How Lay People Design Interior Architecture Layouts in Virtual, Augmented, Drawn and Physical Reality

Abstract

Simulated reality, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), is particularly helpful for lay people such as clients or prospective occupants, as it allows them to first- hand experience an unbuilt architectural space to provide design input without the requirement of spatial expertise. However, as the experience of space depends on the holistic interplay of a wide variety of atmospheric aspects that cannot be easily simulated, it is still unclear how simulated reality influences lay people when making design decisions. Our study therefore captured how eight lay people designed the interior layout of the same room within five different simulated realities, including drawing reality, tabletop AR, mobile AR, VR and physical reality. By comparing the design process of two design tasks, we assert how each reality promoted or inhibited particular spatial qualities. Consequently, we propose that the realism of a reality influenced how people make design decisions based on atmospheric or functional considerations, the co-location of a reality provokes design decisions that neglect or include contextual factors, the accuracy of distance estimation in a reality depends on the availability of bodily references and the viewing frustum, the ability of a reality to compare design solutions instantaneously trumps the ability to interact with it more intuitively, and each reality comes with particular implementation costs against which the benefits should be estimated and offset. Our study thus provides actionable insights to choose the most appropriate simulated reality depending on the design goals, helps simulated reality developers to consider additional interactive features, and empowers lay people in taking an active part in architectural design.