Architecture of the virtual in housing

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have brought about a revolution in architecture and urban planning, they are transforming learning and practice and presenting new challenges in our understanding of space, place and society. An entirely new world of architectural expression and experiment is opening up to us. At Faculty of Architecture in Zagreb a new optional course, Virtuality in Housing Architecture, has been proposed and is being taught for the first time. Subjects cover a wide area of use of ICT in housing architecture: research into the role of the computer in architecture as a creative discipline, encouragement of new challenges to the concept of the role of digital media in housing architecture through research of digital concepts such as computerization, information, electronic media, virtuality and cyberspace, themes related to development of intelligent environment and spaces, interactive buildings, virtual reality and cyberspace as directions of development. In our work we try to implement the method of e-learning, teamwork, communication and design through the Internet. Through experimental projects and research of new housing concepts, students create a basis for discussions on theoretical and practical solutions for the housing of the future, create new ways of presentation and open new fields of research. We shall here present the experience from our work.