How is the research situation? Using several standard research data banks, the author collected articles and book(chapter)s on architectural psychology in German- and English-language countries from 1990 to 1996. Studies on main architecture-psychology interface problems such as user needs, housing quality evaluations, participatory planning and spatial simulation / virtual reality did not outline an “old, settled” discipline, but rather the sketchy, random surface of a field “always starting anew”. E.g., discussions at the 1995 EAEA-Conference showed that several architectural simulation studies since 1973 caused no major impact on planner's opinions (Keul&Martens, 1996). “Re-inventions of the wheel” are caused by a lack of meetings (except this one!) and of interdisciplinary infrastructure in German-language countries (contrary to Sweden or the United States). Social pressures building up on architecture nowadays by inter-European competition, budget cuts and citizen activities for informed consent in most urban projects are a new challenge for planners to cooperate efficiently with social scientists. At Salzburg, the author currently manages the Corporate Design-process for the Chamber of Architecture, Division for Upper Austria and Salzburg. A “working group for architectural psychology” (Keul-Martens-Maderthaner) has been active since 1994.

The principal item of a full-scale lab preferably features a court-like facility where the 1:1 simulations are performed. Such lab facilities can be found at various architecture education centers throughout Europe. In the early eighties the European Full-scale Modeling Association (abrev. EFA, full-scale standing for 1:1 or simulation in full-scale) was founded acting as the patron of a conference every two years. In line with the conference title "Full-scale Modeling in the Age of Virtual Reality" the participants were particularly concerned with the relationship of physical 1:1 simulations and VR. The assumption that those creating architecture provide of a higher degree of affinity to physical than to virtual models and prototypes was subject of vivid discussions.

Furthermore, the participants devoted some time to issues such as the integration of model-like ideas and built reality thus uncovering any such synergy-effects. Thus some major considerations had to be given to the question of how the architectís model-like ideas and built reality would correspond, also dealing with user-suitability as such: what the building artist might be thrilled with might not turn out to be the residentsí and usersí everyday delight. Aspects of this nature were considered at the îArchitectural Psychology Meeting” together with specialists on environment and aesthetics. As individual space perception as well as its evaluation differ amongst various architects, and these being from various countries furnishing cultural differences, lively discussions were bound to arise.

The study of imaginary worlds in this design studio case study is limited to motion pictures that postulate unique, or new environments rather than those films that faithfully attempt to document or reconstruct reality. In this sense, the movies used for study have a lineage traceable to Georges Melies "who came to film from illusionism and the "heater," rather than to the reality of the Lumiere brothers who came from photography which ultimately would lead to "cinema-verite."

Discussions, assignments and presentations in the studio are organized to provide students with an opportunity to gain a different awareness of architecture and use varying stimuli as source material for design. The study of architectural history, art, formal principles of design, visual perception, and media are required in order to complete the reconstructions and creations of proposed environments.

All student work throughout the entire semester is created with electronic media and the computer is used as an integral component of the studio enabling analysis and study, design, model creation, and animation. The available capabilities of computer graphics in the studio enables students to explore analytic and synthetic issues of design in motion pictures in a manner not readily available when restricted to traditional media. Through the use of digital media we have an opportunity to better understand the imaginary worlds for what they communicate and the ideas they contain, and therefore create an opportunity to modify our own concept of architecture.

The paper discusses furthermore various 3D modeling options, such as standard CAD representations, high quality rendered video walk-throughs, VRML models and physically produced, full-scale models, made of corrugated cardboard. The cost and equipment requirements necessary for full-scale modeling in cardboard are outlined.

The possibilities of computer simulation also extend to issues inadequately covered by normative analysis and in particular to dynamic aspects of design such as human movement and circulation. The paper reports on a framework for addressing two related problems, (a) the simulation of fire escape from buildings and (b) the simulation of human movement on stairs. In both cases we propose that current evaluation techniques and the underlying design norms are too abstract to offer a measure of design success, as testified by the number of fatal accidents in fires and on stairs. In addition, fire escape and stair climbing are characterized by great variability with respect to both the form of the possible designs and the profiles of potential users. This suggests that testing prototypical forms by typical users and publishing the results as new, improved norms is not a realistic proposition for ensuring a global solution. Instead, we should test every design individually, within its own context. The development of an affordable, readily available system for the analysis and evaluation of aspects such as fire escape and stair safety can be based on the combination of the technologies of virtual reality and motion capture. Testing of a design by a number of test people in an immersion space provides not only intuitive evaluations by actual users but also quantitative data on the cognitive and proprioceptive behaviour of the test people. These data can be compiled into profiles of virtual humans for further testing of the same or related designs.

These all are dealing with the material world, for which the tools of computer science are highly appropriate. But what will happen to the immaterial world? How can we put these immaterial values into a computers model? Or can the computer be creative as a human being? Early developments of computer science in the field of architecture involved two-dimensional applications, and subsequently the significance of the third dimension became manifest. Nowadays, however, people are already speaking of a fourth dimension, interpreting it as time or as dynamics. And what, for instance, would a fifth, sixth or X-dimension represent?

In the future we will perhaps speak of the fifth dimension, comprising the tangible qualities of the building materials around us. And one day a sixth dimension might be created, when it will be possible to establish direct communication with computers, because direct exchange between the computer and the human brain has been realised. The ideas of designers can then be processed by the computer directly, and we will no longer be hampered by obstacles such as screen and keyboard. There are scientist who are working to realize bio-chips. If it will work, perhaps we can realise all these speculations. It is nearly sure that the emergence of new technologies will also affect our subject area, architecture and this will create fresh challenges, fresh concepts, and new buildings in the 21st century. The responsibility of the architects must be, to bear in mind that we are dealing with the well-being and the prosperity of mankind.