Towards a Fully Virtualised Architectural Design Studio: A holistic VR-based framework from conception to final design

Virtual reality (VR) is gaining popularity in the architectural design field as a visualisation tool. But emerging tools like Google Blocks, SketchVR and Gravity Sketch (GS) further utilise VR’s immersive capabilities. Design toolsets such as 3D sketching, modelling and interaction within the virtual space, with six degrees of freedom for movement and rotation in the virtual space, enabling a fully immersive design approach. We continue utilising these immersive toolset capabilities to expand our previous research on incorporating VR tools in the early stages of the architectural design process throughout an academic semester project. This paper aims to further extend this research approach by embracing a fully virtualised architectural design studio and exploring all the design stages through Virtual Reality. Our findings highlight the framework's strengths and challenges, revealing diverse approaches and design outcomes from participants throughout the semester. Evaluation methods include student surveys, External Examiner reports, focus group interviews and researcher/lecturer observations. Additionally, a comparison is made with non-virtualised design studio outputs running concurrently, utilising the same site and design brief.