Thermal Cubic: Virtual Reality Based Thermal Data Visualization Engine for the Early Stage of Compact Residential Design

Nowadays, thermal comfort has become an important concern in the building industry due to its great impact on the living environment especially in compact urban space. This thesis research proposes a prototyping system to combine emerging Virtual Reality (VR) technologies with modeling and thermal analysis tools to provide dynamic and immersive thermal analysis and visualization experience inside the virtual environment to enable better design iteration process during the early stage of urban residential design and to raise professional attention towards the importance of evaluating thermal comfort during the initial stage of a design project.