Immersive Technologies in Architectural Education: A pedagogical framework for integrating virtual reality as the main design tool in a fully virtualised architectural design studio environment

Given the increased accessibility and utilization of VR tools in architectural education, embracing a fully virtualised design process still remains taboo. The recent covid-19 pandemic has forced universities to fully adopt remote learning/teaching systems that showcased a disconnection between direct interaction, communication design methods and tools. Immersive tools like VR could play a unique role in closing that gap, allowing users to collaborate and design using avatars in the online virtual space. With this paper, we aim to examine the possibility of a fully virtualised, architectural design studio framework and explore its outcomes throughout the design process. It incorporates multiple digital 3D exercises deriving from manually-driven techniques including sketching and collage-making. We then test the framework for one semester within the Immersive Design and Collaboration Design Studio Unit, which runs in parallel to non-virtualised studio units, working on the same site and context. Our findings highlight the strengths and challenges of the implemented framework and its evaluation through student surveys and student portfolio submissions, to compare the student output developed in both the virtualised and non-virtualised design studio.