The Role of Augmented Reality in Enhancing Architectural Design and Spatial Experience

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach for building an immersive multi-modal virtual exhibit hall integrating virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence in order to transform how people perceive art and national heritage. These days, the architecture and design sectors need more user-friendly visualization systems for effective utilization of digital information. Currently, existing constructed environments account for more than half of all building activity in the German building sector. The proposed approach integrates AR-based spatial visualization, exploration, and interactive meaning-making to enhance users’ understanding of architectural and landscape spaces. A practical experiment was conducted using a portable AR system to evaluate users’ experiences within an outdoor landscape architecture design. Three different exploratory scenarios were implemented, each providing varying levels of user freedom and interaction. The study assessed participants’ ability to explore, interpret, and establish spatial relationships within the augmented environment. This idea was supported by a hands-on experiment that used portable augmented reality to experience an outdoor landscape architecture design while taking into account and contrasting three different exploring situations. Viewers have different combinations of levels of freedom to watch the action taken in these situations. The findings demonstrated that users saw exploration as a good thing, that they were successful in giving space meaning, and that, based on the exploratory scenario, they could accurately define the spatial linkages within the AR intervention process.