Architectural Lighting Scenarios Envisioned in the MIDEN
ARCH 535 & Arch 545, Winter 2022
Mojtaba Navvab, Ted Hall
Prof. Mojtaba Navvab teaches environmental technology in the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, with particular interests in lighting and acoustics. He is a regular user of the Duderstadt Center’s MIDEN (Michigan Immersive Digital Experience Nexus) – in teaching as well as sponsored research.
On April 7, 2022, he brought a combined class of ARCH 535 and ARCH 545 students to the MIDEN to see, and in some cases hear, their projects in full-scale virtual reality.
Arch 535: To understand environmental technology design techniques through case studies and compliance with building standards. VR applications are used to view the design solutions.
Arch 545: To apply the theory, principles, and lighting design techniques using a virtual reality laboratory.
“The objectives are to bring whatever you imagine to reality in a multimodal perception; in the MIDEN environment, whatever you create becomes a reality. This aims toward simulation, visualization, and perception of light and sound in a virtual environment.”
“Human visual perception is psychophysical because any attempt to understand it necessarily draws upon the disciplines of physics, physiology, and psychology. A ‘Perceptionist’ is a person concerned with the total visual environment as interpreted in the human mind.”
“Imagine if you witnessed or viewed a concert hall or a choir performance in a cathedral. You could describe the stimulus generated by the architectural space by considering each of the senses independently as a set of unimodal stimuli. For example, your eyes would be stimulated with patterns of light energy bouncing off the simulated interior surfaces or luminous environment while you listen to an orchestra playing or choir singing with a correct auralized room acoustics.”
A few selected images photographed in the MIDEN are included in this article. For the user wearing the stereoscopic glasses, the double images resolve into an immersive 3D visual experience that they can step into, with 270° of peripheral vision.
