Assessment of social housing design in dubai: Conventional vs. virtual reality participatory tools

—The existing stock of social housing projects and their housing models in UAE were developed based on conventional functional design theories that initiated various environmental, social, and economic sustainability-related problems. Now, there is a call for applying a set of sustainability measures and guidelines in social housing projects. Actually, the concept of environmental ‘sustainability’ has been the focus for a great deal of work. But more recently the social dimensions of sustainability have been addressed as an additional and interrelated concern. So, in order to develop the design of social housing models in a more socio-culturally sustainable manner, an inclusive and participatory decision-making process should be adopted through which local Emirati residents could be genuinely involved. In this research, the conventional vs Virtual Reality participatory tools were investigated on one of the commonly developed social housing model in Dubai. Utilizing both methods comparatively, a sample of residents were asked about their satisfaction with the areas of the functional spaces of this house model. The VR tool proved being more effective but have been also associated with various practicality problems.