The VR-Lab at NMBU is a facility that provides new possibilities for modelling, reconstructing, visualizing, and communicating knowledge.
It is an arena for testing and experimenting with 3D visualization technologies and ways of sharing knowledge, aiming to increase collaboration, motivation and engagement in a learning process.
Virtual Reality Lab at NMBU is used in following fields:
- Research and development
- Education
- Architectural design and landscape planning
- Public participation
- Art: The creation of artistic applications
- Reconstruction and digital heritage
- Testing of 3D visualization technolgies
- Utilization of 3D digital solution for museums
- Applications for tourism and accessibility
Contact us
We are on the ground floor of the Plant School Building:
Find us on our interactive map- Virtual Reality and Public Participation in Evaluation of Landscape Planting Design
- Computer Games as a Tool in Public Participation Processes in Spatial Planning
- Use of photorealistic illustrations to sell real estate projects in Norway
- Virtual Reality and the Landscape Architecture Design Process
- Visualizations in zoning plan. A critical discourse analysis of the significance of the visualizations in the private zoning plan proposal for Portalen in Lillestrøm
- Planning as visual service design
- Product Presentation Through CGI-Animation
- Use of visualizations in planning processes. A study of communication and understanding
- Open storm water management - Reopening of Hovinbekken and the facilitating of increased biodiversity in an urban environment
- Concept: Land use zoning plan in 3D
- BIM for landscape. From 2D to 5D. Case study Hersleb school, Oslo
- Processes and multidisciplinary communication in pre-projects with use of new technology
Contact the VR Lab leader for information on the Lab, equipment booking, prices and availability.
Ramzi Hassan, Tel: 67 23 12 83, Email: ramzi.hassan@nmbu.no
This course is for students who have mastered intermediate skills in digital tools and wish to explore new potentials and complications associated with 3D visualizations in interaction with landscape, urban planning, architecture and construction.
The course offers possibilities to work with various types of technology for design and planning which might include: 3D modelling, 3D visualizations, animation, immersive Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, 3D printing, Reality Capture.
The emphasis is on the investigation of the added values of using digital tools in design and planning scenarios for enhancing collaboration and communication. The Virtual Reality Lab (VR-Lab) offers an arena for testing and experimenting of new ways of knowledge-sharing, increasing collaboration, motivation and engaged learning.
The course is based on a combination of lectures, practice hours at a computer laboratory, excursions and group work with individual or group supervision.
The course follows one the following approaches:
- Introducing a specific digital tool with the aim to investigate its potentials in design and planning. Examples includes studying BIM for landscape, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality.
- Introducing a case study based on a real project with the aim to use digital tools and 3D visualizations to understand many aspects and problems connected it. Examples includes studying specific urban or landscape location, reconstruction of historical gardens and sites, studying the future development and potentials of a certain site.
After being introduced to digital tools and the case study, students are required to investigate the topic individually or in groups and will be asked to identify the approach that they will follow. Students would get access to the VR-Lab to test theories and aspects connected their topics. Group presentations will be scheduled to monitor the development level of investigation work and provide feedback.
At the end of the course, students or groups are expected to present the final work and hand-in a description of their work. There are possibilities that some topics that we will deal with in the course can be offered in collaboration with other courses at master level. More information is presented at the beginning of the course.
Go to the course webpage:
Advanced 3D Tools for Design and Plannning (LAD302)
Neural Radiance Fields for Landscape Architecture.
Maximilian Schob and Jörg Rekittke. Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture, 8-2023, pp. 428-442
Landscapes between Signal and Data: Formal Identification and Analysis of Forest Clearings in Oslo through Lidar Data. Maximilian Schob and Luis Callejas. Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture, 8-2023, pp. 221-235.
Testing the Effect of Hedge Height on Perceived Safety; A Landscape Design Intervention. Evensen, Katinka H., Helena Nordh, Ramzi Hassan, and Aslak Fyhri. 2021. Sustainability 13, no. 9: 5063.
Contemporary versus traditional styles in architecture and public space: A virtual reality study with 360-degree videos. Kostas Mouratidis, Ramzi Hassan, Cities, Volume 97, 2020, 102499, ISSN 0264-2751.
Study by NMBU and UC Berkeley shows how Virtual Reality technlogy and NMBU's VR Lab were been utilized to explore livability in urban environments. Perceiving the Livable City. Cross-Cultural Lessons on Virtual and Field Experiences of Urban Environments. Deni Ruggeri, Chester Harvey & Peter Bosselmann (2018), Journal of the American Planning Association, 84:3-4, 250-262,
News
VR-Lab's publications highlights from the first half of 2023: Redefining Landscape Architecture with Lidar and NeRF technologies. The VR-Lab Research Group is contributing to the realm of digital landscape architecture with two new publications. These two articles, authored by Maximilian Schob, Luis Callejas, and Jörg Rekittke, present innovative approaches that promise to revolutionize the field.
VR-Lab Celebrates Innovation and Exploration at the NMBU Summer Event. The VR-Lab participated in the NMBU Summer Event with a stand showcasing our cutting-edge research projects. We had the pleasure of engaging in conversations with our guests and sharing our fascination with the potential of these groundbreaking technologies for research, education, knowledge communication, and collaboration.
Digital Twin Technology for Contested Landscapes. VR-Lab at NMBU organized during the summer of 2023 the first global workshop on "Digital Twin Technology for contested landscapes" which was held at Birzeit University in Palestine as part of the Twin Fjord project. The workshop generated valuable outcomes, including strengthened collaboration as experts, researchers, and students connected for potential future partnerships.
Virtual reality and public participation in the evaluation of landscape planting design. Master student Marius Ellefsen investigated whether VR technology is viable in evaluation of digital landscapes in public participation processes in Norway. This master study could help landscape architects evaluate the effectiveness and usefulness of VR as a new tool for the public evaluation of different planting designs.
Virtual Tours library for historically important landscapes. NMBU's Virtual Reality Lab shared their work on the use of VR for creating tours of historically important landscapes at the European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools conference 2021. Introducing a new approach that enable educators, researchers and students to observe and understand the complications of historical site interactively and dynamically and provide a comprehensive historic experience of them.
NMBU's VR-Lab in a new publication on perceived safety in urban parks. New study combines the use of field and Virtual Reality experiments to evaluate safety measures in green space management and perceived safety.
Teaching history of gardens art and landscape architecture through Virtual Reality. During the autumn of 2020, Annegreth Dietze-Schirdewahn from the Theory and History Research Group in collaboration with Ramzi Hassan from VR-Lab started experimental project with students focused on the implementation of VR technology for studying historical gardens with Baroniet Rosendal in Norway as case study.
Developing new technologies for land use planning in historically important landscapes. VR-Lab in a new project to develop digital and visual solutions that support sustainable spatial planning and management.
Documentation of underwater cultural heritage. Marine ecologist Ian Bryceson joins forces with the VR lab to develop and test 3D digital solutions that enable the public better access to underwater cultural heritage in Tanzania.
Computer games as a tool for spatial planning. City-building computer games sparked the interest of urban planning master students Andreas Bjørne Jacobsen & Martin Reigstad. Their Master's research was on gamification in urban planning.
Traditional architecture gives better sense of well-being than contemporary glass and steel buildings. With the help of VR technology, researchers from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) have studied people’s experiences and feelings related to different streets and public squares in Oslo.
On-site experimentation with Smartphone-based VR solutions. Students conducting on-site experiments using VR technology in order to investigate ways to disseminate information and to engage citizens in landscape design discussions.