Driven Design Decisions through Immersive Exploration

ABSTRACT Performance-driven design is essential to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change and urbanization on the built environment. While simulation tools exist to compute key performance indicators (KPIs) for parametric design iterations, immersive exploration tools remain limited. This paper presents an extended reality (XR) workflow that enables users to simultaneously explore and visualize design options in 3D. Developed using native Rhinoceros-Grasshopper (Rhino-GH), Fologram, and custom coded components, the workflow generates interactive and interconnected visualizations, as well as scaled models within XR headsets. A case study demonstrates the workflow’s capabilities. By facilitating immersive exploration, this approach fosters fast, interactive discussions among cross-sector experts, leading to more informed and integrated performance-driven design decisions. Future developments will incorporate machine learning models and cloud computing towards a real-time, bidirectional simulation sequence.