Abstract:
Virtual reality is influencing the way that spaces are
designed and it is changing our experience of the built
environment. For example, in the summer of 2000, the
artist Horst Kiechle was using a computer for design. Later
that year, the spaces he designed were fabricated and
installed in a gallery in Sydney. The exhibition, which was
entitled Northwestwind Mild Turbulence, was enjoyed by
visitors to the gallery and by many other people who experienced it through a virtual reality (VR) model.
This book is for professionals, such as architects,
engineers and planners, as well as for students and others
interested in buildings and cities. The central question it
addresses is how virtual reality can be used in the design,
production and management of the built environment. We
take a fresh look at applications of virtual reality in the
construction sector with the aim of inspiring and informing
future use.
Virtual reality applications are based on a range of
technologies evolved for entertainment, military and
advanced manufacturing purposes. As with other emerging
technologies, realizing the early dreams for virtual reality
has taken longer than was initially predicted (Brooks,
1999). Potential benefits, such as its use by engineering
organizations to simulate dynamic operation and coordinate detail design, have not always been anticipated.
Our understanding of the relative importance of technologies has changed over time. For example, head-mounted
displays are less widely used than predicted in the late
1980s. Yet, whilst these symbols of early virtual reality
seem increasingly dated, the interactive, spatial, real-time
medium at the heart of VR applications is becoming ubiquitous
