Spatial Orientation Skill for Landscape Architecture Education and Professional Practice

Abstract

Professional landscape architecture organizations have requested training from educational institutions based on new skills and methodologies in the curriculum development of students. Landscape architects need to visualize and evaluate the spatial relationships between the different components of the landscape using two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) maps and geospatial information, for which spatial orientation skills are necessary. The data from six workshops conducted throughout the 2010–2020 period, in which 560 second-year engineering students participated using different strategies and technical tools for spatial orientation skills’ development, were collected in a unique study. Factors such as the technology used, the gaming environment, the type of task, the 2D/3D environment, and the virtual environment were considered. The Perspective-Taking Spatial Orientation Test was the measurement tool used. The results show that mapping tasks are more efficient than route-based tasks. Strategies using 2D and a 2D/3D combination are more effective than those with only 3D. First-person perspective gaming environments are also a valid alternative. The technologies applied in this study are easy to use and free, and a measurement tool is provided. This facilitates an interdisciplinary approach between landscape architecture education and professional practice since these workshops could also be easily carried out by professional bodies for landscape planning and management.

Spatial Skills and Perceptions of Space: Representing 2D Drawings as 3D Drawings inside Immersive Virtual Reality

“…In this research, we tried to find a difference in the spatial orientation with respect to the others, since in the proposed training tasks took into account working with architectural spaces at real scales, which demanded navigation capabilities and orientation in walkarounds much more related to that spatial orientation component. However, this difference has not yet been found, which suggests that it should be followed this tendence of specific analysis of spatial orientation in trainings related to geographic and cartographic tasks [30,31,61,62].…”

“…In this research, we tried to find a difference in the spatial orientation with respect to the others, since in the proposed training tasks took into account working with architectural spaces at real scales, which demanded navigation capabilities and orientation in walkarounds much more related to that spatial orientation component. However, this difference has not yet been found, which suggests that it should be followed this tendence of specific analysis of spatial orientation in trainings related to geographic and cartographic tasks [30,31,61,62] We consider that this study serves as a clarifying contribution so that the analyses of spatial skills improvement can follow the proposal of Carroll [13] and backed by numerous authors [27,28,63] who propose two components for spatial skills: spatial relations, which contain the spatial orientation, and spatial visualization.…”

A Spherical Video-Based Immersive Virtual Reality Learning System to Support Landscape Architecture Students’ Learning Performance during the COVID-19 Era

“…Case studies are necessary for landscape architecture students. In landscape architecture classes, teachers are usually required to present students with various works or cases through pictures or videos to transfer knowledge and skills [18]. However, as time goes by, students increasingly resist this traditional way of appreciation.…”

“…By analyzing the studies of VR technology and landscape education, we found that most of the studies adopted 3D model-based VR technology. For instance, Carbonell et al [18] conducted an experiment with the 3D model-based heavy VR equipment but did not receive good experimental results, which might have been caused by the equipment. Chang, Chou, Chuang, Li, and Tsai [40] also developed a new VR technology and carried out an experiment.…”

“…Among the existing studies on landscape architecture education and VR, most were related to its educational potential [17]. In addition, a majority of studies on the use of VR technology in landscape architecture education also mentioned the disadvantages of 3D model-based VR technology, such as its complexity, high cost, and time-consuming nature [18,19]. It is believed that VR technology should be further improved in order to be better applied in courses.…”