The architectural conception drawing in immersive virtual environments: Fid-Bau Portal

The architectural conception drawing in immersive virtual environments

Gomez-Tone, Hugo C. / Raposo Grau, Javier F.

Cognitive processes involved in initiating architectural ideas can be affected by technological incursion. Moreover, technological development of emergent and disruptive tools, such as immersive virtual reality, can further foster these processes. This research argues that the use of a virtual reality environment with HMD, haptic controls, and software created for artistic freehand drawing can generate the necessary phenomenological condition to facilitate the cognitive process of creating the first ideas of the architectural project; furthermore, the creation of such ideas would have the same characteristics of the traditional conception drawing made with pencil on paper. To verify this, experiments were carried out as part of a multiple case study methodology with 28 students in their first and last year of studies in a professionally accredited course of architecture and three instruments. The experimentation involved virtual creation of conceptual drawings of a small architectural project. The results showed insignificant differences in terms of the condition and characteristics of the cognitive creative process, and showed larger, but not significant, differences in terms of the drawing as a final product. While the process of virtual drawing presents some significant advantages that can make this technology an effective complement when creating the first architectural ideas, it cannot fully substitute the creative process.