Careful Design: Using multi-modal data and virtual reality to bridge the subjectivity gap in architectural space-making.

Architecture is a field that deals with the synthesis of many others. It is not just design and construction, but philosophy, art, technology, culture, user experience and all the intangible aspects of the human psyche. As such, architects, throughout their training and professional life, aim to bui...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Dojnow, Aleksy
Other Authors: O'Brien Jr, William
Format: Thesis
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2024
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/153883
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author Dojnow, Aleksy
author2 O'Brien Jr, William
author_facet O'Brien Jr, William
Dojnow, Aleksy
author_sort Dojnow, Aleksy
collection MIT
description Architecture is a field that deals with the synthesis of many others. It is not just design and construction, but philosophy, art, technology, culture, user experience and all the intangible aspects of the human psyche. As such, architects, throughout their training and professional life, aim to build an intuitive sense of what makes any given space perform the way it is supposed to when experienced by the beholder. They support their decision-making with heuristics and rules of thumb that have been percolating since the beginning of human construction. This is usually a realm dictated by subjective experience and is, therefore, intrinsically imperfect in the way it reflects the architect’s desire and the user’s experience of the architecture. But does it have to be? Virtual Reality provides the unique affordance of rapidly testing and adapting virtual environments to the real-time biofeedback, eye-tracking and self-reports of the beholder. Something that brick-and-mortar architecture is unable to achieve at sufficient pace and scale. As a result, VR has the chance of lifting, if even ever so slightly, the veil that separates the objective reality from subjective experience. I want my thesis to attempt just that. I recognize that I may fail to do so entirely. Perhaps the gap between these two worlds is not meant to be bridged. But that shouldn’t be the reason why I shouldn’t try, as I believe that the path, I will take may yield important and unexpected discoveries that, at the very least, may show where not look and perhaps point in the direction we should try to go next.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1538832024-03-22T04:05:56Z Careful Design: Using multi-modal data and virtual reality to bridge the subjectivity gap in architectural space-making. Dojnow, Aleksy O'Brien Jr, William Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture Architecture is a field that deals with the synthesis of many others. It is not just design and construction, but philosophy, art, technology, culture, user experience and all the intangible aspects of the human psyche. As such, architects, throughout their training and professional life, aim to build an intuitive sense of what makes any given space perform the way it is supposed to when experienced by the beholder. They support their decision-making with heuristics and rules of thumb that have been percolating since the beginning of human construction. This is usually a realm dictated by subjective experience and is, therefore, intrinsically imperfect in the way it reflects the architect’s desire and the user’s experience of the architecture. But does it have to be? Virtual Reality provides the unique affordance of rapidly testing and adapting virtual environments to the real-time biofeedback, eye-tracking and self-reports of the beholder. Something that brick-and-mortar architecture is unable to achieve at sufficient pace and scale. As a result, VR has the chance of lifting, if even ever so slightly, the veil that separates the objective reality from subjective experience. I want my thesis to attempt just that. I recognize that I may fail to do so entirely. Perhaps the gap between these two worlds is not meant to be bridged. But that shouldn’t be the reason why I shouldn’t try, as I believe that the path, I will take may yield important and unexpected discoveries that, at the very least, may show where not look and perhaps point in the direction we should try to go next. M.Arch. 2024-03-21T19:13:25Z 2024-03-21T19:13:25Z 2024-02 2024-02-22T22:00:48.020Z Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/153883 0000-0003-1406-7137 In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted Copyright retained by author(s) https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Dojnow, Aleksy
Careful Design: Using multi-modal data and virtual reality to bridge the subjectivity gap in architectural space-making.
title Careful Design: Using multi-modal data and virtual reality to bridge the subjectivity gap in architectural space-making.
title_full Careful Design: Using multi-modal data and virtual reality to bridge the subjectivity gap in architectural space-making.
title_fullStr Careful Design: Using multi-modal data and virtual reality to bridge the subjectivity gap in architectural space-making.
title_full_unstemmed Careful Design: Using multi-modal data and virtual reality to bridge the subjectivity gap in architectural space-making.
title_short Careful Design: Using multi-modal data and virtual reality to bridge the subjectivity gap in architectural space-making.
title_sort careful design using multi modal data and virtual reality to bridge the subjectivity gap in architectural space making
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/153883
work_keys_str_mv AT dojnowaleksy carefuldesignusingmultimodaldataandvirtualrealitytobridgethesubjectivitygapinarchitecturalspacemaking