Virtual Urbanism: A User-Centered Approach

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5821/ctv.8430

Keywords:

urbanism, virtual reality, user experience, smart cities

Abstract

The cities in which we live are changing rapidly, presenting the scenery to debate future visions of transformative designs and its impact on the city. The decisive influence of new technologies is important for the generation of a new reality from the economic, social and urban point of view. It is a challenge for organizations and society to question the status quo and experiment often. To take advantage of the changes and opportunities offered by the inclusion of digital technologies, accommodation of the digital transformation into the visualization of Urbanism is required. The interests of citizens are coming to the forefront nowadays with the awareness that a livable city does not only consist of good infrastructure and sustainable energy supply but also citizen input and feedback.

The main goal of the paper is to present the use of digital transformation in processes of urban design through Virtual Reality in which specialized users can analyze, represent and transmit ideas, problems and solutions for the design of urban space. The hypothesis is based on demonstrating the following two statements: (1) the implementation of virtual gamified strategies in the field of urban design helps to critically evaluate the result of urban design, make decisions and understand the location conditions, dimensions and relationships of urban spaces thanks to enhanced visual technologies. (2) The interactive Virtual Reality system helps for the understanding of three-dimensional space and the human scale immersive perception in Virtual Reality could be a tool to defend the arguments of urban projects.

The urban project we work on, promoted by the Barcelona City Council, aims to generate spaces that are designed to meet the needs of the users. The spaces are modeled virtually, intended to be an accessible environment where users (professionals related to the construction and design field) can interact –play– with, to recreate new spaces. These spaces are meant to have maximum realism, including the materials, textures, movements, and even sounds of the environment. The system is tested on the Barcelona Building Construmat Fair using a quantitative method. The data obtained from the assessment exemplify the effectiveness of virtual systems on the urban design process. The results obtained from inquiries to 79 citizens –specialized in the construction and design field –, showed that it is possible to empower Digital Transformation as Virtual Reality systems increase the understanding of the space. The results show that the system helps: 1) to identify the needs and requirements of the human scale and the relationship between people and the natural or artificial environment and objects; 2) to critically evaluate the result of an urban design and make decisions; 3) to transmit problems, solutions and ideas, to a non-specialized and specialized public, 4) apply formal, functional and technical basic principles to the conception and design of urban complexes; among others.

It is proven that is a system that eases the representation and argumentation of urban projects. Knowing the interactive Virtual Reality system, participants specialized in the construction and design field were motivated to change the way of working on the future. The end of the paper is to present a visualization of the results, in a way designed to be attractive and informative for users so the conducted analysis may be reproducible in other urban data contexts. 

The topics that are approached on this paper are: (1) A descriptive analysis of different technologies that can be incorporated to ease the process of urban design. (2) A selection of one of these technologies to model the scenario that will be studied. (3) The exposition and evaluation of a case study and the analysis of the results. And (4) the explanation of the conclusions and next steps to take.

Author Biographies

Mónica Vanesa Sánchez-Sepúlveda, La Salle - Universidad Ramón Llull

Arch. Mónica V. Sánchez-Sepulveda is an Assistant Professor in the Architecture Department of La Salle-Ramon Llull University. Has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Design and master’s degree in Architecture from the University of Puerto Rico. After gaining professional experience in Germany, the United States and Puerto Rico in the public and private sector as a Designer, Project Manager and Urbanist, she started teaching Architecture and Urbanism at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico (PUCPR). She recently moved to Spain and graduated with a master’s degree specialized in Urbanism from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and is currently a Ph.D. candidate researching the Methods of Teaching and Learning Urbanism in Architecture Schools. She has worked as a researcher at the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CEDEUS) in the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and has been a lecturer at the University of Macao and Cambridge University with her research on Urban Networks and Social Integration. She has published in several journals and lectured at international conferences.

David Fonseca Escudero, La Salle - Universidad Ramón Llull

Dr. David Fonseca is Full Professor in the Architecture Department of La Salle-Ramon Llull University, with a Tenured Lecturer Certification by University Quality Agency of Catalonia, Spain. He holds a Telecommunications degree (URL), Information Geographic Systems Master by Girona University, and Audiovisual Communication degree and Information and Knowledge Society Master (Open University of Catalonia, UOC). He is working as Architecture Representation area coordinator (since 2018), professor and advisor in the Department of Architecture (since 1997). In the research framework, he is coordinating and working the GRETEL (Research Group of Technology Enhanced Learning, recognized by the Spanish Government). With more than 150 international conferences and journal papers, and as Approved Certified Instructor by Autodesk, he is serving as a committee member in more than 20 journals and international indexed conferences. Finally, he has served as a researcher or principal researcher in more than ten granted local and international projects.

Jordi Franquesa Sánchez, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña

Dr. Jordi Franquesa: Architect and Ph.D. in Architecture by UPC, is a member of the Urban and Territorial Planning Department of the Architecture School of Barcelona, Barcelona-TECH (UPC) for over twenty years. He is also a Master in Urban Planning and Urbanism. He is the director and founder of the research group GILDA, Group for Innovation and Teaching Logistics in Architecture, from where different lines of work on learning are developed, and from where six JIDA conferences have been held so far, Conferences for Teaching Innovation in Architecture. He is also a member of the GRU group (Group of Urban Research). He has taught at different universities, such as the University of Venice and Lisbon, as well as in countries such as Holland, Mexico, and Brazil, and has been a speaker at a conference on teaching innovation and learning at Harvard. Nowadays he has more than 50 international papers, projects, and experience in managing information related to the scientific field of urbanism and architecture and about learning innovation.

Núria Martí Audí, La Salle - Universidad Ramón Llull

Dr. Núria Martí is a professor at La Salle School of Architecture (ETSA), Ramon Llull University in Barcelona, coordinator of the University Master in Architecture (MA) and co-coordinator of the Doctoral Program of Information Technologies and its Application in Management, Architecture and Geophysics at La Salle. She graduated with a degree in architecture from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (1997) and later obtained her Ph.D. (2005) with a thesis awarded by the Architecture Foundation. From 1998 to nowadays she has been not only teaching at ETSA in Project Design and Architectural Construction Departments but also working as an architect in her own studio, where she designs residential properties and public buildings. Her research is carried out in Mediterranean Architecture with IAR-IAM group. The results of her research work have disseminated in international conferences, scientific journals, and books.

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Published

2020-04-28

Issue

13th Ed. 2019, Barcelona, España

Section

Articles