathedral. One walks along the body, or nave, where one experiences numerous
icons and symbols which are given an expression different than the architectural
elements which serve a structural function. The icons themselves refer to times
and places to which people of a specific culture can relate. From the nave, one
passes the crossing to the apse, a heavenly space at the end of the procession
which serves, conceptually, as the heart of the building. It is a place for
communication with the spiritual, a sacred space among the profane.

While there are countless examples of physical architecture which have been
designed and built over the millennia, there are far fewer examples of virtual
architecture due to the relative youth (decades) of electronic media and computer
technology. Nonetheless, the design of virtual spaces is an architectural
exploration. By, "...placing the human within the information space, it is an
architectural problem; but beyond this, cyberspace has an architecture of its own
and, furthermore, can contain architecture. To repeat: cyberspace is architecture,
cyberspace has an architecture, and cyberspace contains
The earliest examples of virtual architecture as mediated by networked
computers are the text-based environments of MUDs (multi-user domains) and
MOOs (MUD, object oriented). In MUDs and MOOs, multiple users to log in to a
shared environment on a computer network and interact using text. Although the
interaction takes place in one-dimensional text, the participants in the MUDs
relate to their environments with two-dimensional maps (Figure 1.3). Often, but
not always, the maps mimic or represent physically constructable environments.

Constraints
The virtual realm lacks many of the constraints and conditions of the physical
world, while it has its own set of constraints and conditions. "Cyberspace must be
made: it cannot be discovered. Cyberspace is a to-be-constructed geography, a
new planet, not yet laid out and without weather" (Benedikt, "Unreal Estates" 56).
The virtual realm, by its nature, has neither gravity nor requires a response from
an architectural structure. It has no climate which requires a surface of enclosure
to define and protect interior space as understood in the physical world.
Furthermore, there are no geographic limits, no site boundaries or property lines,
to contain and define the bounds of the architecture within (Campbell, "Nature of
Cyberspace").
Issues in Virtual Architecture
Developments for the Future
What, then, are the great new lines of development in the field of CAAD? What
will architectural education and practice look like in 2005 or 2010? This book's
section titles express our ideas.
"Design in Space and Time" is the starting point, connecting the past to the
future using new CAAD instruments. The idea that design takes place in space
and time is not new, but the means by which the machine can help us externalize
previously hidden mechanisms, making the invisible visible and in the process
expand human design capabilities, beyond that what was and will be possible by
hand, are. To be very clear, these instruments will not replace conventional
design interactions between humans and external media but will enrich them
tremendously in qualitative ways. Their impact will stretch from interactive design
systems such as Sculptor to the other side dynamic modeling experiments.
"Learning and Creative Collaboration" marks a fundamental departure from
traditional design education. The new methods influence the design process,
most dramatically in networked environments, and by the fact that the entire
Internet community can follow along. The emergence of shared design
authorship - a departure from single design authorship - and the evolution of new
necessary rules form the core of the chapter. The experiments are so rich in
images and content that it takes several approaches and active participation to
understand the full implications.
"Virtual Environments, Paths, People, Data" opens exciting new territory.
Although described, occupied and built up over many years, it only slowly enters
the consciousness of the general public and begins to effect the design of the
physical environment. The new media definitively create an innovative design
world and from this a new physical environment will result. Interactive systems
such as Trace, conceived for an exhibition on the archaeology of the future city,
were difficult to explain at the time and seemed commonplace only a few years
later. The architecture of virtualhouse.ch is a precursor to the emerging virtual
universities around the world. And of course, these environments need working
instruments, of which the personal info structures and 3.D.H.T.M.L are examples.

"IT and Praxis" shows the increasingly interesting path from theory into
application: the grand ideas, the visions, the possibilities and their unexpected
and mostly unpredictable realization. Examples of scientific instruments that later
became useful for practical purposes are at the center of attention.
"Blurring Boundaries" is a good illustration of how a common underlying
technology, in this case the use of networked information, can create bridges to
other disciplines and other worlds. Suddenly, fields that were not related at all
before become very closely interwoven
Understanding Virtual environments
One of the astonishing and distinguishing features of virtual interface technology
are participant's response to it as a place. While experiencing virtual worlds, they
can be heard saying "I wonder what's in here" or, "where am I now?", and
afterwards, their comments about their experience often start with the words
"when I was there". "Here, there and where " are responses to a place. People
who experience virtual worlds feel as if they are really there, in the virtual models.
Few other presentation mediums, be they cinematography, television, books,
music or architectural renderings can generate such compelling impressions of
being in a place.
Architectural representations
Architects use different methods of representation at different stages of the
design process, depending on what specific decisions need to be made. This is
because representations are generally only good at telling one part of the story
well. As the project evolves, decisions about different aspects of the design are
made, at each point using a suited form of representation.
At this juncture, the designer and the client need to make decisions about the
way the spaces will "function" and "feel". More specifically, they need to evaluate
(1) the sizes of the individual spaces, (2) the relative configuration of the spaces
to each other and (3) the qualities and attributes of the individual spaces. These
are spatial evaluations which, to be made perfectly accurate, would require that
one be present in them. Ideally one would actually experience them as real
places by walking through them
New Technique for Representing Architectural Space.
There have been tremendous advancements in the field of computer rendering in
the last several years and a merging of technologies which together, could solve
all of the problems related to existing forms of computer based simulations. This
new technology is called "virtual reality" for some, "cyberspace" or "virtual
environments" for still others.
Virtual environments create a powerful sense of immersion within a computer
model. Participants are immersed and surrounded by information which is to
scale and which is 3 dimensional. The interface is very intuitive to use for
exploring virtual environments because it is tightly coupled to the way people
explore real environments. Viewers can look around in the model by turning and
moving their heads, as they do naturally in real spaces. Because of the specific
attributes of virtual interfaces, people develop a sense of actually being somehow
present inside the model. And with this sense of presence, viewers could
potentially, for the first time, perceive the modeled spaces as they would the real
spaces. Virtual environments are poised to be the perfect representation tool for
helping architects make decisions about architectural spaces before they are
built.
Virtual interfaces, in their existing technological condition, represent real spaces
well enough to replace the real-time walkthroughs. They allow designers to make
evaluations of individual volume sizes, overall volume layout and individual
volume descriptions at least as accurately as those made when viewing a
walkthrough representation.
Review of the Literature.
Virtual Interface Technologies are very new, and while they do permit the
simulation of spaces, to this day, there exist no formal investigation of the
representativeness of virtual spaces for architectural applications. Some
institutions already use virtual interface technology for the purpose of
architectural simulations. One such institution, the Chapel Hill simulation
laboratory at the University of Carolina, has been working most closely with
designers and architects in the development of their technology. But to my
knowledge, they have done no specific study which actually evaluates the
"representativeness" of virtual architectural spaces.
While there have been no previous studies on this topic, there have been
numerous informal studies and observations at the H.I.T.Lab which suggest the
location of problem areas. The observations were made possible because of the
extensive demonstrating which takes place at the laboratory.
With regard to the perception of distances, there have not been any informal
studies. In general, it has been assumed that people perceive dimensions of
spaces to be the same size as intended since the scale of the model is exactly
human scale. The results of this task are the first of their kind, and the findings
can only be enlightening.