Designing 'action trigger' for architecture modelling design within immersive virtual reality

Abstract

Architectural modelling is radically evolving with time. The introduction of VR into gaming and education has also encouraged architecture to integrate VR into its course of the design process. However, the current integration of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) components is mostly limited to enhancing visualisation, especially towards the corresponding design tasks. This opportunity lead to an increase in attempts to bring the modelling process into the immersive environment. This paper aims to challenge the current design capabilities within the immersive environment and introduce a new interaction method between the human and the virtual reality. The research in human-computer interaction (HCI) has been ongoing for years till present day to observe how humans interact with computers and design technologies. The appearance of the smartphone has extended this HCI research towards hand-carried devices. With VR, although the hardware is still considered 'computer', the interaction is very much different. Since the human is immersed in the virtual environment, the interaction is already beyond the traditional keyboard and mouse. This paper responds to the conference theme by capitalising the power of VR technology to bring new methods of HVRI to the architecture design process.