Boosting up Architectural Design Education with Virtual Reality
J. Dvo, V. Hamata, J. Skácilík, B. Beneö · 2005
One of the challenging tasks is to bridge the gaps among different engineering areas. Nowadays VR tools are commonly used in mechanical engineering but are not frequently used by architects. We present a description of a VR center and its application to architectural education. The main purpose of this paper is to share our first experience with the application of the system in education. We want to show the system requirements, advantages and disadvantages, and our experience with its implementation to education. The system is based on a synchronized dual PC and ceiling-mounted passive stereoscopic projection. SpaceBall is used to interact with the 3D objects and passive polarized glasses for viewing. Our results show that VR significantly helps students to understand principles of architectural design as well as to professors to explore the student’s projects and detect hidden flaws. Co-exploration of virtual buildings by groups of students leaded by a professor significantly helps to understand the architectural design and improves the knowledge sharing.