IAED Konferansı: “Using Virtual Reality to Evaluate Building Design and its Effects on Users,” Dr. Mohamad Nadim Adi, FFB-06, 12:50 14 Ocak (EN)

Interior Architecture & Environmental Design Department Lecture: “Using Virtual Reality to Evaluate Building Design and its Effects on Users”

Date: 14/01/2019 Monday
Time, Place: 12:50, FFB-06

BIO
Dr. Mohamad Nadim Adi completed his doctoral studies in the field of virtual reality, having obtained his undergraduate degree and Master’s in architecture. Combining these two fields, he developed a passion to understand and test new buildings and building materials through the use of virtual reality. Dr. Adi has studied how people respond to different types of built environments using various virtual platforms as a medium. He worked in several universities around the globe, in the fields of high-rise wood buildings, hospital design, dementia and elderly friendly design, and interactive architecture. He joined the University of Alberta to apply his extensive knowledge of this area in the establishment of a virtual reality laboratory for multi-disciplinary research in construction. His research has several potential inter-disciplinary applications involving health, education, and ergonomics.

Abstract
Architecture is traditionally associated with stability, sturdiness and anchoring, but it is more than a container protecting users from the elements. It is a place that influences state of mind and productivity of those within it. With the advancement of technology, it is now possible to use virtual reality to investigate the impact of different designs on users’ performance and safety; without incurring the expense of a building. This research focused on investigating the use of aspects of virtual reality to answer this question. It is motivated by simulation in architectural design, assessing the effect of different design aspects on users’ responses and performance by exposing test subjects to different design scenarios using virtual reality. This work touches on the potential use of virtual reality to evaluate different building and design types ranging from work spaces to hospitals by evaluating existing literature and performing live experiments to assess the reaction of users to such spaces.