Extended reality for enhancing spatial ability in architecture design education

Abstract

The use of Extended Reality (XR) has evolved to engage in architecture design and education. XR allows the students to experience their design project in real scale. Educators confirmed that spatial ability is central to design studio tasks. They also confirmed that spatial ability can be developed using XR. The aim of the study is to present the results of an experiment for implementing XR technology in the early design studio in architectural education and its impact on students’ general spatial ability levels. The method used was a baseline and post-project general spatial ability test to examine the correlation between the use of XR and the scores of the participants. The study found that the mean scores for the control group did not change significantly before and after the experiment. Whereas using XR technology significantly increased the scores of the students compared to the control group.