Understanding the AR-VR Based Architectural Design Workflow among Selected Danish Architecture Practices

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have been proposed to be additional architectural design mediums for at least 25 years (Dagit, 1993). Despite rapid technical and technological development, it has not been adopted into architectural design practices as compared to academia and research. Surveys from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and Royal Institutes of British Architects (RIBA) demonstrate the state of architectural practices; 72% of architects and 65% of architects respectively are not using any kind of virtual, augmented, or mixed reality in their practices(RIBA and Microsoft, 2018; Hampson, 2020). In this paper, the authors investigate the state of practices, issues, challenges, and opportunities of the utilization of virtual, augmented, and mixed realities in six architectural practices in the Danish context. Three of the practices are large architectural practices, one medium-sized practice specializing in institutional, healthcare and cultural architecture, and one firm designing private family houses, kindergartens, daycares and places for people with disability and, one experimental design studio. All these practices have used VR/AR in their projects to various degrees. In recent years Danish architectural practices have been involved in various VR/AR-based exhibitions, demonstrations, and tool developments to promote the usage of the same in design practice. Through a set of qualitative interviews with personnel from key architectural practices, the authors would like to demonstrate the present state of practices. The investigation explores the usage of VR and AR in Danish architecture practices by identifying challenges and opportunities regarding skill levels, architectural typology, use cases, toolchains, and workflow and shows similarities and differences between traditional and VR-based design processes. The main findings show how VR/AR-based visualization helps architects to perceive spatiality and also ushers creativity through immersion and overlays.