Integration of Virtual Reality (VR) in Architectural Design Education: Exploring Student Experience

The architecture industry significantly relies on visual communication. Virtual reality helps designers create a greater sense of realism and a better understanding of a project by designing while immersed in them. That technological advancement has the potential to improve the design process. Therefore, the demand for adapting the use of virtual reality environments in the architecture industry has increased over the past two decades. If academia is aligned with industry, students will be better prepared for integration into the workplace. As a result, the integration of virtual reality into the architectural curriculum is an educational imperative. The long term goal of this project is to incorporate VR into design studios and build a virtual reality lab for architecture students at Western Kentucky University. This study describes the overview of the ongoing integration of virtual reality (VR) environments within the Architectural Science program. A pilot study was conducted prior to incorporating VR into the classroom to investigate the value and the challenges of integration of virtual reality system in design education. This research details and analyzes the experience of a junior student by applying VR to facilitate learning in the context of architectural design. The student applied VR to become immersed in the designed building through the use of a headset and hand controllers. Based on the collected experimental data, the authors investigated the practical application of VR in the learning environment and demonstrated the effectiveness of this advanced technology in pedagogical practice.