Rosie Elvin, senior lecturer in the School of Design, collaborated with Dr Mohammad Qabshoqa, senior lecture in the School of Architecture & the Built Environment, on a studio-based project that explored the potential for students to integrate the use of Virtual Reality (VR) in their project work. The objective of the two-day workshop was to introduce students from BA (Hons) Interior Architecture & Design and B’Arch Architecture students to gaming engine workflows focusing on Unreal Engine. The engine was then utilised by the students to create a series of viable VR experiences that became essential in helping students understand and ‘experience’ the spaces that they were designing.

The VR experience was key to the learners’ comprehension of how spaces can be navigated in ways that cannot be achieved through the more traditional approaches of model-making and the drawing up of plan and elevation visuals. The project placed a high level of importance on collaborative, cross-disciplinary, practice-based, experiential learning.