Descriptive Geometry Education in Architecture with Mobile Augmented Reality Application

Augmented reality technology(AR) is no longer a mysterious new technology. Given the Google and Apple and other technology companies to invest in AR technology, people can now easily use smart devices (mostly mobile phones) to try the AR technology brought about by the new experience. People can get a 3D- additional-layer based on real objects through mobile phones. In this research, we describle the implementation and evaluation of an application of augmented reality in the visualization of 3D models and the education of descriptive geometry in architecture for students who are more familiar and interested in new technologies. Descriptive geometry allows representation of three-dimensional objects in two dimensions, by using a specic set of procedures. One scope of traditional Descriptive Geometry was and still is, indeed, supporting the understanding of the spatial properties and relations, which for a student in architecture is one of the most relevant educational goals. Another scope was making students able to gure out and control the architectural space starting from planar images set as graphic projections of that space. However, sometimes the link between three-dimensional space and bidimensional graphics remained obscure to the learners, with negative consequences on the development of their spatial imagination. Computer graphics, augmented reality and virtual reality show very clearly, nowadays, this link. Last but not least, the attractiveness of the spatial simulations is also a point to take into account in the prospective educational program in our eld. In the oral presentation we will focus on some pilot projects and tests, as reference examples for reconsidering some aspects of graphics education in the eld of architectural design at various scales. In this sense, the educational context of the PhD program of \Architectural, Urban, and Interior Design" at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies of the Politecnico di Milano, and the PhD educational level in general, is an appropriate wheel between basic and advanced education, as well as between basic and advanced scientic research and investigation and professional world. That is also the reason of this co-authorship.