Persuasive Virtual Reality: Promoting Earth Buildings in New Zealand

Abstract

Earth built environments are popular around the world due to their health benefits, indoor environment quality, passive solar gains, aesthetics, thermal efficiency, weathertightness, low cost of building materials and high functionality. However, residential earth buildings are unpopular in New Zealand (NZ), despite their numerous benefits. Previous literature has shown that the lack of awareness of earth buildings and their benefits is one of the main barriers to earth construction. Persuasive technology is defined as the technology that is designed to change attitudes or behaviour of the users through persuasion. Previous studies looked at the applications of persuasive technology in enhancing student engagement and motivation in educational settings. The primary purpose of this paper is to apply Virtual Reality (VR) as a persuasive technology tool to promote residential earth buildings in NZ. The study initially explored the reasons why earth buildings are unpopular in NZ using Subject Matter Experts (SME) views combined with a review of past literature. We then designed and implemented a VR model of a sustainable earth building including earth walls, rainwater harvesting tank, dry toilet, solar panels, and green wall as a sustainable building model. The VR model incorporated the key design principles of persuasive technology proposed in the literature. This model was then showcased at Auckland Build Expo 2018 (ABE2018), for the public to view. The viewers who engaged with our VR model were educated on the benefits of living in earth buildings. We believe that this exploratory research will eventually contribute to making advancements in finding new ways to effectively promote earth buildings for living in NZ.