Regarding laypeople’s active participation with artefacts in the early stage of urban design, there is a certain difference between conventional urban design process and participatory urban design process. The design artefacts used in the conventional urban design process do not allow laypeople to take part actively in the early stages of the design process. Similarly, in the participatory design process, the generated design ideas remain hidden in assumption due to the lack of associated information of the artefacts and the participants perform as individual actors. The research speculates that a virtual immersive participatory design instrument can reduce the gap, where the participants can act together as a unit to produce authentic design outcomes. An Immersive Virtual Environment (IVE) assisted design experiment set-up has developed for laypeople to engage in a shared and enhanced communicative platform. The article reports the procedure of developing the instrument and discusses them in terms of design communication, participation and expert’s role. It concludes with a reflection of how laypeople as co-designers can use IVE instruments to design their neighbourhood meaningfully.

The article discusses design communication and participation of laypeople in a virtual participatory urban design process. We speculate that an immersive virtual environment facilitated instrument can allow laypeople to take part actively as designers in the early stage of urban design ideation and generation. We have developed a design communication framework where laypeople can participate in design discourse on a neighborhood's future urban form. The strategy describes an urban design intent, which is informed by the development procedure of an instrument and workflow to engage participants. The integration of the instrument and the engagement procedure enable continuous designing of urban form by laypeople. A protocol analysis has been undertaken to investigate design communication. A coding scheme is applied to investigate, analyse, and understand how laypeople communicate with the design instrument and control design in the virtual environment. Through engaging non-experts, the research impacts on the perceptual affordance created by immersive 3D buildings artifacts and verbal conversation. The protocol analysis validated the setup so that subsequent studies can address the meaningfulness of such design conversations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of good ventilation in mitigating the transmission of airborne virus particles. In many countries, CO2 monitors have been mandated for use in indoor spaces to inform good ventilation practices. However, there is limited guidance on the use of CO2 monitors to assess ventilation performance in large groups of buildings. In occupied classrooms, locating multiple monitors to collate reliable environmental data can be a difficult task because of the functions and usage of the space. This study used observations and physical measurements of CO2 in three real-world naturally ventilated classrooms, in three primary schools to assess whether the use of a single CO2 monitor, in one location could predict the room ventilation performance. The results indicate that for naturally ventilated classrooms, a single CO2 monitor placed at head height (about 1.5 m) on a vertical wall, away from windows, doors, or air supply, and not directly under the breathing zone of occupants can be used to express the ventilation performance of classrooms. This study provides a systematic method for monitoring CO2 to direct ventilation intervention programmes for large groups of school buildings.

Editorial: Metaverse in co-virtual city design

The study proposes incorporating human bodily comfort performance through a simulation method to assess the impact of urban microclimate conditions in an urban campus area. A human comfort performance matrix is used based on PET value and gender’s thermal stress conditions. The investigation serves as a way to evaluate open spaces’ climatic performance quantitatively through energy simulation. The method shows a way to measure urban comfort regarding gender perspectives early in the urban decision-making process. The findings of this research have practical implications for urban decision-makers to use robust simulation tools to optimize open space configurations based on gender’s thermal performances.

The SETSCI Conference Proceedings is an Open Access publication created for the storage and indexing of proceedings | Understanding pedestrian perception is essential for designing walkable and inclusive urban environments. This study employs real-world eye-tracking to investigate how pedestrians visually engage with urban streetscapes during everyday navigation. Using wearable eye-tracking technology, the research captures gaze behavior and fixation patterns across various streetscape elements including sidewalks, crosswalks, greenery, and building facades. The analysis reveals that features associated with spatial clarity and safety—such as curbs and well-defined pedestrian paths—receive prolonged visual attention. Natural elements like vegetation also play a significant role in shaping visual comfort and environmental appeal. Gaze data segmented by Areas of Interest (AOIs) shows a clear hierarchy of visual focus, suggesting that spatial composition and surface detail directly impact cognitive processing and navigation. Additionally, gender-based differences in attention strategies indicate the need for inclusive design that supports diverse user behaviors. By translating subconscious visual behavior into actionable insights, this research contributes to the advancement of evidence-based urban design practices. The results highlight how realtime perceptual data can inform the creation of more intuitive, comfortable, and engaging city spaces.