I conducted a comprehensive literature review on the application of Virtual Environment for Biophilic design, which is published in the "Buildings" journal.
Objective and Procedure
The objective of the study is to understand the state of knowledge regarding applications, capabilities, and limitations of VE for biophilic design, and then identify potential gaps for future research. To this end, the study, first, focuses on features, theories, and applications of biophilic design and VE, and then reviews the application of VE for biophilic design.
The authors took four major steps:
1- A literature review is performed to understand biophilia, biophilic design, related health theories, categories, and the patterns of biophilic design.
2- Next, VEs, their features, classification, experiential design in VE, and their applications are studied.
3- Next, a review of studies investigating the applications of virtual natural environments, including mediated and simulated environments, is presented. In this step, applied methods and key factors of existing research are highlighted and major parameters for natural environment and biophilic design studies in VE are identified.
4- Finally, based on the above reviews, contributing factors to design biophilic environment experience are identified, and the status, applications, capabilities, and limitations of VEs for biophilic design, as well as the potential research directions, are presented.