Teaching Interior Design in Augmented Reality

Abstract

Augmented Reality (AR) has been effectively utilised across a diverse range of industries, including entertainment, medicine, the military, engineering and design. In parallel, AR has irreversibly changed the potential for interaction with the learning object across all education levels and a broad variety of disciplines ranging from the introduction of new concepts in Primary Education to more complex learning in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), social sciences and humanities in Secondary and Tertiary Education. Current 21st Century research presents evidence that effective application of AR in education can facilitate effective competence acquisition while strengthening learner motivation and ensuring successful knowledge transfer to new contexts. Because of the swiftly shifting demands of the labour market and the immense potential of technology, the learning environment and context has become fundamental for learning in the 21st Century. Interior design as a field is a balance between creative innovation and the unbreakable bond with the physical reality demanding respect for precision and functionality. Major international companies, such as Amazon, Ikea, Wayfair and Target have been successfully utilising AR since the 2010s. Thus, nowadays, interior design education is unimaginable without incorporating AR technology, as this enables educators to deliver new forms of engaging and addressing interior design. AR permits experimentation without losing the attributes of the physical environment, thus allowing learners to gain more practical and diverse experience. This study addresses the lack of a systematised knowledge base, which is necessary to inform pedagogic and instructional decisions for interior design education at the secondary school level by examining scientific literature and analysing case study experience in order to formulate findings and recommendations for interior design educators and course developers.