Usability studies on building early stage architectural models in virtual reality

Despite its marked success in recent years, it is still not clear how Virtual Reality (VR) can assist architects at the early stages of ideation and design. In this paper, we approach VR to build and explore maquettes at different scales in early design stages. To this end we developed a VR environment where user interactions are supported by untethered, easy to operate, peripherals, using a mobile virtual reality headset to provide virtual immersion and simplified geometric information to create voxel-based maquettes. Usability studies with laypeople suggest that the proposed system is both easier to use and more effective [better suited] than current CAD software to rapidly create simplified models. Additionally, tests with architects have shown the system's potential to improve their toolset. This is partly due to VR combining real-time performance with immersive exploration of the content, where body-scale relationships become visible to support the creative process, allowing architects to become both builders and explores of spatial constructs.