Design Evaluation in Architecture Education with an Affordance-Based Approach Utilizing Non-Virtual Reality and Virtual Reality Media

Virtual reality (VR) technology can help students conduct a design evaluation process on their architecture studio course submission. This study explores an architectural design evaluation method that uses an affordance-based design approach with two phases: “Non-VR (NVR) prior to VR” and “NVR followed by VR.” A game-engine-based VR system was developed for this research. The simulated VR system used information from building information modeling (BIM) models to provide information about the evaluated architectural design. Participants evaluated submissions by recognizing the affordances and then mapping them using an affordance structure matrix. All data were evaluated to compare the evaluation results between the two phases. Generally, the evaluation process helps identify perceived affordances in design submissions. The different media provide additional feedback for students.