11th EAEA Envisioning Architecture: Design, Evaluation, Communication Conference in 2013

Track 2 | Experiential Simulation | The sensory perception of the built environment

Feeling the urban project: the use of virtual reality for a perceptual approach of the urban climatic environment

ABSTRACT

Virtual reality thanks to immersion and interaction is a good tool to assess urban environments. Allowing users to freely navigate in the virtual environment, virtual reality permits to take into account the influence of dynamic elements and the observers’ actions in the perception of urban spaces. However, previous works have shown that virtual assessments of urban projects are mainly based on visual experience. Thus, the multisensory perception of the actual environment is biased.
In order to tackle this issue, we propose to focus on climatic ambiances, which are dynamic and multisensory. Moreover some studies have shown the importance of these factors in the appropriation of an urban space whereas they are very seldom integrated in virtual evaluations. This paper presents a new methodolgy to delineate urban climatic ambiances in virtual environments which respects the following points: understanding and perception of climatic ambiances by non-experts, sensitive evaluation of the urban space, presence in the virtual scene and perceptual fidelity of the virtual environment. Then we apply this methodology to design ten virtual scenes with climatic effects. These scenes have been assessed in a perceptual experiment involving 42 particpants (Fig. 1). This experiment helps to improve our knowledge of perception in virtual environments in order to improve or propose new cues for sensitive climatic suggestion in VR.

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AUTHORS

Toinon Vigier

CERMA, Ecole d’Architecture de Nantes, Nantes, France

Toinon Vigier is a graduate computer engineer from Ecole Centrale de Nantes, France. After completing a master degree?s in sciences and techniques in urban environment (2011), she is a PhD candidate at CERMA laboratory on the theme of virtual ambiances. She works on the use of virtual reality to propose a perceptual and sensitive approach of urban environments and more precisely on the perception of climate in virtual urban environments.

Daniel Siret

CERMA, Ecole d’Architecture de Nantes, Nantes, France

Guillaume Moreau

CERMA, Ecole Centrale de Nantes, Nantes, France

Laurent Lescop

GERSA, Ecole d’Architecture de Nantes, Nantes, France

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