Integrating Virtual Reality and Sustainable Architecture for Building Occupants-Centric Design
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Green Building".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2025 | Viewed by 2177
Special Issue Editors
Interests: virtual reality; indoor environ-mental quality; comfort; behaviour; work-efficiency
Interests: virtual reality; indoor environmental quality; sustainable construction; building technology; efficiency in building
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In the realm of occupant-centric building design and research, virtual reality (VR) is suggested as a powerful alternative to laboratory case studies in terms of the amount of time and resources needed for the setup, which limits the generalizability of the results to real-life contexts. By immersing users in realistic, multisensorial, and one-to-one scale simulations, VR has the potential to facilitate the exploration of various aspects of indoor environments, including health, comfort, aesthetics, acoustics, safety, work-efficiency, behaviour, and overall occupant perception.
VR and building sustainability are increasingly interconnected in the context of occupant-centric design. By integrating VR into the design stages to create immersive simulations suitable to preliminarily assess planning choices, buildings can become more sustainable, improving energy efficiency and better pursuing occupant needs.
This Special Issue seeks scientific and innovative investigations targeting VR assessment methods and design solutions contributing to more sustainable, comfortable, and supportive user-centred built environments. The goal of this collection is to enhance and leverage the current limited adoption of VR and advanced experimental approaches for occupant research to address and improve the human dimension in buildings, promoting sustainability and well-being in the built environment.
Dr. Arianna Latini
Dr. Elisa Di Giuseppe
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- virtual reality
- immersive virtual environment
- sustainable buildings
- building design
- user-centered design
- health and wellbeing
- behaviour
- comfort
- perception
- performance
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