Design Approaches to Virtual Architecture in a Digital Design Studio

Virtual architecture is the design of functional virtual places as a composition of architectural metaphors and computational elements. This research explored students' design approaches to virtual architecture in a digital design studio. For several weeks, 6 teams, each consisting of 4 students, worked on their own projects, which required them to utilize the characteristics of a virtual world effectively. The outputs produced by the 6 teams were analyzed, and the results show that students mimicked many of the forms and activities of physical architecture, by drawing on their experience in the physical world. In order to create an innovative design, designers should reframe a design problem in a specific context and utilize available resources strategically. Many students seemed to be fixated on existing routine designs rather than developing new design approaches for virtual architecture. However, some students attempted to venture beyond physical architecture in a novel design venue called a virtual world, by thinking along new lines to produce different types of designs. These results suggest that the virtual design studio has the potential to support students' creative thinking, and can thus be utilized as an effective strategy in design education.