Krithika Balaraman
UrbanSculpt VR
Enabling participatory Urban Design with Extended Reality
UrbanSculpt VR is a prototyping tool that enables urban designers to prototype and test their solutions in extended reality.
Urban design interventions are expensive and time-consuming to implement, integrating user feedback in the design process is difficult. However, the design of cities has a huge impact on the lives of residents. It is important to design around their needs.
UrbanSculpt VR allows urban designers to create simulations of cities in extended reality. Residents of a city can navigate the simulation, allowing for the integration of user feedback in the design process.
The tool can be used for research and development. It allows for participants to leave their feedback as tags within the simulation. This feedback is compiled into a visualisation that is visible in virtual reality.
UrbanSculpt VR could be an important tool for policy making, and allows for the community to have a voice in the design of cities.
City Simulation
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UrbanSculpt VR allows the user to create simulations of entire cities. Users can be immersed in these simulations using virtuality reality headsets. They can then choose to navigate around the virtual space via walking or driving.
The Asset Library
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The tool includes a library of assets, so the user can build out their scenarios. This feature can be used to make a city simulation more recognisable. It can also be used to create scenarios, such as a traffic jam, and test participant response.
The Feedback Panel
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While immersed in the simulation, participants can leave feedback using a panel of options. The options appearing on the panel can be customised based on the type of data the user, ie. an urban designer, is hoping to collect.
The Data Visualisation
Feedback collected from participants culminates in a visualisation that can be viewed in virtual reality. Visualising data in new mediums has historically been conducive to drawing new insights from it. Being able to view data spatially and walk through could provide new insights on the design of cities.
