Seeing things virtually

The use of virtual reality in design education has the potential to redefine the industry

In India, design education has kept its distance from using and applying technology. However, with the pandemic forcing education institutions to move online, they have had to create an environment that fosters its growth. This is where Virtual Reality comes into play. It offers a a robust, future-ready plug in for design education and enables a skill-intensive curriculum. Design education has followed a learning system that is backed by physical modelling, in-person design discussions and presentations sheets mounted onto walls. Students are often taken to real sites to absorb and learn from their surroundings to reinforce classroom learning. Due to the current pandemic, all these elements have been replaced with virtual communication platforms that offer very little more than disrupted and tedious design discussions.