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ISSN 1848-9257

Journal of Sustainable Development

of Energy, Water and Environment

http://www.sdewes.org/jsdewes

Journal of Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems

http://www.sdewes.org/jsdewesYear XXXX, Volume X, Issue Y, pp xx-yy

Virtual Show houses; Energy Effectiveness and Environmental Impact

Esraa Altwassi1, Abeer Abu Raed2,*, Niraj Thurairajah3

1 VR zone, Amman, Jordane-mail: [email protected]

2 Department of Architecture, American University of Ras Al Khaimah, Ras Al Khaimah, UAE e-mail: [email protected]

3 Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, UK e-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACTDuring the last few years, VR has emerged as a new technology promising to offer better user experience, while solving many of the traditional problems faced by housing providers. Show houses provide a physical artefact for customers to physically place themselves within it and experience a home before making a decision on house purchase. Development on virtual reality has given an opportunity to provide related experience without physically building a show house. This research involves a user experience of Virtual Reality show house and its influence on energy effectiveness. In addition to qualitative primary interviews in which the views and experiences of selected respondents were collected and identified, a thematic analysis was used to analyse responses from the interviews, which enabled the researcher to gain clear insights and understanding into how people feel and see virtual show houses. This study has been presented as a solution for solving the traditional challenges of cost, travel and management of housing tour, often faced by small and medium scale housing providers. Besides, this could include energy systematic design component to be considered for all types of environmental sections that change during various phases of the year. Through the insights gained from data in the research, it was identified that while VR is a viable option, much work needs to be done to ensure that it can ensure user satisfaction through better participation and engagement.

KEYWORDSVirtual Reality, Energy Effectiveness, Sustainable Architecture, Show houses, SMEs, Human-Computer Interaction

INTRODUCTION

The UK faces a large undersupply of housing and it has been decades in the making. After reaching its peak of 400,000 housing completions in the late 1960s the UK has achieved around a quarter of this figure in recent years. Coupled with the decline in housing supply is the ever-growing demand for housing which has magnified the housing crisis the country currently faces (Europe Economics, 2014). Between 2016 and 2026 England’s population is projected to grow 5.9% which is equivalent to 3.2million additional people (Office for National Statistics, 2017). This growth needs to be complemented by construction of more housing units to meet the needs of the raising numbers of families. The approximation of the needed homes is done by the Government upon making progressions on population and household growth. As such, the duration of translating housing policies into real houses is somehow long.

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Year XXXXVolume X, Issue Y, pp xx-yy

The Town and Country Planning Association published the latest approximations in housing needs in September 2013. The publication covers the period 2011 to 2013. According to Holmans (2013), the report is based on the official Government’s projections for households for the period 2011-2021 that was published in April 2013. Drawing from the report, the rising demand and need in housing in England could be countered by adding an approximated 240,000 to 245,000 additional homes annually. To this end, England produced 107, 820 permanent homes between 2012 and 2013. With respect to the UK, the housing production stood at 135,400 within the same period. A report by Lyons (2014) indicates that there is a need for construction of new homes, given that the country is experiencing the greatest housing crisis in a generation.

Attempts to bridge the gap in housing demand have shown the importance of small- and medium-sized home builders, as well as contractors who exhibit their products to the consumers prior to physically constructing actual homes. Oxford (2017) explained that large housing companies essentially produce several housing units that are used to exhibit their products. The generated housing units are duly furnished and decorated for purposes of appealing to potential buyers. The major challenge associated with exhibit houses is that they consume a substantial amount of time, effort, material, and cost besides the environmental features. However, these implications are not challenging to the large housing companies, given that they generate bulk number of housing units with the cost being subdivided per unit to show prospective consumers. In a bid to attain cost efficiency for each housing unit, there is a need for identification of alternative ways of exhibiting houses, particularly for the small and medium companies.

To this end, there has been advancement in technology that has provided an ideal solution in the form of Virtual Reality (VR) including early stage architectural models (de Klerk et al, 2019). Basing on computable data, VR is claimed to provide an immersive and interactive system. Improving public motivation, implication, and satisfaction in urban decision-making can be achieved through the Integration of Digital urban transformation into the visualization of Urbanism (Sanchez-Sepulveda et al, 2019). Devices that offer immersion are sufficiently able to isolate senses, thus allowing an individual to feel transported to a precise space in a virtual house. The utilization of VR for housing thus enables the building of a virtual 3D model that allows the consumers to walk through a house from inside and outside. This is bound to offer an alternative solution that is more cost effective and less time consuming when compared to the actual construction of housing for show.

Under other conditions, VR has an obvious effect on continuity, accurately in examining passive housing, architects can utilize VR Technology to examine their design components long prior to the start of a construction. The approach by which a building interact with the neighboring environment may have a considerable influence on its energy effectiveness, however it can be difficult to mentally visualize such interaction without the help of VR. For instance, how a construction is oriented, this will lead to an effect on the house’s cooling and heating costs, in addition to the fact that the construction’s orientation can assist to increase the quantity of sustainable energy caused by solar boards and similar green technologies. Moreover, VR has a key contribution in minimizing the building’s possible effect on the environment not only during the phase of construction, but also after its completion (Rawley, 2017).

ANALYSIS

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Out of the objectives of the study to test perspectives and understand user experiences, the research involves a user experiment that combines data from a real-life VR experiment. According to Stohr-Hunt (1996p. 23), an “experiment is a procedure carried out to support, refute, or validate a hypothesis. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a factor is manipulated. Experiments vary greatly in goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results”. In the present study, the experimental process entails an action oriented research process where respondents were gathered into a room and made to experience a digital VR show house that was developed by the researcher. The process includes an input/output process where 7 different respondents experienced a virtual show house designed through a software program. The main purpose of the experiment was to have primary understanding of the experiences of respondents of how they perceive, view and approach a VR housing show. The experiment was conducted individually with each respondent and followed by a semi structured interview process. The data collection was a primary interview that involved 7 respondents, who are presented in the following table.

Table 1: Interviewee details

Respondent Gender Age Occupation

Respondent 1 Male 25-35 Student Respondent 2 Male 25-35 Student/VR enthusiast Respondent 3 Female 25-35 Student Respondent 4 Female 35-45 CAD Designer Respondent 5 Male 35-45 Software Engineer Respondent 6 Female 25-35 Architect

The purpose of the interview was to understand the views and perceptions of respondents about the VR show house presented during the experiment.

Based on key observations and data collected from the interview process, the data analysis section supports the evaluation of user responses, views and perceptions. In the analysis, the thematic analysis method was used since it is proficient to recognize and distinguish, for example components or factors that impact any issue created by respondents can be classified and analyzed according to their order of importance. In this way, respondent’s elucidations are noteworthy regarding the provision of the most fitting clarifications for their view, perceptions and thoughts (Hatch 2002; Creswell 2003). Moreover, Thematic Analysis gives the chance to code and classify information into subjects. For instance, how matters impact the impression of respondents (Miles and Huberman, 1994).

RESEARCH PROCESS

The experiment was a digital show house involving seven participants who went through the whole experience of real immersive VR environment. The experiment was conducted with the aim to produce a synthesis of outcomes through several steps and procedures that reveals the many difficulties, challenges and views of people in experiencing digital show houses through VR. The experiment was conducted through

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the provision VR equipment with software integration of a full show house experience digitally. The house used for the virtual show house, was a typical family house with a total square footage measuring around 860 square feet, which has one bedroom, one living room, one dining room, one bathroom and a toilet. The living room is an open plan area that also contains the kitchen as well as a dining area. Figure 1 shows the floor plan for the house.

Figure 1. Floor plan for the house as exported from Unity

Since the experiment require two major inputs such as VR hardware and software, the hardware used was from the HTC Vive BE VR set and includes headsets with two controllers and two base stations that track the headset motion as shown in the below (Figure 2). The headsets, worn by the user provides the visual experience of digital reality while the controllers enable participants to touch specific objects and materials in the visual process.

Figure 2. HTC Vive Set

For the software, the experiment made use of a 3DMax exported to unity 2017 FBX extension with steam plugin. Importing content in 3DsMax into Unity was quite a simple process, as it was done through FBX format (see Figure 3). Unity is one of the market available software for creating games, it is a more evenly balanced engine as far as quality and cost of development is concerned and is readily available for the developer (Blonde et al. 2010). Although, using advanced features of the Unity software comes at a cost, the researcher accessed the platform by utilizing the free option. An added advantage of Unity software is that contents created on it are deployable to other platforms, meaning that it offers installed plugin which allows contents to be deployable elsewhere, such as a browser, which means that potential home buyers can tour prospective homes from the comfort of their homes or smart phones.




Figure 3. A diagram model shows the process of transferring the house into VR experience

By utilizing 3Ds Max, which was exported through Unity, a virtual show house was created to stimulate the idea of respondents walking into a real house (Figure 4).

Figure 4. The Main model inside the unity environment.

User ExperienceAll respondents were invited to view the virtual show house at a chosen location,

which was a quiet office room provided by one of the researcher’s contact. As mentioned earlier, both the headset and hand controls enabled respondents to experience the housing walk through by seeing and touching of objects (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Walkthrough experience inside the house.


3dsMax Export to.FBX Import to Unity

DownloadSteam

DownloadSteam VR plugin

Touchpad Script



As inserting voice instruction required more time and effort, the option of background sound recording was made so that the user will not find the noise from the real-world distracting. Each respondent was shown the show house for around 10 minutes, enabling them to navigate easily, while partaking in the visual experience. Following each of the experiment, respondents were asked a range of questions number 1-6. The questions were to understand their experiences, perception, views and impression of a virtual show house and whether it met their expectation assuming they were viewing a prospective show house in real life.

The thematic method of qualitative data analysis has been utilized in this chapter to present and analyse findings from the interview data collection. Data was collected from 7 interview participants who provided different views and insights into their individual experiences of the virtual reality experiment. Following the experiment and interviews, the data-set was gathered into a transcript in line with the inductive thematic analyses method through reading and reading of the data to observe patterns and similarities across all respondent’s thoughts and views (Patton, 1990). From reading of the data transcript, observed themes from each interview questionnaire gathered into the following table and further analysed subsequently.

Question

number

Main

question

Observe

d theme

Explanation

Question 1 Importance in

immersion

Vision and hearing Most respondents agree that the important factors to them

in VR immersion is seeing and hearing above other factors

such as auditory, taste and smell.

Question 2 Importance of

material size, texture

and space

Size and space The size and space of elements in the VR experiment were

important concepts to respondents than other factors such

as texture and materials.

Question 3 Observed visual,

psychological or

mental effects

Eye strain, dizziness

and nausea

Most respondents reported minor visual and physiological

effects affecting different areas of their body such as such

causing dizziness and eye strain.

Question 4 Ease of movement Unrealistic navigation Most respondents considered movements such as steps to

be easy but not natural and realistic during the experiment

Question 5 Improving the

experience

Engaging all senses Most respondents expressed the view that their experience

of the VR could be improved if it engages all their senses,

such as smell, sight, sound and taste.

Question 6 Immersive/realness

of the experience

Immersive but not

completely real

Most respondents had the opinion that the experience was

immersive but not 100% real

Table 2: Data matrix




The findings have shown that respondents encountered different feelings and views of the VR experiment based on their individual experiences. In terms of vision and hearing being considered as the most important factors that respondents measured to be significant, it is no surprise as the literature also confirms that while engaging different parts of the body is important during VR experiences, most focus is often on the visual aspect in most VR programs (Matsentidou & Poullis, 2014). In most VR experiences, the literature has shown that merely engaging user’s visual senses hardly provide satisfaction, this is because when the visual sense is engaged other senses are left open to distraction from the real world and may be disconnected from the experience that is being encountered in the virtual world. As one of the respondents suggested during the interview, the experience could have been more positive if users were asked to stand on a tread-mill –like device that moves forcing the user to stimulate the same movement in the VR game such as walking.

While the VR experiment did provide hearing functions, the hearing was not optimised to the scenario. For example, pre-recording could have been made to navigate respondents through every movement during the experiment. Such pre-recorded voice could inform the respondent when they can touch the door or feel the knob rather than the respondents navigating without clear information or relying solely on visual cues in the virtual world. It also seems that the lack of sound maximisation made participants to rely fully on visual cues using their own initiatives to move around the virtual world. In the real world of housing show room and when builders take their customers around, the process is often supported by clear explanation from the agent or the housing manager explaining directly to the client or prospective customer when taking them around.

The lack of such information in the experiment could have impacted upon the experience, especially as respondents mentioned that hearing was important to them and while they heard sound, the sound was not bold and helpful enough to make the experience positive. Similarly, since most respondents felt one or two symptoms during the experience, it seems that VR has some health and safety issue that is not clear. Early authors of VR like Reagan and Price, 1993; Costello and Howarth ( 1996) have made mention of health and safety issues related to VR immersion, but such concerns tend to be waited in recent literature giving account of VR based on the belief that advances in VR have addressed such concerns. Reagan and Price (1993) particularly mentioned a VR sickness called the stimulator, sickness symptom which is a kind of motion sickness that causes nausea, dizziness, headache and discomfort. It has also been suggested that the symptom is both polygenic (has many sources) and polysymptomatic (induces many symptoms), which is indicative of how difficult it is to predict individual susceptibility and to measure the effects on the user. Ability to predict individual susceptibility to sickness might be useful in not only future VR experience but in ensuring that the experience delivers on its objectives.

The scope of colors utilized for beautifying reasons, assisted the respondent to evaluate the amount of natural light the building will receive, minimizing its reliance on sources of artificial light. There are some virtual reality programs permit users to experience various light cycles, reviewing design through different durations of the day. The architect can modify to minimize cooling and heating costs for the building or to maximize the property’s solar system by testing the orientation of the property.

If users have less concerns and distractions, they are likely to have more positive perception of the experience and consequently, the experience can deliver on its key objectives. Similarly, the data provided strong indications that the VR experience failed to provide full engagement to respondents by not engaging all their senses. To consider such concern critically, engaging all senses as some respondents considered important might




require more investment and less flexibility of the experience. For example, engaging all body might require some addition of augmented reality in addition to virtual reality which can be a costly investment for housing providers, especially the small-scale ones. This also brings us to concerns about quality of equipment and visual design. While there is cheap equipment in supply, the decent priced ones such as the one used in the experiment seem to provide less positive experience, as their functionalities deliver limited experience, for example strong sound.

VR equipment that deliver performance and full functionality such as Oculus Rift are costly and it may be costlier to design strong visual home shows. Since recent users as the respondents demonstrated are becoming exposed to the world of VR especially through the recent proliferation of commercial games such as PlayStation, X Box and other consoles, it may be difficult for small home providers to design the best experience that meets the experience needs of modern users who are exposed to the World. As a modern technology tool and device, people immediately have bigger perception and expectations from VR at the mere mention of it, therefore, there are greater tasks for companies to design, orchestrate and provide the best virtual experience that will provide positive experience for their users.

As part of the experience economy, it will also mean that housing providers will be under the pressure to study user behaviour more than ever to design and arrange consistent positive experience that home finders and seekers will consider as meeting their expectations and needs.

DISCSSION

Through detailed review of the literature along with critical thematic analysis that relies on semi structured interviews, the study has shown that virtual reality can play a significant role in home builders marketing and sales function. Such function can be carried out through the power of virtual reality to engage and provide optimum experience to users. However, the study finds that a lot of concerns still surround the technology.

Some of the concerns as highlighted in the analysis include, VR impact on health and safety, its inability to fully perform the role of human housing agents, consumer low awareness of the technology and the expensive nature of the technology. Some of the above concerns do not only affect the capability of small and medium scale home scale providers to design the optimum VR experience that fits with their mission and sales objectives, it affects user’s views and perception of VR in fulfilling the function of home viewing. Given the above concerns, the findings of this study have shown that consumer perception of VR is not entirely positive because of the challenges and usability issues encountered during the experiment. The experiment also shows that while VR has the capability to respond to improving user experience of home viewing, companies must consider a lot more which seem to be outside their capability. Such capability includes the need for more financial, digital, marketing and sales resources to make VR fulfil its function. For VR to meet the needs of home finders, companies will have to have capability in developing the needed technology as well as to manage user experience. As this maybe out of the scope of SME house builders, maximizing the VR experience to achieve the objective of house viewing and marketing may be an onerous task to achieve.

For example, as well as small and medium house builders investing in physical equipment such as VR headgear and other augmented devices to maximize user experience, they must invest in the design aspect of their homes into a digital offering. Few problems may be encountered in this regard. One is that since VR application development is not commonly available, companies may have hard time finding application developers who will design, build, test and manage the visual experience of




home show. Companies may also be faced with the challenge of managing costs of developing new application which will depend on a lot of factors, such as the city where the company is situated in and the availability of developers. Third, companies are likely to spend a lot of money convincing new and prospective customers to choose VR rather than the traditional method of experiencing new homes. As this might require a lot of marketing and demarketing of the previous method, significant human and financial resources that companies might be able to commit might be involved.

It is possible that companies will stay away from engaging and investing in VR because of the high amount of investment in financial and human resources. As this can mean that the potential opportunities and advantages of VR would be missed, alternative methods of developing VR can be considered. The experience economy, as discussed in chapter two suggests that if companies can sell memorable experiences that engage consumers beyond traditional products and services, they can attract customers and compete better. Borrowing from the experience economy, small and medium scale housing providers can consider the use of VR for marketing as an experience economy offering for which they can also attract smaller fees. If they charge extra fees which is understandable, it is possible that the fees charged for investing in VR can be recouped.

Another concern that must be addressed is how users will access the VR experience in terms of travel and for how long they need to. This brings up the concern that if users need to travel in the first place, they might as well travel to the home location and view for themselves in the traditional way, rather than to a location to experience the virtual world. A convincing approach from customer’s perspectives would be to take the physical equipment to their respective locations by arranging appropriate times and dates. However, while this might be convenient from the perspective of the consumer it can be as costly as the traditional method of home show to companies. A more realistic approach would be to have consumers download the virtual world from the company’s website if they have their own individual VR gears. Since VR is a new technology which very few people know or possess, this might present a challenge to the use of VR to address home selling, showing and marketing using VR from company’s point of view.

Eventually, incorporating energy efficient design components has been expected. However, when it comes to energy effectiveness, usual modeling practices put irrelevant restrictions on the architect. The users can account for all types of environmental elements that change during various phases of the year by an architectural rendering created via virtual reality. An architect can invent a design that accounts for the various light cycles and consequently reduce the need for un-natural lights, by the help of virtual reality. This will result in a far more energy efficient design. Moreover, the clients can utilize the virtual reality system and experience the house in an actual world setting after demolition the show house and saving the environment from waste materials, consequently minimizing the request for such material.

CONCLUSIONThe purpose of this study was to understand the views and experiences of users about virtual reality technology when viewing prospective homes. Owing to the above discussions, it seems that while the VR technology if tweaked and improved in terms of software and hardware can improve home viewers and finders experience. The biggest challenge remains how the VR experience will be situated, whether it is to be taken to consumers or whether consumers are to come to it. In both cases, the will make significant contributions to user experience.




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