House of Aladdin
A virtual reality project made using Unity and the Virtual Reality Toolkit (VRTK), built to give an immersive way to interact with and explore an Aladdin-themed land inside UIC’s future Computer Science building atrium.
Video Walkthrough
Project Setup
Requirements
- Unity 2021.3.6f1
- VRTK v4 (already included)
Download & Open
- Download the project:
https://github.com/pranavsrathod/OurHouse - Open the project in Unity.
- Open the scene:
Assets/Scenes/OurHouseScene.unity
Why VR for Architectural Previews
Virtual reality offers a compelling way to introduce people to architectural spaces before they exist in the physical world. Growing up, I often saw front-page newspaper advertisements for new property launches, filled with polished renderings of buildings, parks, and shared spaces. Those images felt futuristic and aspirational. Years later, walking past the completed buildings, the spaces often felt very different from what those visuals had promised.
Two-dimensional images are limited in how accurately they convey scale and proportion. They can unintentionally exaggerate size, compress depth, or flatten spatial relationships. Virtual reality moves beyond these limitations by allowing viewers to step inside a space and experience it at a human scale. Circulation, distance, and spatial balance become immediately intuitive in a way that static images or small physical models cannot replicate.
While developing this project, I experienced this shift in perception firsthand. Objects that appeared correctly sized in the Unity editor often felt too small or too large once viewed in VR. Being able to inhabit the environment made it easier to adjust proportions, refine layouts, and translate abstract design ideas into spaces that felt believable and comfortable.
For architects, interior designers, and decision-makers, this capability is especially valuable. VR reduces the mental effort required to interpret drawings, measurements, and renderings. Instead, stakeholders can understand a design by experiencing it directly, leading to clearer communication, stronger feedback, and more confident decisions before construction begins.
The UIC Computer Science building atrium serves as a strong example of this potential. By allowing people to explore the space virtually, the project communicates the scale, ambition, and intent of the building long before it is completed. VR becomes a bridge between vision and reality, transforming architectural concepts into experiences that can be felt rather than simply observed.
Reflection
This project explores how virtual reality can be used to introduce people to architectural spaces before they are physically built.
VR enables users to perceive scale, proportion, and spatial relationships far more accurately than static images or renderings. During development, objects that appeared correctly sized in the editor often felt disproportionate in VR, reinforcing the importance of embodied spatial feedback.
For architects, designers, and decision makers, VR serves as a powerful tool to bridge imagination and reality. The UIC Computer Science building atrium demonstrates how immersive visualization can generate excitement, improve spatial understanding, and communicate intent long before construction is complete.
