Virtual reality transports designers into the past for sustainable solutions to heat

The United States experienced record high temperatures in 2023. Cranking up the air conditioning is not a sustainable response, so architects and other designers are searching for more effective and less energy-consuming approaches to combat the heat.

An interdisciplinary team under the direction of Eiman Elgewely, assistant professor of interior design in the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design, is looking to the past for solutions.   

The house of Sheikh Isa in Bahrain was constructed in the 1800s with architectural features designed to resist the hot, arid climate of the Middle East and Persian Gulf region. Elgewely worked in Bahrain prior to joining Virginia Tech's faculty and was drawn to the historic building. Her team has created a 3D virtual reality experience that brings this Middle Eastern structure to Blacksburg, allowing students to explore the design from Burruss Hall.

“I reached out to the international research team who was working on the 3D documentation of the house, and they provided 3D scans that we used to create the virtual environment, which allowed students to explore the house, move from one space to another, and understand many aspects not only of the architecture, but the culture,” said Elgewely.

Elgewely presented the team’s research at the Cultural Heritage and New Technologies Conference in Vienna, Austria, in November. The paper, “Sustainable Traditional Arab Dwellings in VR: The Educational Virtual Model of Sheikh Isa House, Bahrain,” received the Best Paper Award, prestigious recognition for the project’s innovative contributions to the field.

The virtual environment Elgewely and her team created enables students to study how the Sheikh Isa house was oriented, what materials were used to construct the walls, and which features were designed for cooling. Cutting-edge software allowed the group to understand and analyze the temperature variations in different parts of the house to evaluate the cooling structures, such as the wind catching tower, courtyards, and thick, mud brick walls.

“This can help us find a connection between tradition and modern architecture,” said Mohamed Ali, a graduate student in architecture. “We can get the main idea from the past and try to develop it and apply new technology.”

Ali has worked with Elgewely since the project’s beginning in 2022. Researching and creating 3D models of the house of Sheikh Isa has broadened his understanding of Middle Eastern architecture, but adding the virtual reality element brought that knowledge to life for Ali.

“I feel that I’m inside the building. I can move around and see the actual scale, the height for everything,” said Ali.

Emily Wilson, also a graduate student in architecture, joined the project later than the others. She compiled the group's research into one file, organizing the information and images around each of the four courtyards in the structure. Wilson said working with virtual reality and the other software programs was a first for her, an experience that has had a meaningful impact on her education.

“It really helps you learn about the project in a different way. Instead of visualizing it in your head, now you’re able to stand right there in the building,” said Wilson.

For Wilson, this experience has expanded her cultural knowledge and shown her similarities between the Middle East and her own home in Texas.

“Our culture was very ‘Texas’ in that you never really thought about different cultures and how they dealt with heat. In Texas, it’s hot all the time so looking at the sustainability aspects of this project has been really interesting,” Wilson said. “People are comfortable with using a lot of AC and probably don’t want to go back to all the different sustainability things they had in the 1800s, but if you implemented it with a little bit of technology, it could be amazing.”

Sarah Zulfiqar, an undergraduate student in interior design, was drawn to this project because of her culture. As a Muslim, Zulfiqar is inspired by Islamic architecture and hopes to implement elements into her own designs in the future. When Elgewely offered her an opportunity to do comparison studies of the house of Sheikh Isa and other structures in the South Asia region, Zulfiqar jumped at the chance and sees ways to apply what she has learned.

“Now, we’re going more into the root of sustainability in architecture, so just thinking of ways that we can do that with natural materials and without necessarily using a lot of technology would be a really interesting way to go about it,” said Zulfiqar.

Elgewely plans to incorporate traditional music and artifacts into the virtual environment, giving students an opportunity to see and experience what it was like to be in the house of Sheikh Isa during its prime.

“This is really an opportunity to open their eyes to another part of the world and learn about the Middle East through artwork, Islamic architecture, and culture,” said Elgewely. “I think that the main goal of what we are doing is trying to involve our students in our research.”

Elgewely’s student team members also included Deepak Gupta, a graduate student in computer science, and Saeed Sakhdari, a graduate student in architecture. Additional faculty contributed to and supported this project:

• Thomas Tucker, associate professor of creative technologies in the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design
• Todd Ogle, executive director of the Applied Research in Immersive Experiences and Simulations program in the University Libraries
• David Hicks, professor of education in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences

Funding was provided by a faculty-initiated grant through the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design in 2022 and a major SEED grant through the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology in 2023.