Designing homes through virtual reality

A few tenants and staff from Dovecot Court and members of the community in Peebles, took part in a virtual reality workshop led by Dr Martin Quirke and his colleagues from University of Stirling. They are are currently working on the DesHCA project – designing homes for healthy cognitive ageing. The project aims to identify housing designs, including adaptations, that can support older people, including those living with cognitive change, to live well at home for longer.

Using VR headsets, participants were guided through a couple of virtual prototype homes and asked to comment on the design.

Helen Narracott is using the headset to find her way through the virtual house.

Everyone really enjoyed the session and there was lots of feedback which the researchers found very valuable. It will be used to develop the final version of the teams home designs, and for physical and digital demonstrators that illustrate the importance of supportive design for older people.