Interior design course makes classroom three-dimensional

Source: IT News & Events

For interior design students, it’s one thing to see a sketch of a room or building, but it’s a game changer when you can see it in three dimensions.

Miyoung Hong, a senior lecturer in Interior Design at IU Bloomington’s Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design and a participant in the 2024 Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Faculty Curriculum Fellowship Program, integrated advanced cyberinfrastructure tools into her curriculum and work with students.

As part of the fellowship, Hong worked to integrate 3D visualization tools, like Matterport and NavVis—into her upper-level design course, SOAD-D 374 Interior Design Vertical Studio.

“I think it’s important for someone like me to provide my students with opportunities to learn how technology can assist their learning curve as well as keep them informed of current technologies and tools they could use in their design work,” Hong said.

Hong highlighted two key benefits of integrating the tools into her upper-level interior design studio class:

• Providing an immersive, visually rich base for student design projects.
• Enabling iterative design ideation and concept development.

Using NavVis, a model IU3d created, and walkthrough in Spatial.io, Hong’s students were given a 3D digital twin of the Indiana Memorial Union and asked to redesign its interior to ensure guests at the Biddle Hotel did not get lost on their way back from Starbucks.

This technology gave students a more realistic and spatially accurate starting point compared to 2D drawings and allowed them to enhance their understanding of scale, proportions, and spatial relationships.

“As a design professional, my design philosophy is grounded in empathetic design, which is putting yourself in the shoes of the end user,” Hong said. “And I carry that into my classroom setting, so I typically try and generate opportunities for them to learn as an empathetic designer.”

Additionally, incorporating the 3D models allows students to sketch, overlay, and experiment with potential layouts and changes directly within the virtual space.

“The most rewarding aspect was seeing how the students engaged with the 3D models and how it transformed their design process,” Hong said. “They were able to immerse themselves in the virtual spaces, sketch directly on the models, and iteratively explore layout options in a way that simply isn’t possible with 2D drawings alone.

“This hands-on experience gave them a much stronger grasp of scale, proportions, and spatial relationships, which are critical skills for any aspiring interior designer.”

As an Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Faculty Curriculum fellow, Hong participated in workshops, mentorship, and collaborations with the UITS Research Technologies team. To address her specific needs, Hong collaborated with the IU3D team whose work unifies the digitization, display and distribution of 3D content at IU.

With the IU3D team’s tremendous support, Hong helped guide students to integrate the Matterport models into their development process. “The fellowship provided me with dedicated time and resources to deeply explore the pedagogical potential of these emerging technologies,” Hong said.