Pre-Occupancy evaluation of buildings in VR: development of the prototype and user studies

The overarching goal of this project is to enable pre-occupancy evaluation in architecture. This project uses computational techniques and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies to develop and test an innovative method for decision-making enabled by collaborative multi-sensory pre-occupation of designs. A gaming engine was used to develop an immersive VR environment that allowed users to explore architectural spaces within a range of time-specific spatial conditions. This paper presents comparative user studies between VR and paper-based evaluation approaches. Two experimental streams were carried out including architecture professionals and students. This manuscript presents background studies, proposed methods, and results of user testing. Significant differences in responses between architecture practitioners and architecture students were identified, including satisfaction levels of visual and acoustic qualities of architectural spaces; and the ease of using VR for pre-occupancy assessments. The professional population was also more likely to change their original choice after being immersed in the VR experience.