Immersive Virtual Reality in Buildings Occupant Research

Virtual Reality and Immersive Virtual Environments are suggested as alternative and innovative methods to traditional experimental settings in Building Occupants Research. These low-cost technologies thanks to the speed execution allow replication of tests and users to be immersed in a 1:1 scaled environment, while researchers collect real-time feedback and easily control the design variables. They offer a versatile and powerful tool for evaluating indoor environments and measuring human factors. Typical dependent variables collected during these experiments include subjective assessment of individuals’ perception, comfort, and emotional state, while objective measures include physiological and cognitive responses. Despite the advantages offered by Virtual Reality and the growing amount of research conducted in this area, there remains a limited understanding of how multiple indoor environmental conditions influence occupants. This is due to several challenges which currently harm its adoption to support evidence-based design practices and improve indoor environments for individuals, including the need for validation studies, limited attention to multi-domain research, inconsistent methodologies and study design.