New lighting representation methodologies for enhanced learning in architecture degree

Lighting conditions adjustment is one of the most difficult tasks in architecture visualization. This paper presents a new teaching methodology in the field of lighting representation for enhanced learning with students of architecture degree. It aims to assess how lighting balance competences are acquired in undergraduate and master’s courses in architecture, urbanism and building technologies. The working hypothesis is that this new learning process will contribute to a better understanding and mastery of lighting control in architectural rendering scenes. It is based on comparing different widely used technologies such as building information modelling, virtual reality, augmented reality, photorealistic rendering software and game engines. The implementation will be evaluated including user experience analysis all along the process with quantitative and qualitative surveys. The research will try to demonstrate how this method can improve student’s skills, especially in realistic lighting representation of projects of the subjects related to digital and graphic representation. The subjects will be from several courses: Architecture Representation II from second course, Architectural Representation III from third course, Multimedia and Techniques of Modelling and Digital Production Oriented to the Development of Constructive Solutions from fourth and postgraduate course respectively. This research will also address the issue of how students can implement their new acquired skills to other subjects of the Degree of Architecture at the School of Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Barcelona.