Evidence and affect: employing virtual reality to probe what’s missing from evidence-based design research

Abstract

Within healthcare environments, evidence-based design (EBD) studies often seek to identify architectural design strategies capable of affecting a reduction in patient anxiety. Yet, the theory of affect is seldom discussed. The definition of affect employed herein refers to a spatial capacity to elicit certain subjective, sensory experiences, and to communicate what dispositions and agencies are enactable in a place. Within this article, we examine the relevance of affect to the field of EBD and present findings from a pilot study where 68 participants were asked to experience and document their responses to three virtual architectural environments with varying aesthetic characteristics. Finally, we provide a discussion of the implications of these findings to the field of EBD and reflect on the affordances of virtual reality (VR) as a method for investigating affect. The discussion is supported by selected data from a corresponding study conducted by the authors within a cancer centre.

Keywords:

• Evidence-based design
• research methods
• design research
• affect
• emotion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Acknowledgments

McLaughlan extends her appreciation to Jannette Le, Matt Greenwood, Mond Qu, Marcus White and Alan Pert for their meticulous work and support through the project conception and content creation phases.

Notes

1 For further details of these projects refer: https://dsrny.com/project/blur-building; http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/unilever-series/unilever-series-olafur-eliasson-weather-project-0

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported under a University of Melbourne Early Career Researcher Grant (CI: Rebecca McLaughlan).

Notes on contributors

Rebecca McLaughlan

McLaughlan’s research takes place at the intersection of architecture, medicine, psychology, and pedagogy. She is a New Zealand Registered Architect and Lecturer at the Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne.

Stephanie Liddicoat

Liddicoat recently completed her PhD at the Melbourne School of Design, which explored mental health service user perceptions of built environments delivering therapy and counseling. Both McLaughlan and Liddicoat are currently involved in the Australian Research Council Linkage-funded project ‘Designing for Wellbeing’ (University of Melbourne and Lyons Architecture), which explores the relationship between architecture and wellbeing within contemporary Australian paediatric hospitals.