[DC] Immersive Gamified Environments (IGE) as an Approach to Assess Subjective Qualities of Daylighting in Architectural Spaces

Daylighting performance is a major factor in shaping the quality of any architectural space. Therefore, visualization and assessment of daylighting are some of the important applications of Virtual Reality (VR) in architecture. However, many of the related current methodologies show limitations in terms of realism, user-engagement, and locomotion. This research introduces and validates the term “Immersive Gamified Environment” (IGE) as a human-oriented, more engaging approach to evaluate and optimize the subjective qualities of daylighting in early stages of the design process. The initial project of this research creates a user-oriented VR game for the assessment of daylighting performance in “Kimbell Art Museum” by Louis Kahn. The methodology is based on fulfilling in-game objectives and a follow-up questionnaire. The outcomes of this study show potentials of the proposed system in terms of realism, light perception, and interaction, despite some limitations regarding scale perception and motion sickness.