The Application of Augmented Reality in Architecture for Visualization

Abstract

Visualization has long been a cornerstone of how architecture is conceived, communicated and experienced. As new technologies emerge, the integration of augmented reality allows virtual models to occupy real environments, offering a new dimension of spatial understanding. This provides architects, designers and those who utilize the technology with the ability to address the challenge of immersion in visualization. Immersion can be described as the state of being fully engaged and present in an augmented reality space. This augmented space creates the sense of belonging, and its achievement can be further broken down into scale, realism and depth. Scale refers to how accurately the user perceives an object’s size and mass. Realism refers to the perceived integration between real and virtual objects. Depth refers to the perception of the physical relationship between real and virtual objects. By exploring the themes of scale, realism, and depth, augmented reality can help address these challenges. By leveraging key features of lighting, shadows, and occlusion, the difficulties of immersion can be addressed. To explore how it all comes together, a head-mounted device – Apple Vision Pro – and a handheld device – iPhone – were used to develop applications that place virtual objects into the real world. With development across two diverse platforms, the results can help compare the strengths and limitations when undergoing visualization. The results indicate that augmented reality helps foster a more genuine understanding of spatial relationships, as well as providing a far more immersive experience of user perception, usability and design comprehension. This approach offers an architectural visualization tool, bridging the gap in understanding and experience.