The teaching of the History of Architecture and Urbanism is fundamental in the education of architects and urban planners. Traditionally, this broad field of study relies on resources such as photographs, blueprints, and physical models. Although indispensable, these tools do not always convey the three-dimensional scale and complexity of spaces, which can limit students’ understanding. Furthermore, recent literature highlights the need to enhance student engagement, suggesting approaches that foster more in-depth and comprehensive analyses. Field trips are one possible solution, yet they face significant constraints, including high costs, sanitary restrictions, and accessibility issues. Moreover, they are not feasible for analyzing historical environments that no longer exist. In this context, Virtual Reality (VR) has been identified as a potential solution, even though the literature still lacks effective methods for its routine integration into the teaching of this subject. This thesis proposes the development of an immersive and collaborative platform designed to create VR applications for teaching the History of Architecture and Urbanism. Three research questions guided this study: (1) What are the contributions of immersive technologies to the field of architecture? (2) How can VR contribute to the teaching of the History of Architecture and Urbanism? (3) How can VR be effectively integrated into the pedagogical routine of this discipline? The methodology involved a literature review, definition of platform requirements, scenario modeling, the creation of a pilot lesson plan, and the programming of platform features. The evaluation of the platform included an experiment with 20 students, analyzing (a) cognitive absorption, (b) usability, (c) presence, and (d) incidence of “simulator sickness.” Largo de Nazaré in Belém (Brazil) was chosen as the case study due to its historical significance and the urban and architectural transformations it has undergone over time. The pilot study evaluation indicated an overall average equivalent to 80% of the maximum possible score. Usability was considered excellent, and cognitive absorption showed similar metrics. Concepts such as “social presence” and “cyber sickness” received slightly lower, yet acceptable, values, above 74%. Specific features like “time travel” and “temporal fusion” were particularly highlighted by students for facilitating comparative analyses of different historical periods and improving the understanding of spatial transformations over the decades. Among the main contributions of this research is the development of an immersive and collaborative platform capable of enabling group virtual visits at real scale, with avatars for communication and interaction, specifically tailored to teaching this subject. In addition, an optimized 3D modeling methodology was proposed, using rectified photographs that drastically reduce the number of polygons without compromising the realism of the scenario. This approach helps make the experience viable on standalone devices with lower processing power. Another significant contribution is the “temporal fusion” tool, which proved especially valuable by allowing the overlay of different periods in a single virtual space, thus expanding the understanding of urban and architectural evolutionary processes. Finally, the ability to revisit the studied environments multiple times, including collaboratively, offers a significant advantage compared to traditional field trips. It can be concluded that implementing the platform in academic contexts has the potential to improve teaching methods in the History of Architecture and Urbanism, resulting in a more engaging and efficient learning experience.

Tese de doutoramento. Arquitetura (Desenho e Computação). Universidade de Lisboa. Faculdade de Arquitetura. 2024

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