Midsem presentation for Final Year design Project

1. Understanding fundamental concepts of learning in
architecture to design a tool aiding in 3D visualizations
of architecture students
Final Year Design Project
Guide: Prof.(Dr.) Pradeep Yammiyawar
Vikas Luthra 10020544
Maulishree Pandey 10020524

2. What is this architecture all about?

3. What is this architecture all about?
• Architecture is the process of planning, designing and constructing form, space and ambience that reflect
functional, technical, social, environmental, and aesthetic considerations of physical structures.
• An architect is trained and licensed to plan, design, and oversee the construction of buildings. Term
architect derives from the Latin architectus meaning chief builder

4. What we want to build

5. Objective
• Studying the architecture pedagogy with regard to the fundamental concepts being taught in
curriculum of architecture.
• Identify the relevant course, and understand the content and manner of instruction, through literature
and user study.
• Propose learning solutions that can better the understanding of these concepts among student of
architecture and allied fields
Secondary UserPrimary User Architect students
Architecture
Professors

6. How are we going to build

7. Design Methodology
Research User Study Ideate
Prototype
Literature Study
Online Research
Observation
Contextual
Inquiry
User Interview
Experiment
Brainstorming
Design Brief
Task flows
User Study
Analysis
Concept Sketches
Development
10 Aug’13 -30 Aug‘13 1 Sep’13 -5 Oct’13 6 Oct’13 -12 Oct‘13 13 Oct’13 – 29 Nov‘13

8. “Let us read some case study and
do some data collection”

9. Literature Study-what we read
• Architecture and Learning.
• Study about visualization of spaces by architect students and its representation into 2D and 2.5D on
paper
• Virtual Reality solutions and other technological interventions in learning for architects .
• Identify the major courses taught to architects students that could have some design intervention.

10. Architecture and learning….
• Learning in architecture necessitates thinking of mental images and presenting those images on paper,
and sometimes as physical models or computer generated models.
• Education in architecture be it expert or non expert is a communication process with mainly exchange
of visual images
• Visuospatial thinking theories are especially suited for the purpose of learning in and about
architecture which both rely heavily on the notion that thinking consists of mental images and
principled manipulation of mental images
• Architectural learning requires requires ‘learning by doing’ in a studio environment through which
students acquire experience working in a social context of peers thus aligning itself with constructivist
form of learning

11. “What materials we could use for
building”

12. Virtual Reality Solutions….

13. Using Second Life Desktop based E-learning attempts
….
Sloodle
Second Life for
teaching HCI course

14. Other attempts….
Example of photorealistic
visualization of a generated
3D city model within the GUI
(left) and NPR of the cadastral
data shown in Figure 1 on the
workbench (right).
CLEV-R
URP3D Puppetry

15. “What did we learn from long hours of
staring at screens and books”

16. Literature study -Inferences
WHAT IS DONE? POSSIBILITIES
Immersive VR – ART + COM, Virtual
Tours of proposed building sites
Desktop based VR – Second Life, Clev-R
Text Based VR – MUDs
Tangible + VR, along the lines of 3D
Puppetry
Augmented Reality and VR, along the
lines of URP

17. Literature study -Inferences
• Architects have numerous tools and software to help them visualize
and model their plans in 3D, and adoption of these tools has risen
significantly in the architectural community.
•There have been multiple projects to encourage collaborations
between architects, professionals from related fields and non-
architects. Examples – Simulation of the SF Bridge, IJBurg, VIPA, etc.
• Architects learn best by ‘doing things’, traditionally in a studio environment. Thus, they are aligned
with constructivist learning models.
• Face-to-face interaction is very important in architectural learning and solution building.
• Most of these projects have made use of VR technology. Few like URP, which is an urban planning solutions,
makes use of augmented reality and tangible UI.

18. Literature study -Inferences
• VR and related technologies can be used effectively to incorporate the two necessary features –
constructivist learning and face-to-face interactions.
• Projects like CLEV-R, VIPA, Sloodle, with the aid of platforms like Second Life have been used to research
feasibility of fluid collaborations in the virtual world..
• However, poor instructional content is still a concern. Several constraints related to use of VR also came
to light – psychological and physiological strain, nausea, headache, etc.
• Also, for architects, technology has been used only to aid in 3D modeling of their drawings. Purpose of
these projects has been to analyze feasibility of proposed solution and to aid in communication with
other stakeholders. Focus is yet to shift to teaching architecture.
•There are limited projects dealing with courses of building services, climatology, etc.

19. Major Courses taught….
Referred to architecture curriculum followed in IIT Roorkee, Guwahati University and a model curriculum
provided by AICTE (Appendix). Purpose of this exercise was to identify fundamental courses, and then
through user study, recognize possible interventions of VR in one or many of these courses.
Courses identified are mentioned below –
• Architectural Graphics
• Building Construction and Materials
• Design
• Climatology
• Structures
• Building Services
• Computer Applications in Architecture

20. “But reading is not sufficient we need to
do the site analysis as well”

21. User study -goals
Goals of the two field visits was to
• Observe and discuss the manner of instruction of the above identified courses with professors and
students..
• Identify concepts in these courses, which either instructors find difficult to explain, or are difficult for
students to grasp.
• Understand the manner in which these concepts are applied by students in their projects, and how
these affect solution development.
• Seek out methods (peer based learning, online resources, etc) employed by students at personal level
to gain an understanding of difficult topics.

22. Site visit…
We made two visits to Department of Architecture, Royal
Group Of Institutes, Guwahati. In first visit, we used the
method of contextual inquiry to understand instructor-
student interaction for the course of Architectural Graphics.
Students who were studied in this context were in their
third semester.
In our second visit, we sat in in the class of Architectural
Design, which was being held for fifth semester students.
As part of the visit, we also interviewed the students about
other courses.

23. User Study
• Students discuss their designs and drawings with instructors, where by they are given feedback about
changes to be made. Instructors are, in a way, pre-jury for students.
• Changes were suggested to paper drawings, regardless of whether student preferred sketches or 3D
software.
• Classes were informal in nature, with one-to-many and many-to-many interactions taking place
Gathered Insights:

24. User study
• Projects roughly involve the process of literature
study - site analysis – zoning – drafting –
orientation and space division as per climatic
factors – final solution
• Data collection for site analysis is done mostly
using images, and analyzed data is represented
via images.
• Students comfortable with sketching sketch
largely on paper.
• Few students did only rough sketches of form,
and then used 3D software to develop their
designs.
.
Ramesh seems to be little angry with us while Suresh is happy
to show his work
Gathered Insights:

25. “What can we conclude till now and
what next to be done”

26. Conclusion…
• Climatology, Architectural Graphics and Building services were identified as the architectural
courses whose concepts learning would require some design intervention.
• Virtual Reality and Virtual Environments seems to be one of most potent technology for
developing our solution apart from tangible user interface and augmented reality.
• Tool made should be such that it should incorporate the concept of blended and
constructivist learning as well as promote collaboration among architect students.

27. What next to be done…
• Experiment with students to identify the gap between concept learning and implementation
for a particular course
• Brainstorming and Concept Generation
• Solution to aid in concept development which require 3D visualization and planning
User Study Ideate Prototype
Experiment
Brainstorming
Design Brief
Task flows
User Study
Analysis Concept Sketches
Development
1 Sep’13 -5 Sep‘13 6 Oct’13 -12 Oct‘13 13 Oct’13 – 29 Nov‘13

28. Stuff we study…
References
• Jennifer Whyte, Virtual Reality and Built Environment
• Mayer, E.R (2005)/ Multimedia Learing: Guiding Visuospatial Thinking With Instrctional Animation, In:
The Cambirdge Handbook of Visoospatial Thinking, P. Shah & A. Miyake, pp. 477-508, Cambridge
University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-00173-0, New York
• Bates-Brkljac, N. (2007). Investigating perceptual responses and shared understanding of
architectural design ideas when communicated through different forms of visual representations,
Proceedings of Information Visualization 2007 Conference, Zurich, Switzerland, 2007.
• Langdorf. The 1990s:information systems and computer visualisation for urban design, planning
management, Environment and Planning B: vol. 19, pp723-738, 1992
• Messner, J. I. & Horman, J. M. (2003). Using advanced visualisation tools to improve construction
education. Proceedings of CONVR 2003 Conference, Virginia Tech, 24-26 September 2003, pp.145-
155.
• Horne, Margaret and Thompson, Emine Mine (2008) The role of virtual reality in built environment
education. Journal for Education in the Built Environment, 3.
• Aldrich C. Learning Online with Games, Simulations and Virtual Worlds – Strategies for Online
Instruction

29. Stuff we study…
References
• Minocha, S., Tran, M.Q., Reeves, A. Conducting Empirical Research in Virtual Worlds: Experiences
from two projects in Second Life. Volume 3, Number 1, The Researcher’s Toolbox, November 2010.
• Nijholt, A. (2000). Agent-supported cooperative learning environments. In Proceedings of the
international workshop on advanced learning technologies.
• Rickel, J., & Johnson, W. L. (1999). Virtual humans for team training in virtual reality. In Proceedings of
the ninth international conference on artificial intelligence in education (pp. 578–585).
• De Freitas, S. (2008). Serious virtual worlds. A scoping study. Prepared for the JISC e-learning
programme.
• Nijholt, A. (2000). Agent-supported cooperative learning environments. In Proceedings of the
international workshop on advanced learning technologies.
• Ryan, J., O’Sullivan, C., Bell, C., & Mooney, R. (2004). A virtual reality electrocardiography teaching
tool. In Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on biomedical.
• Virvou, M., Katsionis, G., & Manos, K. (2005). Combining software games with education: Evaluation
of its educational effectiveness. Educational Technology and Society, 8(2).
• Teresa Monahan, Gavin McArdle, Michela Bertolotto. Virtual reality for collaborative e-learning.
Computers & Education, Volume 50, Issue 4, May 2008, Pages 1339–1353

30. Thank you for
listening