How Saddle River Day School, NJ,USA is Using Arkio

[Giridhar_Peddi]

Greeting Arkio Community,

We, The SRDS Rebels are excited to share on how we use Arkio at our School. I am Giri, an upper school computer science teacher. I Co-teach a class, “The VR City Building“ with the Tech Director of our school, Laura Hollis, using Arkio.

We are particularly excited to write and share this community post because we want to show the impact the Arkio team is making in this schools by supporting them, we want to keep the team motivated by sharing our students work, so that they can keep building Arkio with more great features. We also would like to thank Arkio team for supporting our school, SRDS, NJ, USA.

Our high school students are using Arkio to reimagine urban design through the lens of sustainability and futuristic infrastructure. Working in VR with Meta Quest headsets, they’re creating architectural designs that align with UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 11.3, which focuses on inclusive and sustainable urbanization and participatory urban planning. We envisioned a workflow, where all the students design the city in Arkio and 3D print them, so that they can see something tangible and reinforces their creativity and learning.

With Arkio’s super cool VR interface, students get to see their designs in real life, like they’re building buildings themselves! They can use parametric components and volumetric modeling tools to shape things up.

We’re taking these digital creations into the real world by 3D printing selected student designs. This workflow from conceptualization in VR to tangible physical models demonstrates the complete design-to-fabrication pipeline that professional architects and urban planners use today

Please take a look at the images attached below showcasing our workflow, planning and few examples building we developed in Arkio.

One of the students is very proud to develop the palace you see in the images above, and it was even more rewarding when we 3D printed the palace.

For our next steps with the spatial understanding gained through VR helps them make design decisions that account for both ground-level and aerial traffic patterns, essential considerations for cities preparing for flying cars/vehicle integration.

This approach demonstrates how VR design tools like Arkio can help the next generation of urban planners and architects think critically about creating livable, sustainable cities ready for emerging technologies.

We’re incredibly grateful to the Arkio team for building such an accessible and powerful platform that makes immersive design education possible. Your tool has transformed how our students understand spatial relationships, collaborate on complex projects, and envision the future of urban design. The ability to move seamlessly from VR sketching to detailed modeling, and then to physical 3D prints, has given our students a professional-grade workflow that inspires them to think bigger about solving real-world challenges. Thank you for democratizing architectural design tools and supporting the next generation of designers and urban planners.

Best,
Giridhar Peddi
Computer Science Teacher at SRDS

[Johan]

Thank you for sharing your experiences and these great examples, @Giridhar_Peddi!

I see your students were collaborating on a tower design based on a reference image and floorplan. This is an excellent way to learn about the basics of modeling in Arkio together, as there are several ways to make shapes like this using Arkio’s solid and void geometry.

Assignment scenes like this can be shared with all students in a live Arkio meeting or via the Arkio cloud, with all 2D and 3D references loaded on the green table for them to move, copy or create alone or together following the class exercise.

Did you have any further tips or examples of assignments for schools considering using Arkio with their students?

[Annabelle_Berger]

This week, we decided about our city’s footprint and the way that we will be connecting it to the UN’s SDGs. We contemplated the topography of our city; whether it will be flat or hilly, full of trees or barren, etc. We also thought about if our city is going to be fantastical or realistic compared to our world’s cities.

We also discussed what we wanted for arkio to improve upon in the future. We really love Arkio’s building interface and library of assets, but we would like better topographical features, along with the ability to easily add rivers, mountains, and valleys in the future. We also want the ability to add notes into Arkio on top of our buildings. For example, we are currently using Noda to create webs of ideas, and we really want something like that interface to comment on our buildings.

We really appreciate the Arkio team’s commitment to the improvement of the interface, along with giving us the ability to help the app improve for everyone to enjoy!

-The SRDS VR Class

[Liam_Gorelik]

Hello Everyone!

Hope you all are well.

This week in our VR class we figured out how we would transcribe the amazing buildings we make in Arkio into something tangible that we can show in real life. This is the first step in bringing our ideas into reality. Firstly, we assigned one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations onto each individual in our class, maintaining organized responsibilities while making sure that our city would meet all expectations. This would not only allow us to properly create buildings for certain goals, but also allow us to develop expertise in certain topics.

Another interesting topic we discussed was a new Geo-architectural type feature in Arkio that allowed one to fully input the architecture of a major structure, perhaps a city or building, into Arkio so that every infrastructural detail would be included. We have tested this feature out with Times Square and Shibuya Crossing, both examples working perfectly.

We truly appreciate the Arkio team’s commitment to improving the interface, as well as giving us the opportunity to help make the app better for everyone.

-The SRDS VR Class

[sean.ccoyne]

This week we discussed our city’s transportation and navigation design, focusing on how the roads will be laid out and where major buildings will be placed. We compared different styles of city planning, such as New York’s straight, grid-like streets versus cities with more curved and less rigid road systems. This helped us think about how movement through our city will feel and how people will interact with different areas.

We also explored Arkio’s map feature, which allowed us to clearly view and plan out roads within our city. This made it easier to visualize our transportation network and how everything connects. In addition, we talked about possibly using Blender in the future to create more complex objects that could be added to our buildings for extra detail and realism.

We really appreciate the Arkio team and their ongoing commitment to improving Arkio and supporting projects like ours.

• The SRDS VR Class

[CommanderSleepy]

Hello All! This week we are deciding on the layout of our city, specifically the layout of the streets and buildings. We are discussing if it is possible and viable to design roads on Arkio easily, or to design the roads in Blender then import them into our city in Arkio. We are also unsure if Arkio is capable of comfortably running and displaying a landscape object with a significantly large polygon count. We went over the pros and cons of different landscapes and designs, along with the scale of them. We were also considering using different landscapes to adapt to the UN sustainable development goals, which makes adding things like solar farms, an animal reserve, or underwater transportation easier depending on the terrain. We are wondering how to export Blender files and import them into Arkio, specifically the terrain we have chosen for our city. We plan to test this this week!

- The SRDS VR Class

[Johan]

Welcome everyone!

Good to hear about the progress you guys are making towards designing an entire city together using Arkio

Arkio can load large files with many polygons for your landscape designs, if you use a standalone Quest headset, some objects might show less detail for heavy 3D models. You can learn more about this on our support page.

Models from Blender can best be loaded to Arkio, by saving the models from Blender to GLB in your Documents/Arkio/Import folder and starting Arkio on your PC (You can then share this import with you Quest in an Arkio meeting or by connecting to the same Arkio cloud) More information about loading Custom 3D models from Blender and other apps can be found here.

We’d love to see some pictures of the progress if you guys feel comfortable sharing!

[Joy_Chen]

is week, we are preparing the slideshow for the Cook/Fox trip. We also got back into Akrio, each team member chose the building they are going to design based on their UN GOAL. The buildings are the most important factor for the city. We each choose a UN GOAL to decide the purpose of the buildings.

Here is the breakdown:

Joy - Food corner

Sean - Multipurpose Skyscraper

Annabelle - rooftop interactive dog park/apartment building

Vihaan - Solar Farm

Wenbo - HIgh School

JV - Bank/Stock Exchange

Megan - aquarium (maybe under water)

Liam - Education/Innovation center aka labratory

Hollis - Teen center

Peddi - Hospital

Jamie - Energy generating side walks

This Thursday, we went to COOKFOX, an architecture firm located in New York city which we learned actually partnered with Arkio 2 years ago. We heard from professionals who design buildings, meet with urban planners, collaborate with city administrators, and get to ask them questions about their process. We prepared a slide deck about everything we have done in VR and shared our ideas with them. We had lunch with Rick Cook who told us stories and gave us lots of insights about architecture and design. They also gave us some useful advice. Moreover, the experiences they shared with us by showing us their project are very helpful for us.

[Laura_Hollis]

Building Our Ideal City — A Student Design Project Update

Our class has been designing a city from the ground up using Arkio, starting with a 2D map poster and working our way toward a full 3D printed physical model. As a group, we made decisions about zoning, transportation, civic spaces, and terrain — debating everything from where to place schools and hospitals to how to handle flood-prone housing areas. Some standout ideas emerged along the way: a bullet train design inspired by the Kingfisher bird’s beak (biomimicry!), trapezoid-shaped buildings that use wind for passive cooling, and a three-mode transportation system featuring highways, river travel, and flying cars.

We’ve been building the physical model on a labeled acrylic grid, using 3D printed buildings and clay for natural features like the lake. In Arkio, we ran into some challenges with copy/paste and grouping — if anyone has tips for managing repeated structures across a large city layout, we’d love to hear them!

We’re aiming to have the model completed and on display at our school’s Art Show on May 19. Students will be on hand to walk visitors through the project and help them explore the city in VR with headsets. Excited to share what we’ve built!

[Claudia]

Amazing work This is such a creative way to combine urban planning, physical model making, and VR together. Love the mix of biomimicry, sustainability ideas, and futuristic transportation thinking!

Also really excited that visitors will be able to explore the city in VR during the Art Show, that’s going to be such a memorable experience for them

Can’t wait to see the final result!

[Jamie_29]

In this year’s VR class, I learned about virtual reality by designing my own buildings in Arkio. We used the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals as a guide for our projects, which helped me understand the environmental challenges our world faces and how technology can help solve them.

One of the interesting parts of the class was learning to create buildings online. We explored Arkio, a digital design tool that let us create our structures before they are actually built. Using virtual reality, we tried out different architectural styles and layouts, seeing how our designs could impact the environment and the community. This hands-on experience showed me how important sustainability is in design.

Each UN goal inspired different projects we worked on. For example, we came up with ideas for affordable housing for low-income families, focusing not just on innovative designs but also on what economic factors would make these projects possible. We also aimed to design energy-efficient buildings that use resources wisely while having a minimal environmental impact. It felt great to see how our ideas could contribute to positive changes and encourage communities to adopt sustainable practices.

Working in groups was a key part of our learning. It let us share different opinions on complex social issues such as jail and how areas should be separated, which helped deepen our understanding of development. We often discussed how architects and urban planners can support the UN goals, leading to important conversations about adding renewable energy sources like solar panels and wind turbines to our city. We realized that design should consider not just looks but also community well-being and environmental friendliness.

I was also intrigued by how different viewpoints shaped our projects. For example, when we talked about urban planning, we recognized that feedback from community members could lead to designs that are more welcoming and useful. Learning to engage with classmates showed the importance of understanding others’ perspectives in the design process. I learned that a well-designed building should not only meet practical needs but also reflect the values and needs of the people who will use it.

Overall, this VR class changed how I view architecture and its ability to solve real-world problems. It helped me realize that virtual reality is a way to explore and find solutions to environmental issues in cities. Moving forward, I feel inspired to keep exploring how sustainable design can create a better world.

[Liam_Gorelik]

VR Class Reflection

The main thing I learned this year is that starting with a concept as vague as designing a model city around the UN Sustainable Development Goals is actually workable. The class was split up by SDG, and each person was responsible for contributing buildings or structures that reflected their assigned goal. Mine was innovation, so I designed my models to look futuristic and placed them in the innovation center at the center of the city. The end result was a full physical model city that, despite how abstract the starting point was, came together in a coherent way.

There were practical complications along the way. The 3D printer filament broke down at points, which slowed production, and Arkio has complexity limitations that required simplifying some designs. Both of those were things the class had to work around rather than avoid entirely. In terms of what I learned about the tools themselves, Arkio was more useful for planning than I expected. Being able to edit a model and immediately view it at human scale in VR makes spatial planning, particularly for residential layouts, more accurate and faster than working in standard 2D or 3D software. You can immediately see whether a space actually works at the scale a person would experience it.

Reflecting on the class overall, the process was sometimes tedious but it was also fun. Watching all the individual models come together into one city was a good payoff. I also think VR design tools like Arkio have real potential beyond this kind of class project, for urban planning, architecture, and engineering more broadly. The ability to view and edit a design at human scale in real time is genuinely useful, and it seems like the kind of software that should be more widely taught.

[CommanderSleepy]

This year in the VR City class was honestly a really crazy and memorable experience. I originally started out just taking the mini course, mostly because I was curious and wanted to try something new, but I ended up liking it way more than I expected. Because of that, I decided to fully join the class, and that turned out to be a really good decision. From the very beginning, learning how to navigate in VR felt super interesting, especially since it was something completely different from what I was used to doing on a regular screen. Getting comfortable moving around, interacting with objects, and understanding scale in a virtual space took some practice, but it was actually really fun to learn.

One of the main things we used was Arkio, and learning how to model things in it was probably one of my favorite parts of the whole class. At first, it felt a little confusing figuring out all the tools and how everything worked, but over time it started to feel more natural. Being able to build structures, experiment with different shapes, and design parts of a city in VR felt really creative, especially since you could instantly see your ideas come to life around you. The whole process felt a lot more interactive compared to traditional 3D modeling on a computer.

What made the experience even better was when we started taking our virtual models and turning them into real, physical objects using 3D printing. That part was honestly really satisfying, because it felt like we were bridging the gap between the digital world and the real world. Seeing something you designed in VR actually exist in real life was a really cool feeling. I also really enjoyed experimenting with different materials and colors when printing, since it added another layer of creativity and made the final models look even more interesting and unique. It wasn’t just about the shape anymore, but also how it looked and felt physically.

However, I did run into one small issue while using Arkio, especially when it came to preparing models for 3D printing. Even when we created models that seemed really simple, like ones with only a few visible faces or shapes that looked almost primitive, the slicer software would sometimes fail to generate the printing instructions. The error usually had something to do with the model having too many polygons or facets, which didn’t really make sense at first because the models didn’t look that complex visually. This was a pretty minor issue, as using a 3rd party model fixer website meshed the geometry enough for the slicer to handle it.

After thinking about it more, I believe this issue might come from how Arkio actually creates and stores its models. It seems like instead of using a minimal number of polygons, it builds objects in smaller sections or segments so that they can be easily modified later. While that’s really useful for editing and flexibility inside VR, it ends up creating a huge number of tiny polygons in the final model. When exporting these models, all of those extra polygons stay in the file, which probably overwhelms the slicer software and causes it to fail.

Because of this, I think it would be really helpful if there was some kind of way to “convert” or “optimize” these models after they are created. Obviously, this is very difficult to change, especially if you are trying to change the way Arkio is built, which I wouldn’t want to happen because this massive geometry makes it super cool. One possible solution could be that when exporting to Arkio Cloud as OBJ automatically Arkio could run a program that could reduce the number of polygons while still keeping the overall shape and structure of the model the same would make a big difference. This would make the models much more efficient and easier to work with when exporting them for 3D printing. Something similar already exists in other tools, like mesh simplification or decimation features, and even some online 3D print file repair tools that fix overly complex meshes without changing how they look.

Overall, the VR City class was still a really great experience. I learned a lot about VR, 3D modeling, and how digital designs can be turned into real-world objects. It also gave me a better understanding of some of the technical challenges that come with 3D modeling and printing, especially when different tools don’t always work perfectly together, especially Bambu Slicer. I think it was definitely one of the most interesting and enjoyable classes I’ve taken.

[Joy_Chen]

This class gave me my first experience using virtual reality. Before this class, I had never used a VR headset before, so everything was new to me. I always remember that my reaction when I used the headset for the first time. At first, it was a little difficult to learn the controls, but over time, I became more comfortable and confident using the tools. I learned how to make the shape, fill the color, and do many different things with it.

In this class, I learned how to create objects and buildings in a virtual world. I learned how to make different shapes, change their size, and add colors to them. We created many projects, including toys and other designs. I enjoyed being creative and seeing my ideas come to life in a 3D space.

The most exciting part of the class was connecting the virtual world to the real world. Some of our designs could be 3D printed, which meant we could hold something that we had created in VR. It was amazing to see a virtual design become a real object.

This class also taught me patience. Sometimes my designs did not work the way I wanted, and I had to fix mistakes or try again. By practicing, I learned how to improve my work and solve problems.

Overall, I really enjoyed this class. It introduced me to a new technology and taught me new skills. I learned that virtual reality can be used for much more than games. It can also be a powerful tool for design, creativity, and bringing ideas into reality.

[Walshington]

The virtual reality class using Arkio was an engaging and memorable experience that showed both the strengths and the difficulties of learning through immersive technology. Overall, I found the class to be very fun and enjoyable because it offered something different from a normal classroom setting. Instead of simply listening to lectures or completing assignments in a traditional way, the class allowed us to interact with a virtual environment and participate in a more hands-on, creative process. That made the class feel more active, interesting, and enjoyable.

One of the best parts of the class was getting to use Arkio as a collaborative tool. It gave students the chance to work together in a shared virtual space, which made the class feel interactive and unique. The VR environment encouraged creativity and helped make the experience feel more exciting than a regular class. I also liked that it gave us a new way to think about space, design, and teamwork. Because of that, the class had a lot of potential to be both educational and entertaining.

At the same time, there were some issues that made the class less smooth than it could have been. One major challenge we had with Arkio was that Arkio did not always work properly. When the program had glitches or failed to function correctly, it interrupted the lesson and made it harder to stay focused on the task. Since the class depends so much on technology, any problems with the software have a big impact on how well the class runs. These kinds of issues were frustrating and sometimes took away from the overall experience.

Another challenge was attendance and communication. The class seemed to struggle with keeping a good grip on attendance, which made things feel somewhat disorganized at times. In addition, there were issues with communication about what we were supposed to do. Sometimes directions were not completely clear, which made it harder to understand expectations or know how to complete assignments properly. Better organization and clearer instructions would make the class much easier to follow and more effective for everyone involved.

Even with these problems, I still think the class was a great experience overall. If the issues with Arkio, attendance, and communication are addressed, the class has the potential to be excellent. The idea behind it is strong, and the VR format makes learning more engaging and enjoyable. With better structure and fewer technical problems, this class could be a really successful and valuable learning environment.

[Wenbo_Guang]

This year, I had a great and very enjoyable time in the VR Class.

In this class, we did many fun and interesting activities together, and we built a city using Arkio in VR. It was a very cool experience because we could work together in a virtual environment and create buildings of a city. It felt exciting to see our ideas can actually become true in VR, and it was different from anything I had done before.

I also enjoyed collaborating with my classmates. We have different ideas, and by sharing them, we were able to make our project more creative and interesting. Throughout the year, I learned more about teamwork and using VR technology. I think these skills can also help me in the future.

There are also a few things that I think we can improve. In the beginning of the shcool year, it was not very clear what each person was supposed to do. If everyone had a specific role and understood their responsibilities from the beginning, our group could work more efficiently and complete more tasks. Better organization would help us make the most of our time during class.

In addition, our group came up with many creative ideas, such as building underwater paths and adding other unique features to our city. However, because we started building later than it was supposed to be, so we had limited time, we were not able to fully explore or include all of these ideas in the final project. I think it would be great if next year’s class could begin planning and working on the project earlier. Having more time would allow us to develop our ideas further and create even more impressive and creative designs.

Overall, I really enjoyed the VR Class this year. It was really fun and gave me the opportunity to learn new skills while working with others. I am thankful for the experience, and I hope in next year, we will have even more time and opportunities to create amazing projects in VR.

[sean.ccoyne]

I had a great experience during this class. One of the most interesting parts was using Arkio VR to design and build buildings for our city project. It was cool to create structures in VR and see our ideas come to life in a new way. At first, Arkio was difficult to use and it took some time to learn all of the controls and tools. Some parts of Arkio were different from other softwares I’ve used and so it was hard to adjust to it. It wasn’t until the minicourses that I really got the hang of Arkio and became more comfortable using it to design buildings.

Minicourses were fun because we got to use motion capture and use Arkio. I enjoyed working with my classmates. Helping Shane with the motion capture stuff, and working with Joy to make and edit the video was fun. Joy did a great job on that. We made a video that showed what we had done in class and during the minicourse. It showcased all of the work we’ve done throughout the year.

We also visited NYU, we talked about our project and learned more. We also went to cookfox and shared our project with them and learnt how they design their buildings. Spending time in the city was a cool experience and it gave me the chance to take photos of some buildings which eventually inspired my own buildings.

To build our city using 3D printed buildings and dry clay, which helped turn our digital designs into physical models. We also scanned the physical model with lidar and then we were able to view it in VR. Overall, the experience taught me new skills, encouraged my creativity, and it was really fun to build a city.

[Laura_Hollis]

Building a Better World,

One Virtual Block at a Time

I’ve been teaching long enough to recognize the moments that change a student’s relationship with learning. This year, inside our IDEAS Lab, I watched those moments happen again and again and Arkio was at the center of them.

Our Immersive Design & VR students took on a challenge that felt almost too big for a year: collaboratively design a virtual city guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Not a city of the present, but a city of intention — one that asked students to grapple with questions of equity, sustainability, infrastructure, community, and global responsibility before placing a single element in the virtual space.

“What would a city look like if it were designed by people who actually cared about the world they were inheriting?”

That question drove everything. Students weren’t just learning a tool — they were learning to think like architects, policymakers, and citizens of a future that hasn’t been written yet. Arkio became the medium through which those conversations became tangible. In VR, a debate about public transit stops being theoretical. You can walk through the neighborhood. You can feel the distance from the school to the park. You can ask: who is this for?

What struck me most was the quality of disagreement I heard in the room. Students pushed back on each other’s choices with real reasoning — invoking SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), SDG 13 (Climate Action). The UN goals weren’t a checklist; they became a shared language for design critique. Watching a 10th grader tell a classmate “that placement doesn’t address food access in this district” is the kind of moment that reminds you why this work matters.

Arkio’s collaborative spatial environment was essential to this project working the way it did. Students could inhabit the same virtual space simultaneously, building alongside and in response to each other. That live co-presence created a design culture in the classroom, where ideas were visible, contestable, and iterative in real time. There was no hiding behind a solo sketch. Every choice was a conversation.

As an educator, I’ve spent years looking for tools that close the gap between imagination and expression. So many platforms make students feel like users of someone else’s vision. Arkio does the opposite because it makes students feel like authors. The city they built isn’t a simulation of someone else’s idea of urban planning. It’s theirs. It reflects their values, their arguments, their compromises, and their hope.

We’re already planning how to expand this project next year. If you’re an educator thinking about bringing purpose-driven design into your classroom, I’d love to connect. The future city doesn’t design itself, but with the right tools, and the right questions, your students might surprise you with what they build. We are thinking about using our model to be the environment for a game design project next year, where the UN SDGs, and teaching them to younger children, is at the center. We hope to continue with some or all of the students from this year’s class as leaders and to gain new students who are willing to jump in and bring new energy and ideas to the project as it evolves.

The IDEAS Lab is a place where we believe immersive technology is most powerful when it’s in service of ideas that matter.

[Megan_Meng]

This year, I took the VR class that focused on design, technology, and collaboration. Throughout the course, I learned many new skills and gained hands-on experience with different tools and projects.

One of the most interesting parts of the class was working with 3D models and 3D printers. I learned how to create and modify digital models and then turn them into real objects using a 3D printer. This helped me understand the design process from an idea to a finished product. I also learned the importance of patience and problem-solving when designs did not work as expected.

Another important tool we used was Arkio. Through Arkio, I explored virtual design and learned how technology can help people create and share ideas in new ways. Working in a digital environment improved my creativity and helped me better visualize designs.

A highlight of the year was visiting New York University and collaborating with students and professionals there. This experience allowed me to work with others, exchange ideas, and learn from people with different backgrounds and experiences. It showed me how teamwork and communication are important in real-world projects.

Overall, this class helped me develop technical skills, creativity, and collaboration skills. I learned how to use new technology, solve problems, and work effectively with others. This experience has increased my interest in design and technology, and I look forward to using these skills in future projects and learning opportunities.

Ps: Mr peddi and ms Hollis is the best