Virtual medium for design Participation: A shared perceptual understanding in an urban design approach

Due to lack of communication tools, the non-experts in a participatory urban design process face difficulty to take part actively in the stage of design ideation and generation. Mostly, the design ideas stay in conceptual form and do not provide enough perceptual understanding to conceive the design actions fully. The research hypothesises that an Immersive Virtual Environment (IVE) instrument enhances layperson's urban design participation and collaboration during the early stage of the design generation. The research involves non-expert stakeholders as co-designers for a neighbourhood design in New Zealand. The paper discusses as a parallel reporting with other coming articles on how the IVE instrument facilitates successful design collaboration among fellow laypersons to design their own neighbourhood. A protocol analysis validates the success of design communication happened during non-experts design engagements. An expert evaluation is done to rank the generated design in responding to understand the ideas. In conclusion, the article speculates that an IVE assisted participatory urban design process empowers laypersons to take part actively in urban spatial design.