Applications of Virtual Reality Technologies in Architecture and in Engineering

Virtual reality (VR) is a technology which permits to create virtual objects and 3D virtual worlds which are hosted on the computer’s memories. It is indispensable in critical simulation, for instance in military training, in surgical operation simulation, in creation of environments which could set off phobias (in psychiatry), or in realization of virtual prototypes, for instance in industrial design. The aim of this paper is to present how VR technologies also find excellent application fields in architecture and in engineering. For instance, in the teaching of the basic concepts, in techniques of graphic rebuilding for the building restoration, in realization of virtual visits inside buildings, and in urban generative processes simulated by computer. Another use of the virtual reality is in the introduction of a new kind of architecture: Virtual Architecture, strongly connected to the Information and Communication Technology (ITC) and to the Internet, and in the virtual prototyping which connects engineering and architecture.