An Immersive Virtual Reality Mock-Up for Design Review of Hospital Patient Rooms

Abstract

Full scale physical mock-ups of specific hospital units such as patient rooms are routinely utilized to serve the multiple purposes of constructors, designers, and owner stakeholders for healthcare facility projects. The shortcoming with this practice is that the mock-up is constructed during the construction phase and is of limited use for making extensive decisions regarding the functionality of the room design. Three-dimensional visualisation tools offer healthcare facility stakeholders the opportunity to comprehend proposed designs more clearly during the planning and design phases, thus enabling the greatest influence on design decision making. While several options exist, based on their experience with a bariatric patient room model, the authors promote the utilization of Virtual Reality mock-ups for design review because of their enhanced capacity for an immersive, interactive experience with the design and for the long-term utility of such models for the balance of the project life cycle.