EXPERIENTIAL VIRTUAL URBAN ENVIRONMENTS: A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION

Authors

  • Izham Ghani Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA
  • Norhafizah Abdul Rahman Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA
  • Nadiyanti Mat Nayan Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA
  • Azrul Bahaluddin Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v16i5.408

Keywords:

virtual reality, virtual urban environment, experiential, urban design

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) technologies enable users to be virtually immersed in reconstructed cities and streets from around the globe. Immersive technologies could provide users a suggestive sensation of “being there” in a reconstructed virtual urban environments (VUE). This research argues that experiential VUE could promote better understanding of a place while offering unique interactions within its surrounding elements. The aim of this research is to present a preliminary study of the factors determining place experience in a VUE. This research examines two related VUE case studies that offer real-time navigation via a 3D virtual environment (VE) platform to analyse the functionality of the offered interactions and user experience via its contents. Although preliminary investigations have shown some promising results in real-time virtual city walkthroughs, there are still some issues that still need to be addressed in order to provide experiential contents. Based on the findings, this research suggests future VUE improvements focusing on contextual setting, interactivity, navigation, level of details, viewpoints and auditory elements to provide an experiential walkthrough within a VUE. Findings from the case studies would assist and identify specific elements suitable for future development of more meaningful and experiential VUE in the Malaysian context.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Augustin, S. (2009). Place advantage: Applied psychology for interior architecture. Canada: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Bostan, B. (2009). Requirements analysis of presence: Insights from a RPG game. Computers in Entertainment (CIE), 7(1), 1-17.

Bostan, B., & Ogut, S. (2011). Presence in computer games: Design requirements. Paper presented at the GAMEON'2011, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.

Carmona, M., Heath, T., Oc, T., & Tiesdell, S. (2003). Public places, urban spaces: The dimensions of urban design. London: Architectural Press.

Carmona, M., Heath, T., Oc, T., & Tiesdell, S. (2010). Public places, urban spaces: The dimensions of urban design (2nd ed.). London: Architectural Press.

Cross, J. E. (2001). What is sense of place? [Online]. Available: http://www.western.edu/headwaters/archivesheadwaters12_papers/cross_paper .html [2017, June 15].

Debord, G. (1955). Introduction to a critique of urban geography. Les Levres Nues, 6.

Ghani, I., Rafi, A., & Woods, P. (2016). Sense of place in immersive architectural virtual heritage environment Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Virtual System & Multimedia (VSMM) 2016 (pp. 1-8). Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: IEEE.

Jacobs, J. (1961). The death and life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House Inc.

Jorgensen, B. S., & Stedman, R. C. (2006). A comparative analysis of predictors of sense of place dimensions: Attachment to, dependence on, and identification with lakeshore properties. Journal of Environmental Management, 79(3), 316-327.

Lavoie, C. (2005). Sketching the landscape: Exploring a sense of place. Landscape Journal, 24(1), 13-31.

Lawson, B. (2001). The language of space. Oxford: Architectural Press.

Lengen, C., & Kistemann, T. (2012). Sense of place and place identity: Review of neuroscientific evidence. Health & Place, 18(5), 1162-1171.

Lessiter, J., Freeman, J., Keogh, E., & Davidoff, J. (2001). A cross-media presence questionnaire: The ITC-Sense of Presence Inventory. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 10(3), 282-297.

Lester, S. (1999). An introduction to phenomenological research. [Online]. Available: www.sld.demon.co.uk/resmethy.pdf.

Mehta, V. (2007). Lively streets: Determining environmental characteristics to support social behavior. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 27(2), 165-187.

Mehta, V. (2013). The street: A quintessential social public space. Oxon, UK: Routledge.

Nayan, N. M. (2010). Conserving the heritage spaces of Kuala Lumpur: A case study of the Old Market Square (Medan Pasar). Paper presented at the International Conference on Preservation and Promotion of Heritage, Penang, Malaysia.

Nayan, N. M. (2016a). Reviving Sydney Lake as the Historical Park of Kuala Lumpur. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 222(23 June 2016), 578-586.

Nayan, N. M. (2016b). Sydney Lake: The historical park of KL. Asian Journal of Environment-Behaviour Studies, 7(27).

Nayan, N. M., & Jones, D. (2011). Conserving the heritage spaces of Kuala Lumpur: A case study of the Old Market Square (Medan Pasar). In S. Mohd, A. Azman, J. Sulaiman, & J. L. Fernandez (Eds.), Multifaceted Aspects of Asian Heritage. Penang, Malaysia: School of Social Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).

Norberg-Schulz, C. (1984). Genius loci: Towards a phenomenology of architecture. New York: Rizzoli.

Rahman, N. A., Ghani, I., Bahaluddin, A., & Hussain, N. H. (2017). The need for good social behavior through people friendly urban streets. Environment-Behaviour Proceedings Journal, 2(5), 469-477.

Rahman, N. A., Sakip, S. R. M., & Nayan, N. M. (2016). Physical qualities and activities for a user-friendly shopping street in the context of a Malaysian city. Procedia -Social and Behavioral Sciences, 222, 196-202.

Rahman, N. A., Shamsuddin, S., & Ghani, I. (2015). What makes people use the street?: Towards a liveable urban environment in Kuala Lumpur city centre. Procedia -Social and Behavioral Sciences, 170, 624-632.

Rapoport, A. (1977). Human aspects of urban form: Towards a man-environment approach to urban form and design. Oxford, England: Pergamon Press.

Seamon, D. (2000). A way of seeing people and place: Phenomenology in environment-behavior research. In S. Wapner, J. Demick, T. Yamamoto, & H. Minami (Eds.), Theoretical perspectives in environment-behavior research (pp. 157-178). New York: Plenum.

Shamai, S., & Ilatov, Z. (2005). Measuring sense of place: Methodological aspects. Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 96(5), 467-476.

Shamsuddin, S., & Sulaiman, A. B. (2010). The street and its influence on the sense of place of Malaysian cities. In H. C. Kiang, L. B. Liang, & H. Limin (Eds.), On Asian streets and public space: Selected essays from Great Asian Streets Symposiums (GASS) 1 & 2. Singapore: Ridge Books.

Thomas, D. (2016). Placemaking: An urban design methodology. New York: Routledge.

Thwaites, K., & Simkins, I. (2007). Experiential landscape: An approach to people, place and space. Oxon: Routledge.

Wolfe, C. R. (2016). Seeing the better city: How to explore, observe, and improve urban space. Washington: Island Press.

Downloads

Published

2018-07-25

How to Cite

Ghani, I., Abdul Rahman, N., Mat Nayan, N., & Bahaluddin, A. (2018). EXPERIENTIAL VIRTUAL URBAN ENVIRONMENTS: A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION. PLANNING MALAYSIA, 16(5). https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v16i5.408

Issue

Vol. 16 (2018): PLANNING MALAYSIA JOURNAL : Volume 16, Issue 1, 2018

Section

Article

License

Copyright & Creative Commons Licence

eISSN: 0128-0945 © Year. The Authors. Published for Malaysia Institute of Planners. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.

The authors hold the copyright without restrictions and also retain publishing rights without restrictions.

Most read articles by the same author(s)