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Creating Empathy-Driven Design Collaborations with Virtual Reality

Published 2020
Presented by Amy Eichenberger, Senior Project Manager, University of Virginia | Lauren Shirley, Architect, VMDO Architects | Matthew Trowbridge, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Public Health and Associate Research Director for the, University of Virginia School of Medicine
Planning Types: Campus Planning

Institution(s) referenced in this resource:
University of Virginia-Main Campus

Multiple entities within institutions often have competing values, but virtual reality (VR) simulation can help overcome this challenge by creating an accessible platform for building a collective vision. We will demonstrate how we incorporated VR into stakeholder engagement for the University of Virginia's Student Health and Wellness Center to address health outcomes, promote student learning, and collaborate with interdisciplinary partners across campus. Encouraging stakeholders to virtually test a space's impact on health and learning will help you to advance decision-making, leverage diverse expertise, and capture empathy-driven insight to create a more efficient and intelligent design process at your institution.

Learning Outcomes:

  1. Incorporate VR into future interactive user group workshops as part of an integrated planning or design process, using empathy to maximize a space's impact on health and learning.
  2. Identify opportunities to use VR as an investigative tool during the design process to allow user groups to test whether a space can meet specific health and learning needs.
  3. Leverage the insight and expertise of people within your institutional community who may not otherwise be part of the traditional stakeholder group.
  4. Build consensus and collective vision around the design of common spaces and how they can promote the wellbeing of multiple user groups or departments.

Continuing Education Units: AIA LU/HSW 1.0 Unit (SCUPM20C465) | AICP CM 1.0 Unit

Member Price: $35 USD | Non-member Price: $50 USD
Purchase includes streaming video recording and slideshow PDF.

PURCHASE PRESENTATION

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Looking to earn CEUs? You can earn Continuing Education Credits (CEUs) by watching this session recording and passing a short quiz. Learn more here.