Hello Arkio Community,
I’m excited to share how we have been using Arkio in the XR and Spatial Design course at Hongik University in Seoul, Korea.
XR and Spatial Design is an interdisciplinary creative-convergence course for students from architecture and design-related disciplines. The course runs for 15 weeks, with one three-hour session each week, and explores how XR can be integrated into the spatial design process as more than simply a visualization tool.
The course is based on the concept of embodied cognition and asks how immersive technologies can extend not only the body, but also the way designers perceive, think, and develop ideas. Rather than focusing on Learning from Technology, we encourage students to explore Learning with Technology—using XR as an active medium for creative thinking and design development.
During the first part of the semester, students gradually move through Immersion, Embodying, and Extending. They first become familiar with XR environments, navigation, avatars, and spatial perception, and then explore relationships between the body, objects, and surrounding space. This develops into Body Storming and 1:1-scale design exercises, where students use their own movement and spatial experience as part of the design process.
Arkio plays an important role in this process. Students can move quickly between an overall view of a project and a human-scale experience, allowing them to evaluate dimensions, viewpoints, circulation, enclosure, and spatial relationships from inside their designs. This is particularly useful for students who are accustomed to developing architecture and spatial design through drawings, computer screens, and conventional 3D modeling.
What we find especially valuable is the immediacy of designing in XR. Students can make a change and experience its spatial consequences almost immediately. We therefore encourage them to use Arkio not simply as a place to present a completed design, but as a space for thinking, testing, and iterating ideas.
Throughout the semester, students also experiment with different XR design applications and participate in immersive design reviews, reflecting on the difference between seeing a design and experiencing a design.
For the final project, students were given the theme “Space of Curiosity.” Each student interpreted the theme differently and developed a spatial experience using the ideas and methods explored during the semester. The projects demonstrate how XR can encourage students to think about space not only as an object to be viewed, but as an environment to be entered, explored, and experienced through the body.
Below are some of the final student projects from Space of Curiosity:
We are grateful to the Arkio team for supporting our educational use of the platform, and we look forward to continuing to explore how Arkio and XR can contribute to new approaches to spatial design education.
Jinmi Lee
Professor, College of Architecture and Urban Planning
Hongik University, Seoul, Korea
