Virtual Bauer Wurster
I led the design of Virtual Bauer Wurster, a VR experience on PC, onboarding workflow and class experience to curate the virtual school experience during the pandemic.
What I did: User Experience Design, High Fidelity Prototyping, Discussions with Cross-Functional Stakeholders
The launch of Virtual Bauer Wurster was announced publicly on Archinect
When the pandemic hit in 2019, schools across the world shut down almost overnight. At UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, architecture students lost access to their studio space — along with the casual peer reviews, spontaneous critiques, and collaborative opportunities that shaped the Architecture School Experience.
As someone who studied Architecture during undergrad, I know firsthand how that could feel. Online classes couldn’t replace the sense of shared space and physical presence that in person studio culture thrives on.
This project, led by Professor Luisa Caldas, was our response to the current situation. We designed, built, and launched the platform within 6 months, right during the pandemic. The Virtual Bauer Wurster became the official place where architecture students at UC Berkeley will have group classes, meet, and review works.
Design Considerations
Without in-person classes, students missed essential daily moments of creative exchange. To minimize that gap, we moved quickly — design and implementation happened in parallel.
While working within the tight timeline, we focused on the main goal: to rethink the Architecture School experience.
Mainly in these three aspects:
- Entering the virtual environment
- Reinvent studio reviews
- Social events in the virtual space
Entering The Virtual Environment
From reality to virtual reality, we want to help the students set up their avatars in the 3D world. I designed an onboarding flow where users can set up their names and appearances.
Reinvent Studio Reviews
Architecture students design in 3D, and every project culminates in a formal pin-up review with their cohort. Each student is expected to present rendered posters, a physical or digital 3D model, and a verbal walkthrough of their design.
To replicate the in-person studio experience closely, we created a virtual space for each student, mirroring the real-world seating arrangement. Every student was given a dedicated table to showcase their 3D model and a vertical board for pinning up their posters, recreating the architecture school review process in the virtual environment.
Social Events In The Virtual Space
We hosted events in Virtual Bauer Wurster to help students reclaim a sense of social life during the pandemic.
For these events, navigating the virtual building became a key design focus. Creating meaningful interactions also required extra attention to the placement and clarity of interaction points.
Impact
The Virtual Bauer Wurster project redefined the architecture school experience, allowing students to host studio sessions and design reviews entirely in virtual reality.
What began as an experimental response to remote learning quickly became a landmark initiative—officially showcased at UC Berkeley’s Cal Day and spotlighted by Archinect as a breakthrough in virtual architectural education.
See the report on Archinect here
