Sara Saghafi Moghaddam

• Sara Saghafi Moghaddam is a practicing architect, researcher, and Ph.D. student at Virginia Tech, where she is studying the intersection of virtual reality (VR) and design knowledge in the early stages of the design process. She has collaborated with the Center for Human-Computer Interaction and the Center for Design Research at VT. Sara holds a BArch from the University of Tehran, an MArch from Milan Polytechnic University, and an MS in Computational Design from Georgia Tech.

As a researcher and Teaching assistant, Sara has had the opportunity to observe, assist and work with various methods and tools that support the architectural design process and design pedagogy, especially in the ideation and site intervention stage, including different 3D scanning and VR technologies. These observations led to the recognition that the current approach to investigating the site and massing studies, such as 3D models or scaled prototyping, limits the architect's decision-making. The question that emerged was how the architectural design process could evolve by interjecting 3D immersive technology into the early stages of design. By merging virtual reality technologies into the early stages of design, the designer is better able to "see" their design proposals within the context of the site and surroundings. To transform the design process in this way requires that the most appropriate technologies be identified, and the related knowledge (tacit, procedural, explicit, etc.) be understood and structured into a design process framework. Through the development of this framework, it can be shared with other educators or practitioners of architecture and subsequently significantly impact the future of architectural design.

View publications on Sara's Researchgate profile.

» Center for High Performance Environments

Sara Saghafi Website