The Role of Visualization Software in Architectural Education

The architectural profession is today confronted with an increasingly complex and challenging environment. From the local to global, the international to the vernacular, architects have to continually adjust and adapt their practice in a fast changing milieu to engage with new shifting conditions both within the profession and externally. Schools of architecture are struggling to keep up with the current issues that are transforming architecture practice. From sketching and drafting to 3D rendering, to animation, and reaching to the Virtual Reality (VR), and augmented Reality (AR), there is a rapid crazy change in the technology interfered informally in Architecture Education in the way that result a bad effect on imagination and creativity skills of the architecture and urban design students.
The research aims to “Pave the way for architecture instructors and head of departments in using the visualization software in better way in different courses and architecture programs”. By using descriptive, analytical, and inductive methodology (interviews & questionnaire). The research starts with the theoretical background to discuss the visualization programs, and techniques, their importance, and pros and cons, then, the research develops a questionnaire and some interviews with academics, practitioners, and information computer technology (ICTs) specialists to know their opinions in using the visualization techniques in the architecture education. Finally the research ends up with a wider discussion and a road map to develop guidelines for using visualization techniques in architecture education and to draw a Model for plug-inn of digital visualizations and manuals techniques in different modules in architecture education.