Improvement of Urban Space Implemented by Virtual Reality

Improvement of Urban Space Implemented by Virtual Reality – proposing an urban design project with BIM and VR Technology

• In the course of CE553 IT for U-Space (Course Leader, Prof. JUNG Hyung-Jo), Team URBAN presented a new innovative approach to present an urban design project by using Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Virtual Reality (VR) technology. Team URBAN consisted of BYUN Giyoung, JANG Kee Moon, CHOI Kang Hee, and NO Wonjun who are graduate students at Urban Design Lab (advisor Prof. KIM Youngchul) and Maturepolis Lab (advisor Prof. David LEE) and the team’s advisor was Prof. KIM Youngchul. They were interested in how to use BIM technology learned in class to apply to a daily environment. They designed the connection between neighborhoods around KAIST. In particular, in order to improve people’s uses and activities around adjacent roads, the spatial axis connecting the residential, commercial, natural areas was formed as an underground space to improve the usability and accessibility.
• The design concept "MIX mixing" was set up to design the ground and underground spaces which are mixed and connected to the surrounding area as urban facilities. They found problems in the walking environment by analyzing the chosen site contexts. It was very vulnerable to a good pedestrian crossing and pedestrian safety, and the outer space and green environment of the side was bicycle-oriented, which was a limited environment for pedestrians to navigate. Thus, they proposed an urban connecting facility that connects the ground and the underground space so that the pedestrian space, the surrounding area, and the roads can be positively connected.
• The latest, but inexpensive, way was implemented to experience the proposed urban design project in virtual reality space. Various programs based on BIM were used for design urban space and the audience were able to experience the proposed urban space by applying VR technology to the final result. They created a 360-degree panoramic image of the proposed project, created a smartphone app using open source, and made it possible to experience a low-cost realistic VR with Google's cardboard app.
• Since the 4th Industrial Revolution and Smart City become important these days, this project contributes greatly to the development of advanced construction technology. Based on the three-dimensional information model, the team and their project was recognized to demonstrate a new advanced approach to visualize the specific design project with VR technology, giving the opportunity to greatly improve urban and architectural design.

video linkhttps://youtu.be/eLQYldTXWTY (use your smartphone for experiencing VR)